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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]

The long-lasting consistency of a regulatory framework is essential for the proper functioning of incentives, particularly in industries such as electricity generation, with high sunk costs where different schemes have been developed to guarantee a long-term supply. In this respect, the instability of the regulatory framework can both impede the proper functioning of such incentives and, on occasion, violate the legitimate expectations of the agents involved. The purpose of this paper is to study the stability of the regulatory framework in terms of the long-term incentive mechanism for power generation applied in Colombia, known as "Cargo por Confiabilidad." The findings of this paper suggest the independence of the regulatory agency must be strengthened and that the instability of the regulatory framework has generated redistributions of income among agents. This study observes that among these agents, the best-organized pressure groups benefit the most from such a redistribution of incomes. [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 presents a growth strategy that, modifying the distribution of income in favor of wage earners, allows boosting aggregate demand, productivity and employment. This proposal is essential for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially those related to growth, innovation, employment, and distribution in Colombia, opposed to the model that has historically been applied and that implied an exclusive growth. To build this alternative vision, the paper presents a renewed theoretical proposal based on the concept of inclusive growth, and by means of Structural Equations Modeling (SEM), the hypothesis that the concentration of the productive structure generates distortions in the economic, innovation process and job creation. This makes necessary to adopt policies focused on increasing productivity and diversifying the productive structure. [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]

In this paper, we elaborate a theoretical model to explain how generating firms choose their aggregate position in bilateral contracts in the Colombian electricity market. Subsequently, we propose an empirical strategy to contrast the theoretical predictions of the model with data from the wholesale market. Our results show that there is evidence in favor of the hypotheses of our model. Firms tend to adjust their contracts according to the ideal generation they expect the market operator to allocate them, and the difference between marginal costs and contract prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the perceptions concerning waiting times contained in the stories of women who had abortions during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, under the Colombian health care system and the terms of Ruling C-355 of 2006, between 2017 and 2018. A qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed that waiting times allowed the collection of data on the multiple temporalities and the women's complex relations with these institutions, from the time they entered the Entidades Promotoras de Salud (EPS) until the culmination of their Interrupción Voluntaria del Embarazo -IVE- (Voluntary Pregnancy Termination). This article explores the women's perceptions concerning how long they had to wait, during which time, some of the women interviewed felt that the support they received during pregnancy and abortion was satisfactory, and that the waiting times were appropriate. Others, in contrast, perceived that the institutions did not provide them with the necessary information and imposed excessive waiting times that ignored their needs. The analysis of this experience reveals that the women confronted the institutions, which lost their legitimacy, and that their fear of a septic abortion persisted. At the same time, there is evidence of voluntary expressions of waiting that show a non-unidirectional use of time. This paper contributes to the discussion on women who have abortions and their relationship with the Colombian health system, which establishes admission to the EPS as the only way to access this procedure during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. It is also relevant for studies on temporalities in institutional contexts, as it explores the emergence of voluntary waiting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationship between poverty and armed conflict in Antioquia, Colombia. The poverty analysis it uses is framed according to Sen's capability approach, which constitutes the conceptual basis for the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) subsequently developed by Alkire and Foster. The MPI is measured employing data from the government database SISBEN, which is used by the Colombian authorities to identify beneficiaries of social assistance programmes. The paper considers three poverty dimensions: living standards, health, and education. Armed conflict is measured using count data on violent events recorded for every municipality in the Department of Antioquia between 1996 and 2010. The relationship between poverty and armed conflict is then analysed using exploratory and non-parametric methods such as kernel distributions. Results suggest that the MPI is robust when compared multidimensional cutoffs. The MPI box-plot maps suggest that poor people are located in Antioquia's peripheral areas. Kernel distributions show that areas most affected by conflict tend to show higher levels of multidimensional poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: This paper analyses critically the integration model proposed by the Pacific Alliance (PA) from the perspective of the legal foundations of Colombia's foreign policy, in order to determine the degree of normative convergence between the Colombian constitutional order and this particular trade agreement. Methodology: This research uses legal technique and case-law analysis as research methodologies, offering a detailed panorama of the normative