Suchergebnisse

Using a simple model of incomplete contracts to characterize the relationship between decentralization and contracting with the private sector, I show that, provided that the expected reduction in quality is low, more decentralized local governments will contract more with the private sector. Then, I use the 2001 decentralization reform in Colombia to test these ideas. Particularly important, the reform entitles more decentralized municipalities to sign subsidy contracts with private schools, and departments (a higher level of government) to do so for the less decentralized municipalities. I take advantage of the fact that the level of decentralization is decided using an exogenous population threshold to identify causal effects using Regression Discontinuity Design. The empirical results are consistent with the prediction of the model. More decentralized municipalities subsidize more students in private schools. There are no significant differences in enrolment in public schools across more and less decentralized municipalities.

AbstractThe Colombian conflict has lasted for around 50 years. It has been fueled by the financial opportunities coming from production and traffic of illegal drugs, and predation of other natural resources. In such a context it is not clear what policies are more effective to reduce conflict. Two public policies that are frequently mentioned as effective to reduce conflict are investments in roads and education. However, a priori, both investments in roads and education may either increase or reduce conflict. After controlling for possible problems of endogeneity, we show that increases in roads provision reduces conflict while education does not. Because this is robust to controlling for measures of state capacity and governance, and the opportunity cost of conflict, our results are likely to be explained by the relative mobility of education and roads. Policies that increase roads provision might help to fight against the intensity of conflict.

Este documento hace un diagnostico multidimensional de las brechas regionales que existen en Colombia a nivel departamental y de su persistencia en el tiempo. Así mismo se estudian las causas de la inequidad regional. La evidencia presentada sugiere que las diferencias institucionales de largo plazo explican las desigualdades regionales actuales. Para el diagnóstico se utiliza un conjunto amplio de variables socioeconómicas incluyendo variables de ingreso y actividad económica, variables de capital humano, medidas de pobreza y desigualdad, variables de comportamiento político, variables de aislamiento geográfico, y variables de esfuerzo o dependencia fiscal. El documento también revisa algunas experiencias internacionales exitosas en la disminución de brechas regionales y plantea algunas sugerencias de política pública para el caso colombiano. ; This paper offers a multidimensional diagnosis of the Colombian regional gaps at the state level and their persistence overtime. The paper also studies the causes of the regional inequality and presents evidence suggesting that these are explained by long-term institutional differences. The diagnosis makes use of a large set of socioeconomic variables including proxies of income and economic activity, human capital, poverty and inequality, political behavior, geographical isolation, and fiscal effort and dependency. The paper reviews several international experiences that were relatively successful in reducing regional inequalities. It concludes by putting forward some policy prescriptions that may fit the Colombian case.

ABSTRACTWe model the decisions of young individuals to stay in school or drop out and engage in criminal activities. We build on the literature on human capital and crime engagement and use the framework of Banerjee (1993) that assumes that the information needed to engage in crime arrives in the form of a rumour and that individuals update their beliefs about the profitability of crime relative to education. These assumptions allow us to study the effect of social interactions on crime. In our model, we investigate informational spillovers from the actions of talented students to less talented students. We show that policies that decrease the cost of education for talented students may increase the vulnerability of less talented students to crime. The effect is exacerbated when students do not fully understand the underlying learning dynamics.

Abstract
Using a simple model to characterize adolescents' behavior, we show that the effect of educational Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs on teenage pregnancy depends on the limits and conditions of the programs. The model shows that when benefits are conditional on school success or when the program has a binding duration limit, the CCT reduces teenage pregnancy rates. Using original data, we estimate this relation for two different CCT programs implemented in Bogotá, Colombia. The two programs differ in that only one of them conditions benefit renewal on school success. The empirical results are consistent with the predictions of the model. Only the program that conditions renewal of the transfer, reduces average teenage pregnancy rates. We also find that, also consistent with our model, the other program reduces teenage pregnancy rates only for those girls for which the duration limit is binding.

Usando la teoría de la elección podemos establecer cómo ciertas características poblacionales inciden sobre los perfiles de gasto en salud de los hogares colombianos. El enfoque está basado en el trabajo de Deaton de 1980, según el cual el conjunto de elección de los individuos es la intersección del conjunto presupuestal y el conjunto de consumo. En el análisis de los perfiles de gasto en salud se utiliza un enfoque de análisis de varianza tomando datos de la Encuesta de Calidad de Vida de 1997. En general se encuentra que los hogares gastan el 9,62% de sus ingresos corrientes en salud, y se muestran las variables socioeconómicas y demográficas de los hogares que más contribuyen a explicar el perfil de gasto.Palabras clave: análisis de varianza, gasto en salud, teoría de la elección.