Editor´s Note

María Teresa Ramírez

I am happy to announce that in the 2008 update of the National Bibliographical Index - Publindex of Colciencias, ESPE was indexed in the A2 category. In addition, the journal is currently indexed in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo), International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), CLASE (UNAM), International Periodicals Directory (ULRICH), CSA Social Sciences Collection including in the Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, and in the databases of Sociological Abstracts and Social Services Abstracts, and in the electronic indexes of American Economic Association, including Journal of Economic Literature on CD, e-JEL and EconLit.

The present issue of this journal contains six articles. In the first one, Juan Manuel Julio and Héctor Manuel Zárate analyze the price setting behavior of Colombian producers and importers for the period 1999-2006 using a monthly database which contain price reports underlying the Colombian PPI.

In the second article, Andres Langebaek and Walter Osorio present the results of pricing to market models for the Colombian non-traditional exports. The authors found a consistent Next, Alejandro Reveiz, Carlos León, Juan Mario Laserna and Ivonne Martinez, evaluate the regulation of Colombian Compulsory Pension Funds’s (FPO) portfolio management. The authors propose some changes in the current regulation in order to align the beneficiary´s wealth maximization with the managers’ economic incentives, which will result in a more efficient pension system.

Then, in order to study the information of asset prices in the future market development, Esteban Gómez and Sandra Rozo construct for the Colombian case early-warning indicators using financial and real variables. The results show that there is relevant information embedded in such series.

In the fifth article, Juan José Echavarría, Diego Vásquez and Mauricio Villamizar use forward interest rates, forward exchange rates and surveys on exchange rate expectations to explore the validity of covered (CP) and uncovered interest parity (UP) for the Colombian case during the period 2000-2007. The authors found support for CP for maturities equal or larger than one day and also for UP for all maturities when variables are correctly measured.

Finally, Luis Eduardo Arango, Paula Herrera and Carlos Esteban Posada survey the economic literature on the minimum wage effects and the Colombian and international experiences regarding minimum wage setting. The authors found that the minimum wage has been used, perhaps in excess, outside of the labor market as indexation mechanism.