development of the PA and its relationship with the constitutional requirements regulating the international relations of Colombia. Conclusion: Despite being at an initial stage in relation to its normative and institutional structure, the PA has emerged as a second generation regional trade agreement (RTA), which complements its commercial trajectory with political, social and productive integration agendas, promoting the diversification of international economic relations of its members without altering or modifying their sovereign powers. The above allows to show its compatibility with the constitutional mandate pro integratione, particularly in regard to the ideal of promoting the internationalization of Colombian economic relations with countries of Latin America and other world regions. Originality: The proposed approach has theoretical and methodological originality inasmuch as there are no previous studies analyzing the legal and normative nexus between the interests of Colombia's foreign policy and the PA. Its relevance lies not only in the validity of the issue in question, but also for scenarios of reflection on the participation of the State in trade agreements or regional integration schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to establish, the degree to which 44 social responsibility programs from private sector organizations in Colombia respond to the principles that determine the systemic logic of Agenda 2030, under the categories of comprehensiveness and intensity. The methodology adopted in this investigation involved a two-stage process: the first sets out an inventory of issues relevant to each SDG that fits with the actions of the private sector; and the second identifies the type of SDG interactions under the above categories. Empirical evidence shows that programs, although framed within a particular SDG, articulate with several SDGs simultaneously, with a bias towards economic, social, and governance issues rather than environmental ones. The study suggests the importance of adopting a systemic approach to social responsibility programs and is one of the few empirical studies on the interactions between SDGs that have been conducted in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object/Context: This article analyses and compares the ideological dimension of anticorruption discourses and policies in Colombia during the presidency of Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010) and Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018) and in Ecuador during the presidency of Rafael Correa (2007-2017). Methodology: We develop an ideological and discourse analysis of corruption discourses combining the theoretical framework of Laclau and Mouffe on discourse analysis with the morphological analysis of ideologies developed by Michael Freeden. We utilize this theoretical framework in order to analyze both qualitatively and quantitatively anticorruption discourses and policies. Conclusions: In the Colombian case the anticorruption discourse of presidents Uribe and Santos (2002-2018) legitimized a neoliberal order by articulating corruption as a phenomenon that belongs primarily to the public sphere. The government of Correa (2007-2017), however, identified corruption primarily with the private sector. As a consequence, his anticorruption discourse served to resist the neoliberal order and legitimize the ideology of the twenty first-century socialism. Originality: There are very few studies that unearth the ideological dimension of anticorruption discourses and policies. This paper seeks to fill this vacuum by utilizing an innovative theoretical framework that allows us to identify the ways in which anticorruption discourses and policies serve to legitimize and implement a political ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/context: In this paper, we describe the evolution of municipalitylevel homicide rates, during the 2003-2014 period in Colombia. Methodology: Quantitative analysis with multi-level regression models and finite-mix models. Conclusions: Our results show an important and statistically significant reduction of violence at the national level, and a large variability across geographical areas. We identify an association between profiles of change and a general government performance index, which provides support to the hypothesis of a differentiated State across time and space, and motives further studies and differential public policies across municipalities. Originality: The relationship between homicidal violence and the role of the State has been commonly analyzed on an aggregated level that ignores the disaggregated territorial view and heterogeneity of microterritorial realities. This article recognizes the local differences for the design of public policies that reflect contextual realities and assume that the performance of the State is heterogeneous and not static. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: This article has two objectives. On the one hand, it seeks to show the history of the Gay Liberation Movement of Colombia (MLHC, for its acronym in Spanish), one of the first political experiences of the LGBT movement in Colombia. On the other hand, the article seeks to explain the various international activism networks that established a constant flow of information between gay liberation movements throughout the Western Hemisphere. Originality: The analysis comprises the period between 1976 and 1989, outlining the chronology from the beginnings of the sexual diversity movement in Colombia to its first cycle of protests. Methodology: The research is based on sources that are not usually contemplated by historiography, which include the organization's internal documents and its various editorial projects. Conclusions: The paper concludes that, although strongly influenced by the new left, the MLHC represented a heterogeneous political experience with its own sectoral discussions. In addition, it unveils a complex relationship with gay liberation organizations both in the Americas and in Europe, and proposes an interconnected