Alejandro Javier Perez Portocarrero

Alejandro Javier Perez Portocarrero

MSc Development Economics at the University of Nottingham. Research assistant at the University of Nottingham and Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.

Blog posts

2022

Un adiós al profesor Adolfo Figueroa

5 minute read

Published:

Un amigo me avisó de la triste noticia hace unas horas, el profesor Adolfo Figueroa nos ha dejado. Desde entonces me ha embargado una fuerte pena para la cual solo he encontrado consuelo en el recuerdo de haberle conocido y aprendido de él. Supe del profesor Adolfo por primera vez el 2012 a través de una de sus obras, La Sociedad Sigma, uno de los libros de base sobre epistemología y teoría económica escritos en Perú, el cual el profesor Hugo Sánchez nos encargó leer como parte del curso de Economía General I en nuestro primero año en San Marcos. Posteriormente volví a encontrarme con sus escritos en diferentes años a partir de lecturas como las que los profesores Eloy Ávalos y Juan Cisneros nos encargaban para la clase. A través de esas obras iba conociendo a uno de los pocos intelectuales sanmarquinos y peruanos que se atrevían a teorizar sobre nuestra sociedad con agudeza científica y gran rigor metodológico.

2020

Sistema de pensiones: ¿Salir del paso o reformar?

7 minute read

Published:

Estamos viviendo la crisis sanitaria y económica más fuerte de toda nuestra historia republicana y a ella se le ha sumado una nueva crisis política. Los problemas estructurales que venimos arrastrando desde hace años y el deficiente manejo de la crisis por parte del ejecutivo ha propiciado que algunos sectores del espectro político comiencen a proponer medidas que, aunque tentadoras y aparentemente bien intencionadas, pueden estar más orientadas a generar rédito político —y mucho más aún estando a puertas de una nueva contienda electoral— que ha atender a los segmentos de la población que más se han visto afectados por la pandemia. La última de estas propuestas es el de la “devolución” de las contribuciones al Sistema Nacional de Pensiones administrado por la Oficina de Normalización Previsional (ONP).

Reasons to see poverty beyond monetary reductionism

8 minute read

Published:

Since the beginning of the national emergency due to the advance of Covid19, in Peru, as in other countries, it has been urgent to serve populations that, given their characteristics, are more vulnerable than others: the poor. Conventionally, one way to identify these people is through monetary measurements, which evaluate households through their spending: if given their income they cannot consume a minimum basket1, they are poor, otherwise they are not. Although this approach allows the construction of indicators that have a simple measurement and understanding, there are currently several studies that indicate that “purchasing behavior is only part of the defining characteristic of poverty”2. In this framework, I propose to offer some reasons to start measuring poverty from a multidimensional plane3.

  1. According to INEI (2019), the monetary approach considers people in households whose per capita spending is insufficient to acquire a basic basket of food and non-food (housing, clothing, education, health, transportation, etc.) to be poor. Likewise, those from households whose per capita expenses are below even the cost of the basic food basket are extremely poor. ↩

  2. See for example the paper by Caterina Ruggeri et al. (2003) “Does it matter that we do not agree on the definition of poverty? A comparison of four approaches” showing an example for Peru and India. ↩

  3. These reasons are based on the first chapter of the book Multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis by Sabina Alkire et al. (2015). ↩

Some data on those most affected by COVID19 in Peru: The informal workers (Part II)

8 minute read

Published:

As discussed in the previous article, given the mandatory social immobility ordered by the Peruvian government to reduce the advance of COVID19, most of the economic activities have been interrupted, threatening the payment chain and maintaining the living conditions of the population. The government has put in place measures to support the most vulnerable populations through subsidies. At first, these measures were directed at the country’s poor. More recently, the creation of the Bono Independiente has been announced, an economic subsidy aimed at workers with incomes of less than 1,200 soles (353 USD) and who are not on the payroll of the public or private sector (780,000 vulnerable households)1. In other words, this new bonus will focus mainly on workers with informal jobs; And, for a better understanding of who they are and what their main characteristics are, the following lines come.

  1. In accordance with the Emergency Decree No. 033-2020 that the Independent Bond provides, other characteristics that potential beneficiaries must have: i) they must not be poor according to the General Register of Homes (PGH); ii) they must be in the geographical areas with the greatest health vulnerability; iii) they must not be recipients of other types of subsidies; and, iv) they should not have contracts with the public sector. ↩

Some data on those most affected by COVID19 in Peru: The poor (Part I)

8 minute read

Published:

Since Monday, March 16, the Peruvian Government ordered compulsory social immobility as a measure aimed at halting the advance of COVID19 expressed in the largest number of positive cases in tests administered by the Ministry of Health. As a result, most of the country’s economic activities have been disrupted, threatening the payment chain and the population’s living conditions. Thus, the Government has announced the implementation of a grant per family that provides income (S/380 = USD 110) to the poorest people and, also more recently, to people who work independently and have informal jobs. In this first article, therefore, I intend to provide more information about the type of people that this type of subsidy should target to reduce the effect of this shock on their living conditions, particularly the poor. In a future document I plan to focus on the analysis of informality in the country.