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The long-standing conflict in Colombia has inflicted substantial costs on the population and the economic development of the country. Since conflict occurs mainly in the country's rural areas, the economic impacts of violence are higher for these territories. The purpose of this paper is to describe the impact of armed conflict on Colombia's rural population and the current conditions of rural areas as well as discuss whether the peace agreements with FARC may contribute to improve these conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a summary of the Project on Clusters in the Mining and Energy Industry that the Universidad de los Andes developed for the National Planning Department. The document starts with a description of the methodology that combines macro analysis with detailed analysis. Next, we present the main findings regarding the characterization and location of the mining and energy industries, as well as of the related industries. We end with a detailed presentation of the four cluster proposals designed to create value. The first proposal relates to the structuring of the marketing function to achieve improvements in the productivity of small and medium coal mining. The second one refers to the creation of a National Program to develop Goods and Services Suppliers for the oil and large coal mining industries. The last two proposals focus on the development of business clusters, the first one for petrochemicals and plastics in the Bolivar-Atlantico region and the other one for new plastic materials in Bogota, with a leading role of the academia. The whole analysis and the detailed proposals can be found in the project reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth in Bogota and its region will produce important changes in urban development and mobility. Increases in private vehicle ownership in the next decades will contribute to urban sprawl and car dependency in a development pattern similar to the one lived by North American cities. This paper underlines the policy and strategy to be adopted by Bogota District in order to prevent a path of non-sustainable development, promote a more inclusive city and an efficient integration with the Region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes Albert Hirschman's theory of linkages in economic development in his writings, and the possible influence of his Colombia experience in the development of this idea. The theory is then applied to explain Colombia's economic history in the nineteenth and twentieth century. [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]