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SUMMARYBy means of a meta-analysis, this article sets out to estimate average values for the income and price elasticities of gasoline demand and to analyse the reasons for the variations in the elasticities reported by the literature. The findings show that there is publication bias, that the volatility of elasticity estimates is not due to sampling errors alone, and that there are systematic factors explaining these differences. The income and price elasticities of gasoline demand differ between the short and long run and by region, and the estimation can appropriately include the vehicle fleet and the prices of substitute goods, the data types and the estimation methods used. The presence of a low price elasticity suggests that a fuel tax will be inadequate to control rising consumption in a context of rapid economic growth.

El objetivo de este artículo es estimar, mediante un meta-análisis, el valor promedio de las elasticidades ingreso y precio de la demanda de gasolinas y analizar las causas de la variación en las elasticidades reportadas en la literatura. Los resultados muestran que existe un sesgo de publicación, que la volatilidad de las estimaciones de las elasticidades no se debe exclusivamente a errores de muestreo y que existen factores sistemáticos que explican estas diferencias. Las elasticidades ingreso y precio de la demanda de gasolinas son distintas en el corto y largo plazo, por regiones, y son susceptibles de incluirse en la estimación la flota vehicular y el precio de bienes substitutos, los tipos de datos y métodos de estimación utilizados. La presencia de una baja elasticidad precio sugiere que un impuesto a los combustibles, en un entorno de rápido crecimiento económico, será insuficiente para controlar el aumento del consumo.

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Not surprisingly, this involves an intense ethical and international political debate over the distribution of costs between countries, and between sectors and economic groups, with emphasis on adaptation and vulnerability, or on mitigation and compliance mechanisms and the respective sanctions (see, for example, Oxford Economic Review of Economic Policy, 2008). The key aim of this article is to present a longrange overview of the main regular patterns observed between economic activities and climate change in the region. It thus attempts to contribute to discussions aimed at defining the best adaptation and mitigation alternatives to tackle the problem of climate change from the Latin American and Caribbean standpoint, and to improve understanding of the consequences that the various types of international agreements could have for the region. The economic analysis of climate change is surrounded by major uncertainty, since it includes a wide variety of factors in which the transmission channels and scale of the effects are not sufficiently understood. It is a very long-term phenomenon with feedback processes, and it includes complex riskmanagement procedures. Hence, the projections set forth in this article only represent potential scenarios which are highly uncertain and should not be taken as point forecasts.

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