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This paper explores the determinants of rural-urban student performance in Colombia, a nation characterized by pronounced inequality. Using quantile regression, a student-level education production function at different points along the achievement distribution is estimated. Using the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, estimates are provided to explain the achievement differential between urban–rural students. These estimates account for various factors including individual, family, and school characteristics. Results indicate that mean differences in performance between students in rural and urban Colombian schools are significant. Observable factors, especially school characteristics, are the main drivers of the performance gap. Substantial differences are observed when different test percentiles of the performance distribution are considered. Our results suggest that one way in which education can reduce student performance gaps is by investing in improving school quality in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/context: The article aims to analyze child recruitment as a form of human trafficking. Beyond the theoretical perspectives that focus on security or rights, it addresses the topic as a form of unfree labor. By means of a case study focused on child recruitment by right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia, the paper analyzes how children entered and exited illegal armed groups, the functions they performed, and the exploitation they endured. The research argues that child recruitment operates as a large-scale labor-market uptake in the wartime social order, where the “employers” are paramilitary groups, and the labor force, in part, consists of children and adolescents. Methodology: This case study relies on different sources of information: a database on child recruitment provided by the special Justice and Peace Unit of the Colombian Attorney General’s Office (989 cases between 1981 and 2005), sentences of Peace and Justice, testimonials given by victims in judicial processes, and semi-structured interviews with different actors. Conclusions: The paper shows that child recruitment as a form of trafficking is functional to wartime social order in contexts of poverty and inequality. There is demand and supply; thus, both girls and boys, who worked as soldiers, are not only victims but also agents that make decisions in challenging conditions. Therefore, if the socioeconomic options for these children, even after their demobilization from the armed group, are still a choice between bad and worse, joining a violent (no longer “armed” but “criminal”) group will remain a feasible alternative. Originality: The article contributes to the academic literature on a recent topic, such as the overlapping between child recruitment and human trafficking in armed conflict and post-conflict situations. It also contributes to the literature on “unfree labor,” as the study focuses on an actor (illegal armed groups) that has not been analyzed until now. Finally, the research demonstrates the limits of understanding human trafficking (and child recruitment as a form of trafficking) as a problem of security or rights entitlement. It highlights the analytical and political advantages of categories such as “unfree labor” to provide effective solutions for the prevention and reintegration of child soldiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiscal credibility plays an important role in creating favorable scenarios for investment and economic growth. Adequate management of public finances can be decisive in the perception of country risk and the attraction of foreign capital. The aim of this paper is to build a fiscal credibility index and evaluate its impact on investment expectations in Colombia for the 2005-2019 period. Using monthly data on fiscal credibility, investment expectations, and a set of control variables, estimates were made using OLS and GMM methods. Robustness tests were performed using impulse-response functions. The findings reveal that fiscal credibility directly influences the investment decisions of private agents, and that local interest rates and international volatility negatively affect investors' expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: The year 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), the first organization established in Colombia to fight for territorial and identity rights of Indigenous Peoples. From a historical perspective and proposing an approach related to the concept of resistance, this paper focuses on how this latter has been expressed through this indigenous movement since its inception. Methodology: The information and reflections presented here are based on a corpus of bibliographical and documentary sources, as well as on a follow-up of the political mobilizations of indigenous peoples in situ, in the media, digital social networks, official minutes, and other statements. Conclusions: The analysis reveals the persistence of indigenous resistance and an expansion of the project that accompanies it, from a struggle for land and territory to efforts carried out along with other actors and social organizations to create a "better world." Originality: The originality of the article consists of an analysis of the political dimensions of the resistance of Indigenous Peoples, which are still little known. In addition, it offers a novel approach to stress the intersection of (sub) national and global dynamics in which the demands of Indigenous Peoples and issues related to Colombia's society and the whole world converge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores in detail the transfer and investment components of the General Budget of the Nation, whose composition is complex to evaluate due to the nature and variety of its items. For the study of these items, the literature on the political economy of the budget and the budget process in Colombia is considered. The transfer and investment items represent about 60 % of the General Budget and have great inflexibility of public spending, due to the diversity of appropriations with legal backing, especially in the transfer's item. The investment is made up of a wide range of social programs, subsidies, and infrastructure projects, which in some cases correspond to commitments acquired in previous terms, through the so-called future terms. The rigidity of the budget deepens with the frequent approval of laws that generate additional spending on a temporary or permanent basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this work is to explore the role of violent crime on adolescent fertility choices. It reviews the hypothesis that violent crime shortens life expectancy, which leads individuals to make earlier decisions about childbearing. We model the adolescent fertility rate (AFR) for the 10-14 and 15-19 years age groups separately. We use a panel data set for Colombia at department level from 2003 to 2014, using Arellano-Bond estimator with department fixed effects. The empirical findings suggest that crime has a positive effect on AFR among adolescent aged 15-19, and is statistically significant at 10%. The results of this paper contribute to explaining the connection between crime and fertility choices in Colombia. It provides further insight into the different factors affecting AFR, and stimulates public debate on the need to strengthen the country's institutions and to ensure access to quality education and the promotion of early interventions programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research shows that irregular immigration can worsen perceptions of security. However, the real effect of irregular immigration on crime rates remains unknown. In this paper, we analyze the effect of irregular immigration inflows on crime in the recipient country. For this, we build a dataset of Venezuelan irregular immigration in Colombia and crime rates at municipal level between 2016 and 2018. Our specification is based on an IV strategy using the exogenous variation in distance to the borderline as an instrument for immigration. We find that the immigration shock caused a slight increase in two types of theft in the short run and no significative changes in violent crime. These results are robust when using different instrumental variables, applying special autocorrelation corrections, and including controls for police capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analysis the incidence of Free Trade Agreements (FTA) on the duration of exports in Colombia. With firm-product-destination level data, duration models were estimated in discrete time that allowed identifying that the FTAs have a negative incidence on the probability of cessation of active commercial relations before the entry into force of the agreement, however, they increase the exit hazard from those that start after the agreement. This double effect is robust for different types of products and even for exports with a certificate of origin. However, incursions by firms with at least one year of experience in the export sector carry greater prospects for their duration. It is concluded that the role of the learning and knowledge acquired is key to achieve a better use of the agreements and maximize the probability of success of the incursions in the countries with FTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]