This article estimates the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) for the energy sector in Ecuador, a country with a dollarized economy and illiquid stock markets. Thus, reference companies in the region were taken, and at the same time combined with characteristics of national companies, establishing a useful methodology, which makes sense with the acceptable discount rates in the Ecuadorian economy. For the above, four estimation alternatives were used. In method one, the traditional WACC formula was applied using interest rates and risk premiums from the U.S. market, which resulted in an overestimation due to the double penalty of the country risk and the U.S. market premium. Method two adjusted the market risk premium to consider only the Ecuador-specific risk premium, thus avoiding the double penalty. In method three, the credit default swap (CDS) was used to calculate the country risk premium, and the CDS was excluded from the nominal interest rate, avoiding redundancies. Finally, method four combined the U.S. interest rate with the CDS directly to calculate the market risk premium, more accurately reflecting local economic conditions in a dollarized economy. The WACC results range from 12.63% to 29.70%. In addition, a dummy variable was controlled for during the pandemic period. This article highlights the need for methodologies adapted to emerging markets, since traditional approaches would overestimate the WACC.

El presente artículo clasifica a las empresas manufactureras del Ecuador en empresas con estrés financiero (ECE) y sin estrés financiero (ESE). Para tal efecto, se clarifica el significado de estrés financiero y el criterio bajo el cual una empresa sería clasificada como ECE o ESE. Además, se recurre a dos modelos ampliamente utilizados en el medio: el análisis discriminante múltiple y la regresión logística, basados en los trabajos previos de Altman y Ohlson, respectivamente. El estudio se enfoca en las empresas del sector manufacturero ecuatoriano durante el periodo 2014-2018. Se destaca que uno de los hallazgos principales es que, en algunos casos, los signos de los coeficientes de los modelos estimados difieren de los modelos originales de Altman y Ohlson. Sin embargo, en ambos casos, las tasas de precisión de este estudio son mayores que las de los modelos originales. Finalmente, se encontró que las microempresas son las quepresentan mayor estrés en sentido financiero.

This study examines the relationship between banking sector development (credit and deposits) and economic growth in Ecuador, using quarterly data for the period 2000–2022. An ARDL approach with Bound Test cointegration is employed, incorporating structural breaks using the Bai–Perron test and controlling for macroeconomic shocks. In addition, time transformation methodologies are applied to harmonize the frequency of the series: the monthlyization of GDP is performed using the Chow-Lin method, and the imputation of missing unemployment data using the Kalman filter. The results reveal a significant long-run elasticity between bank deposits and GDP (0.45%), while credits do not present a statistically significant effect, possibly due to high delinquency and institutional weakness. Granger causality tests confirm a unidirectional relationship between banking variables to economic growth. These findings highlight the importance of strengthening financial supervision and improving institutional quality to enhance the effect of bank intermediation. The study provides robust and contextualized empirical evidence relevant to resource-dependent economies with concentrated financial systems, contributing to the debate on the relationship between finance and growth in developing countries.

This paper investigates the relationship between economic freedom and economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean over the period 1997–2023, using data from 14 countries. To capture the multidimensional nature of economic freedom, two widely recognized indices—Heritage and Fraser—are incorporated into an extended Solow-type growth model. The empirical strategy relies on a dynamic panel data approach using the Arellano–Bond estimator, which allows for the control of unobserved heterogeneity, autocorrelation, and potential reverse causality. Robustness is assessed through alternative model specifications and in-sample forecasting using rolling-window techniques and Theil’s U-statistic. The results reveal a negative and statistically significant relationship between economic growth and the Heritage Index, while the Fraser Index shows a positive but generally non-significant effect. These findings highlight the methodological sensitivity of the economic freedom–growth nexus and suggest that context-specific institutional factors may shape how liberalization policies translate into development outcomes. The study contributes to the literature by jointly evaluating the impact of both indices in a unified dynamic framework, providing new evidence for a region marked by institutional heterogeneity and growth volatility.

El presente artículo aporta evidencia empírica respecto a la influencia que tiene la liquidez del mercado accionario en el crecimiento económico, para una muestra de 11 países latinoamericanos. Con ésta finalidad, se utilizaron datos de panel, estimados por el método de Momentos Generalizados (GMM por sus siglas en inglés), además de variantes de dicho modelo. A pesar de que uno de los indicadores de liquidez, específicamente el Turnover, presenta un signo negativo, lo cual es contrario a lo típicamente esperado, a nivel general es posible concluir que la liquidez sí influye en el crecimiento económico. Además, existen países que pueden ser considerados atípicos; por eso se realizó el análisis con y sin ellos, obteniendo en ambos casos que se mantenía el mismo resultado. El estudio se corresponde de forma parcial con la literatura existente.

El gobierno ecuatoriano se ha propuesto introducir de forma masiva en el mercado nacional, el uso de las cocinas de inducción, ello en reemplazo de la cocina GLP (Gas Licuado de Petróleo). Sin embargo en la elección de la cocina de inducción o GLP, por parte del ciudadano, además de los factores económicos intervienen también criterios o factores que caen dentro de la subjetividad; Es decir intervienen múltiples criterios. El presente artículo aporta con un método de apoyo que sugiere al usuario una posible mejor opción, teniendo en cuenta criterios tanto cuantitativos como cualitativos. Además se analizan posibles escenarios y su impacto en la decisión final.