Equilibrium Principle in Colombian Public Contracting

Public contracting in Colombia is conflicting and inefficient. It frequently leads to damage to State property. The Colombian legal system cannot assure efficient and transparent public contracting. The cause is the institutional environment characterized by high transaction costs. Colombian law worsens the process by recognizing the principle of economic equilibrium in public contracts. This principle increasese contract incompleteness and renders impossible the use of economic incentives to control the opportunism of the economic agents. The authors present the hypothesis that the economic equilibrium principle increases the conflictive nature of public contracting. They test the hypothesis empirically. The first section of the paper presents a summary of the literature on transaction costs economics, as well as the legal literature on the historical origin and the content of the economic equilibrium principle. The second section describes the methodology of the empirical study. The third section shows the empirical evidence of the effects that the economic equilibrium principle exerts over the public contracting. The last section presents the conclusions.

Provisional coverage for independent workers

The study examines how, from the traditional work of the independent artisan, we have moved to autonomous work integrated within networks of specialized businesses. This modality is owed not only to the manner in which labor is organized today, to government stimuli, to actions of multilaterals, but also to unemployment. With the purpose of humanizing independent work and rationalizing business costs, an intermediate category of autonomous worker has been created; the semi-dependent who moves between legal freedom and economic independence. The administration, for its part, focuses on broadening social coverage, not always developed for bureaucratic reasons, which is connected to the low density of contributions from the autonomous workers. The challenge put forth is that of provisional coverage for the independents, which is possible whenever citizens participate to resolve social inequality, resulting from the lack of job opportunities, low purchasing power and educational level. 

El paso del noroeste canadiense: implicaciones geopolíticas del calentamiento global

Los estrechos y rutas de paso significan, de manera tradicional para los países en cuyo territorio se  ncuentran, una fuente de riqueza importante, no solo por sus recursos naturales sino también por los peajes y costos de transporte que aportan. No obstante, estas rutas también han sido motivos de problemas de soberanía e intereses; en el caso del Pasaje del Noroeste, en el Ártico canadiense, las dificultades son el resultado del incremento en el comercio global y de sus consiguientes beneficios, pero también del deshielo. Este ensayo muestra cómo el calentamiento global tiene, además de los ambientales, efectos políticos y económicos.

Transfer of knowledge of the structural components of the model Q400 and Global Express: the case of Aerospace Bombardier, Querétaro

The aim of this paper is to analyze the knowledge transfer in the production of structural components of two aircraft:Q400 and Global Express of Bombardier Aerospace Company, Querétaro. Bombardier Aerospace is a pioneer company in the aviation sector in Mexico, and the third largest civil aircraft manufacturer. In 2005, Bombardier decided to invest in Mexico, creating Bombardier Aerospace de Mexico S. A. C. V. and transferring production lines from Japan and Toronto to Queretaro. The relocation strategy of both plants aims to reduce modular and general production costs facing other competitors. The relocation has been supported by the State Government funds, through a trust and the creation of Queretaro aerospace cluster. Among various benefits, the State of Queretaro donated seventy-eight acres of land where the Queretaro International Airport (QIA) and a training centre will be built to promote the development of this sector. The interest in this research is to analyze and describe the transfer of knowledge to the production of structural components of both aircraft models, thanks to the results of productivity and internal and external factors which have contributed along with this transfer