vision of the sexual diversity movement in the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Colombian environmental normativity, the discount rate is the main variable that compares the temporal economic valuation of the costs and benefits produced by investment projects. Nevertheless, the established criterion of 12 % does not consider that some environmental impacts could be inter-generational. This paper estimates a specific discount rate (TAD) that integrates sustainability criteria, useful for the appraisal of environmental licenses. The methodological approach was to calculate the Social Rate of Time Preferences for Colombia, as an approximation of TAD during the 2001-2016 period. Due to the yearly widespread results, a declining discount rate with "gamma distribution" is proposed, finding values of 5 %, 4 % and 2 % for the short, medium and long term, respectively. The main conclusion highlights that due to the TAD's yearly widespread results found, it is possible to propose a decreasing behaviour in the discount rate related with time, which strengthens the importance of future consumption in governmental decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: This article explains how the Sierra de La Macarena Biological Reserve, which marked the beginning of the new state responsibility of caring for nature in Colombia, was conceived and then created by law in 1948. Additionally, this paper reconstructs the first decade of its existence. Methodology: This research is based on archival documents, historic publications and secondary sources, which allow us to understand the ideas about nature that guided such history and the concrete processes that characterized it. Originality: This article studies the process of State formation from a territorial and environmental perspective, bringing together political and environmental history, and pointing at new avenues of inquiry in both fields. Conclusions: The beginnings of a new state responsibility of caring for nature depended on previous developments of the state itself, particularly on the efforts to deal with tropical diseases. Therefore, an area of state activity devoted to insure the well-being of the population served as the basis for the inceptive development of another. This issue was, however, not entirely national. Global scientific networks, including medical doctors, entomologists and geologists, together with an innovative technology, aviation, also played a crucial role. The research station that was conceived along with the reserve to support long-term research was partly impaired by La Violencia of the 1950s. Instead, scientists carried out several expeditions that contributed to turn La Macarena into national patrimony, at least in the minds of some Colombians. Given that aspirations well exceeded the achievements, the definitive emergence of this area of state performance had to wait a few years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: The objective of this article is to aid historians who are interested in recovering the climate history of the current Colombian territory, in their explanations and research about climate and weather factors. Methodology: In order to face the lack of quantitative records, this paper shows some alternatives such as looking for signs from indirect sources, the contrast of sources, series-making, and detection of teleconnections. Originality: It shows the potential of documentary sources, it synthesizes methodological problems and it exemplifies a few ways to solve them based on a research about the Cundiboyacense Plateau in the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Conclusions: The research agenda includes the exploration of new archives, climate history on a regional scale, the study of perceptions about weather even using quantitative records, and the exploration of the relationship climate-society during political struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the emergence and consolidation of the bookstores in Colombia. Focusing on the first half of the 19th Century, the elements that originated the fairly specialized profession of the booksellers as well as the commercial circulation of books during this period are explored here. This paper argues that the relationship between bookstores and international trade networks was a key element for their organization, always in alignment with changes in the national book market and the local radio of readers. Thus, the paper provides a characterization of the nineteenth-century booksellers, highlighting the commercial role of the catalogues, their shift toward the editorial environment and its connections to the political power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty, as one of the constraints of social welfare, is among the greatest concerns of countries, multilateral agencies, and society in general. However, international academic consensus regarding the concept, measurement, and international comparability remains distant. As such, this paper seeks to approximate positions on the subject, and propose an indicator that can overcome one-dimensional visions of a polyhedral and multicultural phenomenon. In light of the results, and using data from 121,802 households from the 2012-2017 National Quality of Life Survey, it was evident that in six years, Colombia reduced its incidence of poverty by 7.2 percentage points, the gap by 1.1, and inequality by 1 percentage point, with rural areas and households being affected more frequently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colombia presents a revealing and much needed case study which helps us to understand the formulation of foreign policy on climate change in rising developing countries. This paper analyzes the main factors which shape Colombia's position, and provides useful insights into the evolution of the country's international stance on climate change and the role in it of the bargaining among government agencies and interest groups. It concludes that Colombia's policy has been governed by its institutional structure, ecological