Articles

Absenteeism in Puerto Rico, especially in the context of leaves of absence, has been a persistent challenge for companies and the economy in general, so specialists consulted by EL VOCERO have invited employers to differintiate the employee classifications and discern about the management and use of leaves of absence.

Perhaps no part of the United States is more impacted by the Jones Act than Puerto Rico. Thanks to the 1920 law, the struggling territory’s approximately 3.2 million people must use some of the world’s most expensive shipping for commerce with the US mainland (by far its top trading partner). One would intuit such protectionism inflicts no small cost to the island’s economy given its heavy dependence on ocean transport. But exactly how significant is it?

We often hear the phrase “we're all in the same boat,” as if crises affect us all equally. But the reality is very different: we are not in the same boat, even though we are facing the same storm.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans packed up and moved — chasing sunshine, freedom and, let’s be honest, a lower tax bill. Fleeing from New York to Florida and California to Texas, one thing has become clear over the past five years.  People decide where to live in part to minimize their tax bill.

Argentina is having a moment. It’s a victory for the free market. A new libertarian president and former economics professor removed rent controls as part of a massive liberalization of the state when he took power in December. The result in the housing market, counterintuitively for some, is more housing at cheaper rents.

Freedom in the history of the individual has had a whole repertoire of fighters and defenders as well as enemies and detractors. It has been a concept that has generated multiple philosophical debates in the academic world, and, in addition, it has been considered a human principle for which many have even given their own lives.

Adam Smith entered a world that his reason and eloquence would later transform. He was baptized on June 5, 1723, in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. It’s presumed that he was either born on that day or a day or two before. He would become the Father of Economics as well as one of history’s most eloquent defenders of free markets.

Puerto Rico is home to approximately 3.2 million people, according to the State Data Center (SDC-PR). Of these, only 1.16 million work in the formal economy, while labor participation is around 44.9%. This gap is evidence of a growing inequality between those who support the treasury with their contributions and those who, without contributing or doing so minimally, demand and enjoy the same public services.

Last May a study came out suggesting that merely giving people money doesn’t do much to lift them out of poverty. Families with at least one child received $333 a month. They had more money to spend, which is a good thing, but the children fared no better than similar children who didn’t get the cash. They were no more likely to develop language skills or demonstrate cognitive development. They were no more likely to avoid behavioral problems or developmental delays.

Economist Finis Welch observed long ago that “without unequal priorities and capabilities, there would be no trade, no specialization, and no surplus produced by cooperation.