Relaunch of Ensayos Económicos, the BCRA’s Academic Journal

The BCRA has relaunched Ensayos Económicos (Economic Essays), its traditional academic journal, which was discontinued in 2016, after having published 74 issues for more than 20 years (between 1977 and 1990, and between 2006 and 2016).

The relaunch of Ensayos Económicos, Money and Banking Conferences, as well as the “Dr. Raúl Prebisch” Economic Research Award are part of the BCRA’s active policy to recover its academic profile in the context of its 85th anniversary.

At this new stage, the journal seeks to serve as a consolidated plural forum, promoting dialogue among different schools of economic thought, ultimately contributing to devise and assess policies to face the challenges posed by the Argentine economy in its process for development. The journal is aimed at publishing economic papers which deal with the Argentine and the international economy from a theoretical, empirical or applied policy viewpoint. It will be released twice a year, in May and November.

“We are pleased that we have been able to take important steps along 2020 to recover the academic profile of the BCRA, first with the Prebisch Award, then with the Money and Banking Conferences and now with the relaunch of Ensayos Económicos, a traditional journal for the dissemination of economic thought,” said Miguel Ángel Pesce, President of the BCRA.

Ensayos Económicos, Volume 75

Ensayos Económicos Vol. 75 comprises four papers: two contributions from invited economists; a paper reviewed by expert referees under a double-blind method; and the winning paper of the 2020 “Dr. Raúl Prebisch” Economic Research Award, in the PhD Thesis in Economics category.

In The Return of the Interventionist Central Bank: The Pendulum in Latin American Monetary Regimes by Esteban Pérez Caldentey (Head of the Financing for Development Unit at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)) and Matías Vernengo (professor at Bucknell University) goes through the history of monetary regimes and central banks in the periphery since the 19th century.

Sailing in Rough Waters. Raúl Prebisch and the Economic Policy during the Great Depression—the second article by an invited economist—was written by Emiliano Libman (professor of Advanced Macroeconomics at Universidad de San Martín (UNSAM) and Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), currently heading the Technical Relations Unit with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the Argentine Ministry of Economy) and focuses on the different fiscal, monetary, exchange, commercial and organizational policies of the financial system promoted by the Argentine economist from late 1920s to early 1940s.

Network Effects in Interbank Markets of Call Money and Repos in Argentina by Pedro Elosegui (researcher of the Economic Research department at the BCRA) and Gabriel Montes-Rojas (independent researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), full professor of Econometrics I at UBA and Econometrics II at Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP)) is the first article accepted under a double-blind peer review process to be included in the journal. This paper analyses the effect of network centrality on interest rate spreads in Argentine interbank markets of call money and repos.

Finally, Modeling the Determinants of Commodity Prices by Magdalena Cornejo (CONICET postdoctoral fellow), first prize in the PhD Thesis in Economics category of the 2020 edition of the Prebisch Award, proposes a model for determining prices of commodities relevant for Argentina between 1960 and 2010.

“Broadly, the four papers faithfully reflect the spirit of the journal: they are a forum for plural discussion where theory and practice intertwine in an effort to understand contemporary reality,” said Germán Feldman, chief economist of the BCRA and Editor of Ensayos Económicos Ariel Dvoskin (Economic Research Works Senior Manager, BCRA) serves as Associate Editor and Federico Grillo (BCRA), as Executive Secretary. The Editorial Committee is made up of Jorge Carrera (BCRA -CONICET - UNLP), Eugenia Correa (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)), Paula Español (UBA), Emiliano Libman (UBA - UNSAM), Carlos Medeiros (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)), Florencia Medici (Universidad Nacional de Moreno (UNM)), Esteban Pérez Caldentey (ECLAC), Daniela Prates (Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp)) and Matías Vernengo (Bucknell University).

Ensayos Económicos is indexed by a series of economic publication databases, namely: Núcleo Básico de Revistas Científicas Argentinas (Central Database of Argentine Scientific Journals) of the CONICET; EconLit (American Economic Association); and RePEc (IDEAS and EconPapers). Additionally, this journal is widely disseminated in local and foreign academic institutions, government agencies, central banks, public and private research organizations, and the specialized press.

For information about submission and review guidelines for publishing papers in Ensayos Económicos click.

November 30, 2020.