vulnerability, emission abatement costs, wish to enhance its global prestige and seek benefits from international cooperation, strategic aims at the United Nations climate negotiations, and the limited influence of domestic pressure groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the suitability of the economic reintegration strategy for former Colombian combatants, taking into account the challenges facing this population. It argues that the international discourse primarily consists of a market-centred versus a people-centred perspective, each with a distinct approach to economic reintegration. The paper finds that in Colombia there was a lack of inclusion of key stakeholders in the initial design of the process. As a result, the economic reintegration strategy ended up merely accommodating certain neoliberal ideals and thereby leaned towards a market-centred approach. Lately, steps have been taken towards an increasingly people-centred approach. This is currently reflected in improved results of the process, which predict a brighter future for economic reintegration of former combatants in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of victim has been applied in the human rights (HR) field with a series of different connotations in each country. In this paper we aim to reflect on its uses and appropriations within the context of a series of laws and government programs designed to compensate the victims of state terrorism in Argentina and of the armed conflict in Colombia. Based on the gathering of documents and fieldwork with public servants and diverse groups of people who have been identified as victims, we analyze the meanings that this category has acquired and its possible applications in heterogeneous social contexts. O conceito vítima vem sendo aplicado no campo dos direitos humanos (DH) com uma série de conotações particulares em cada país. Neste trabalho, ocupamo-nos de refletir sobre seus usos e apropriações no âmbito de um conjunto de leis e programas governamentais destinados a reparar as vítimas do terrorismo de Estado na Argentina e do conflito armado interno na Colômbia. A partir da recopilação de documentos e do trabalho de campo com servidores públicos e diversos grupos de pessoas que têm sido identificadas como vítimas, analisamos os sentidos que essa categoria e suas possíveis aplicações adquirem em contextos sociais heterogêneos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the state of higher education in Colombia and estimate the efficiency of different academic programs from institutions of higher education in the country. To estimate efficiency measures, we use stochastic frontier techniques and the results of the Saber Pro test. Estimations evaluate the effect of variables associated with the teaching staff and infrastructure of institutions, and environmental factors that are not directly under the control institutions, such as the family income and parental education. Results highlight the importance of environmental factors, suggesting that while many institutions have margin to improve their efficiency, many of them are restricted by the influence of students' socioeconomic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the way the ette, an indigenous group of north Colombia, conceive and experience dreams. For this purpose, some aspects of the concept of person, the notion of dreaming and the phenomenology of dream experience are described and analyzed. The article concludes that Indians conceive dreams as real events, based on a type of noncorporal activity in which the person begins to participate of an alternative mode of existence and perception. These characteristics allow to dreamers to take advantage of their experience to acquire culturally legitimated knowledge. In the same way, the paper allows to note the importance of dreams in the course of the reproduction of social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the impact of photo detection cameras installed in the city of Cali (Colombia) in 2012 on road accidents. Using 10.146 intersections with accident records for the period 2010-2013, a matching algorithm is used to identify a control group. Using different estimators, an evaluation of total accidents, damages and injuries is carried for treated intersections, compared to the control group, after the cameras were installed. Findings show an increase in all types of accident records on the four intersections treated in January 2012, this effect is reduced for those intersections treated in May, and it disappears in those treated in August. The main conclusions are that accidents were not reduced by the camera program and that accident history was not the criterion for treatment assignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current literature on social and political accountability hardly explains why governments are (or are not) interested in including non-state actors in decision-making and policy implementation. This paper argues that accountability is the product of the interplay of ideas and institutions to mediate contradictory interests in the definition of normative, strategic and operational policy aims and means. Process-tracing is utilized to identify the causal mechanism linking the adoption of international law instruments to actual enforcement of accountability in a policy area. The case study is about the indigenous right to prior consultation on oil and gas policies in Colombia and Ecuador. