Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Este número invitaba a reflexionar sobre la Documentación Cinematográfica, a explorar las encrucijadas que encuentran cineastas y conservadores en el viaje que lleva del cine fotoquímico al cine digital. El cine tradicional, fotoquímico o magnético, en un ámbito profesional o doméstico, está quedando relegado al olvido. Unas veces por falta de interés, otras por falta de instrumentos (proyectores, equipos de vídeo) para poder reproducir las imágenes.

The objective of this work is to analyze the complementarity and integrality between the economic, productive and non-economic aspects (particularly social-emotional) in Colonia Jaime, by identifying the daily process that transforms the individual into a collective and to what extent this dynamic makes possible the development of communal productive forces without breaking their own essence. The study revolves around two central issues: 1) what it means to stay together to benefit from common work in Colonia Jaime and 2) how the processes of collective appropriation of tools and technologies that are by nature individual are manifested in daily productive work. These two issues provide conceptual elements that allow us to understand how the development of the productive forces does not necessarily imply the dissolution of the communal system, but instead strengthens and reaffirms it, although it always recognizes the presence of contradictions, tensions and conflicts within the own community. Colonia Jaime shows another way of producing food and living, which escapes the system assigned by capitalist logic. The examples drawn show that the theory of value is thought from the co-production and collaboration between human beings and nature and among themselves. The methodological strategy has three main aspects: analysis of documentary sources; Interviews and participant observation.

The purpose of this article is to analyze, three indicators of the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR): the basic passive rate (TBP), the exchange rate of the colon with respect to the US dollar (TC) and the effective rate in dollars (TED); as macroeconomic components that affect the valuation of an investment in colones or dollars. The study is carried out through the construction of an International Fischer Effect model (EFI), for the period between the first quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of 2019. Based on this model, it is evaluated, if during this period investing in dollars can generate a capital gain; in addition, the importance of absolute exchange rate changes to make such investments in dollars is outlined.

On December 4, 2018, the Legislative Decree No. 9635, entitled Strengthening of Public Finances was published in La Gaceta de Costa Rica; in its title No. 1, it carries out a comprehensive reform of Law No. 6826 (General Sales Tax Law) from November 8, 1982. This reform transforms the General Sales Tax (GST) into a Value Added Tax (VAT), establishing different tax rates for different subgroups of goods and services. The objective of this research is to present the results of the analysis carried out on the impact of the implementation of VAT on the different income deciles in the country (each decile is composed of 10% of households). It is determined that although the highest monetary contribution (tax collection) would be made by the households from the highest deciles, it is the households of the lower deciles that would be most affected in relation to their level of income, since, —according to the National Income and Expenditure Survey of 2013— the first three deciles spend more than they earn. This means that the payment of more taxes will significantly affect their consumption capacity, which will require State support to counteract the effect.

In 2005, the last article related to the contribution of tourism to the Costa Rican economy was published, therefore, due to the importance of this activity for the country; it has been considered to update and expand the analysis of its results, over a decade after the first publication. The data was gathered from official sources, both national and international; which guarantees the reliability of the information generated. The international context is presented as well as the behavior of a series of variables that makes it possible to determine the contribution to the Costa Rican economy. The two activities that contribute the most to tourism and the economy in general are the "characteristic products of tourism" and "tourism-related services"; generated mostly by microenterprises, due to the risks they face because of their commercial vulnerability; moreover, the largest producer of revenues is the one related to "accommodation"; and secondly, "other industries related to tourism"; these last ones enable more and better commodity chains. According to the Central Bank of Costa Rica, the tourism GDP for 2016, the latest data available, was 1 554 928 million of colons [corresponding to US$ 2 712,6 million], representing a value added of 6,3% for domestic production; although, based on the country’s potential and due to the variety of resources and territories, this contribution could be much greater.

The following study attempts to examine the relationship between consumer preferences and expenditure in a Structural Equation Model (SEM) framework. We use data from a survey applied in an emerging country like Peru. There were 6 772 respondents classified by sex, country of residence, education level, and age. The foreign respondents specified their motives and preferences to travel as well as money spent. The SEM technique permit to find a relationship between the latter variables. This assessment is relevant for tourism policymakers since it will help to find the main drivers of expenditure by foreign visitors within an emerging country. Our study permitted us to identify the motives to visit: leisure, business and education, and others as main drivers of touristic expenditure.

The field of social sciences that studies concepts associated with collective entities, that is the theory of fetishism, has faced the problem of the visibility of the invisible since the beginning. It may include partial collectives (companies, schools, armies) or general collectives, such as the social division of labor, market, and State. It is a world of ghostly subjects that have the possibility to dominate us and that ultimately, and to a great extent, end up doing so. Given the growing role of institutions from the dawn of civilization to the present day regarding the pronounced reduction of direct human relationships in modern societies, if we do not grasp and understand the meaning of these fetishes, we will understand very little of the social universe and its fetishization. This is the reason why we state that these fetishes in social sciences are the equivalent of "dark matter" in astrophysics.

Piketty’s fundamental laws of capitalism in his book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” (2014) are analyzed to explore the explanatory power of the inequality between average annual rate of return on capital and the rate of growth of production, as a fundamental force for divergence. The author’s r > g crucial assumption and his conclusions are questioned.  The convergence-divergence phenomenon is rather believed to be an innate phenomenon of the production and distribution processes. This analysis suggests that the core of inequality may not reside in the elasticity-of-resource-composition, influenced by technological advance. Furthermore, this research will try to contribute to a better understanding of the forces influenced by economic growth and income distribution, which could provide a major contribution to the economic sciences.

This paper documents the structural transformation process in Costa Rica during the 1950s and the subsequent six decades. It is widely documented that countries that grow in terms of income see employment shift away from the agricultural sector to the manufacturing and services sector. This same pattern can be observed in Costa Rica. However, this process has some peculiarities that will be discussed here. The paper presents counterfactual exercises using the Duarte & Restuccia (2010) model, calibrated with Costa Rican and American data.

The objective of this research paper is to evaluate the impact of credit on the profit of microenterprises in Costa Rica. ENHOPRO 2015 data is used together with the Propensity Score Matching methodology. Results show that credit has a positive and statistically significant impact on the profit of microenterprises in Costa Rican homes. Consequently, financing obtained by microenterprises contributes to increase their profit.