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of financial crises influenced by the development and burst of housing price bubbles, the detection of exuberant behaviors in the financial market and the implementation of early warning diagnosis tests are of vital importance. This paper applies the bubble-detection methodology developed by Phillips, Shi and Yu (2012) to the most important Colombian residential property market The empirical results suggest that this housing market experienced a price bubble that began in the second half of 2012. This result holds true under alternative robustness checks, namely alternative price deflators, regression windows and price segments. The only exception is in the case of the low-price segment of the housing market where prices have not increased recently. Bubble episodes, under this approach, consist of periods of explosive behavior of the nominal asset price which are not explained by the evolution of its market returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines policy connections between Colombian legislators (representatives and senators) during Álvaro Uribe's first presidential term (2002-2006). The analysis draws on information regarding the coauthorship of legislation. The joint sponsorship of a bill by a pair of legislators demonstrates their mutual intent to change the status quo in a specific direction. This cooperative effort to push bills forward reveals the similarities that exist between political actors. Examining the connectedness between different groups and the density within group connections can convey important information about parties and their members' policy preferences. This article investigates these aspects of the network of coauthorship ties developed in the Colombian lower and upper chambers. In addition to shedding light on the cohesiveness and alignment of legislative parties, the article finds that coauthorship ties appear to be influenced by regional and institutional forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The empirical literature on the impact of violent conflicts on educational outcomes has focused on the impact of violence on human capital accumulation, neglecting other relevant outcomes such as educational equity. Using the empirical implementation of Ferreira and Gignoux (2011) of Roemer (1998)'s conceptual framework of equality of opportunities, this paper estimates the impact of conflict intensity on educational equity in Colombia, as measured by the school performance in the Saber 11° test, for the period 1997-2010. To deal with potential biases due to reverse causality or omitted variables, we use the apprehension of murderers by the public force as a source of exogenous variation of violence in an instrumental variables estimation. The results suggest that conflict increases equality of opportunities in educational attainment. By increasing school dropout, conflict induces a positive selection in terms of ability and effort for the proportion of students who remain in the system. This suggests that caution is needed when interpreting patterns of educational equity based on outcomes rather than processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relation between the politics of state formation and the accompanying appearance of social traps based on the example of Colombia. It shows that egregious exceptions to the rule of law, exemplified by the parapolitica and "false positives" scandals, are themselves a result of "social traps," which are generated by the generalization of particularized trust. The generalization of particularized trust entails the incorporation of a closed trust network in the effort of monopolizing the means of violence against an internal insurgency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show that, despite it being a relevant topic, patronage has not been sufficiently studied by Colombian historians. With this objective in mind, it studies the discussions generated by the republican patronage in Colombia in the 19th century in three different scenarios. The first focuses on the period circa 1824, when the Republic inherited the right of patronage the Spanish Crown had held for three centuries. The second discusses the difficulties present in the application of patronage to specific cases. The third refers to discussions of patronage when it had already disappeared and had been replaced by the separation of power, in 1853. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes Colombia's foreign policy during the first year of the Santos administration from a liberal perspective. It explores the relation between the country's international commerce and its diplomatic actions by using statistical data and official and academic reports about the contemporary international relations. The authors argue that the commercial liberalism is a useful perspective for the analysis of Colombia's current foreign policy, especially by using the concept of the capitalist peace because the authors have found in commerce a basic platform for the country's international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies attempts to political integration made in Northeastern Antioquia by political leaders in the first half of the 19th century. It argues that the attempt to extend centralization networks led by political leaders In order to Implement greater social, political, and administrative control was hindered by mayors and other local officials, as well as by those interested In preserving certain liberties In order to protect individual interests. These conflicts, when framed within the institutional structure, show simultaneously the expansion of the State and the persistence of the factors which limited its local establishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies some aspects of the diet of three hospitals of the New Granada in the late 18th century. To do this, we analyze accounting records found in the General National Hall of Records which recorded the purchase of foodstuffs in three San Juan de Dios hospitals located in Santafé de Bogotá, Cartagena, and Portobelo (Panama). The ingredients and recipes recorded describe a specific moment in the history of the diet in the hospital, determined by the religious and tributary model of the monastic and conventual world. The foods eaten then were influenced by the economic, cultural, religious, and hygienic circumstances surrounding them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term conditionality refers to the economic policies suggested or imposed by the IMF to countries that will use its resources, in accordance with the Articles of the Agreement. This paper analyzes the legal scope of IMF conditionality and the level of accomplishment of structural reforms in Colombia, i.e. whether the case of Colombia corresponds to the general trends of compliance with IMF conditionality worldwide, as presented in previous studies, or not. The empirical analysis refers to three consecutive arrangements covering the period 1999-2006: (i) an Extended Fund Facility ((EFF); Dec 1999-2004); a Stand-by arrangement (2002-4), and finally another Stand-by arrangement (2005- Nov.2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper measures inflation persistence in Colombia for the period 1990-2010 and estimates the implied speed at which agents learn about the central bank's inflation target. We estimate Erceg and Levin's (2003) imperfect credibility model using Bayesian techniques and compare the posterior odds of this model against a conventional Neokeynesian model with ad-hoc price indexation. The odds are strongly in favor of the imperfect credibility model, suggesting that lack of credibility on the inflation target is an important source of inflation persistence. We use the model to compute the sacrifice ratio associated to 100 basis points inflation target shocks and find that it is (0.83%) in line with previous estimates for Colombia. We also find that the speed at which agents learn in the model has increased, albeit marginally, since the central bank implemented its inflation targeting strategy. Although during this period macroeconomic volatility has fallen, inflation persistence has remained roughly constant suggesting that, so far, the impact of those credibility gains on inflation persistence has been modest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International aid in conflict-affected countries is based on the liberal assumption that an inverse relationship exists between violent conflict and development. This paper contests this assumption through a study of the Colombian context that demonstrates violent conflict and development can in fact be interconnected as part of the transition to capitalist modes of production and in the process of state formation. It further argues that a failure by aid agencies to comprehend the complex interaction between conflict and development can result in distorted outcomes in their programming that are detrimental to the stated objectives of achieving peace, development, and justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the historical process by which demographic growth was constructed as the "population question" in mid-twentieth-century Colombia. In other words, it addresses the mechanisms by which it was understood as a scientific, political and economic problem concerning the medical community, specifically the Colombian Association of Medical Schools (Ascofame). The paper demonstrates how this Association drew on notions such as demography, the idea of development as a path to well-being, and a broad definition of health to legitimize its authority and intervention in society. In its discussion of the historical construction of the "population issue", the article questions the use of quantitative methods as a tool to legitimize public and social action, and it reveals the subjective nature of quantitative description in demographic studies. Finally, it introduces the problem of the legitimate intervention of the medical practice not only in regards to its role in demonstrating the existence of the "population problem", but also in its ability to influence reproductive behavior in the quest for social transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of unions in Colombia by answering the following questions: Is there a wage differential between unionized and non-unionized employees that can be attributed to unions? How large is this differential? And which part of wage inequality among employees can be explained by unions? In order to determine the existence and magnitude of the wage differential, an impact evaluation method called propensity score matching is used. The results show that there is a positive differential in favor of unionized workers. This differential fluctuates between 3% and 5% of the monthly wage, and between 15% and 16% of the hourly wage. When we analyze the impact for the private sector only, the wage differential increases, and varies between 22% and 27% of the monthly wage and between 52% and 56% of the hourly wage. In order to estimate the fraction of wage inequality that can be explained by unions, the Fields decomposition method is used. The results indicate that 4% of wage inequality between employees can be attributed to unions. Unlike the findings for other countries, unions in Colombia contribute to make worse income distribution. The data sample comes from Colombia's National Household Survey for December 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the relationship between urban labor informality and the process of industrial development using data from the Encuesta Nacional de Hogares, implemented by DANE in the ten major metropolitan areas during the even years of the period between 1988-2000, but 1990. By using this data, I estimate a "fixed effects model of panel data", where the informality rate and the sectorial PIB, as a share of the department PIB, are related. The results obtained show that the informality rate in these metropolitan areas has a local component which is associated to the industrial performance of the region. This local component has a negative correlation with the performance of the productive structure, so the metropolitan areas less industrially developed and with small markets are those with high informal labor rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Reichel-Dolmatoff's archaeologic academic production in Colombia. It traces the main themes, influences, virtues and limitations of his interpretations regarding Colombia's Indian past. Particularly, it focuses on the ways in which the work of Rivet, Steward, and the ecologism school, were incorporated into Reichel's thinking, transforming his ideas about the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]