An approximation to the informal-formal wage gap in Colombia 2008-2012

This document provides recent evidence about the persistency of wage gaps between formal and informal workers in Colombia by using a non-parametric method proposed by Ñopo (2008a). Over a rich dataset at a household level during 2008-2012, it is found that formal workers earn between 30 to 60 percent more, on average, than informal workers. Despite of the formality definition - structuralist or institucionalist- adopted, it is clear that formal workers have more economic advantages than informal ones, but after controlling by demographic and labor variables an important fraction of the gap still remains unexplained.

Teorías y algunas experiencias internacionales en el financiamiento de la educación superior: lecciones para Colombia

Se analizan diferentes alternativas para la financiación de la educación superior, teniendo en cuenta que la presencia de fallas de mercado -tanto por el lado de la demanda como por el de la oferta- hace de éste un sector muy particular. Las primeras se relacionan con las decisiones privadas en términos de educación de la población estudiantil, y las segundas con las asimetrías de información que caracterizan el lado de la oferta en el financiamiento de la educación. El documento hace una revisión de literatura académica y de algunas experiencias internacionales sobre las diferentes fuentes de financiación en este sector, así como sus potenciales efectos sobre ciertas variables. Así, esta revisión arroja luces sobre las alternativas para el caso Colombiano.

Testing for Stock Market Integration in a Developing Economy: Colombia

This paper examines the linkage between two parallel stock exchanges trading the same shares in Colombia, namely the Bogotá Stock Exchange and the Medellín Stock Exchange. We provide empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that these two markets can be best described as fully integrated over a period of almost four decades, which is consistent with the view that arbitrage opportunities are only possible in the short but not in the long run. In addition, we find evide

Testing the law of one price in food markets: evidence for Colombia using disaggregated data

This paper applies stationarity tests to examine evidence of market integration for a relatively large sample of food products in Colombia. We Önd little support for market integration when using the univariate KPSS tests for stationarity. However, within a panel context and after allowing for cross sectional dependence, the Hadri tests provide much more evidence supporting the view that food markets are integrated or, in other words, that the law of one price holds for most products.

The environmental impact of civil conflict : the deforestation effect of paramilitary expansion in Colombia

Despite a growing body of literature on how environmental degradation can fuel civil war, the reverse effect, namely that of conflict on environmental outcomes, is relatively understudied. From a theoretical point of view this effect is ambiguous, with some forces pointing to pressures for environmental degradation and some pointing in the opposite direction. Hence, the overall effect of conflict on the environment is an empirical question. We study this relationship in the case of Colombia. We combine a detailed satellite-based longitudinal dataset on forest cover across municipalities over the period 1990-2010 with a comprehensive panel of conflict-related violent actions by paramilitary militias. We first provide evidence that paramilitary activity significantly reduces the share of forest cover in a panel specification that includes municipal and time fixed effects. Then we confirm these findings by taking advantage of a quasi-experiment that provides us with an exogenous source of variation for the expansion of the paramilitary. Using the distance to the region of Urab´a, the epicenter of such expansion, we instrument paramilitary activity in each cross-section for which data on forest cover is available. As a falsification exercise, we show that the instrument ceases to be relevant after the paramilitaries largely demobilized following peace negotiations with the government. Further, after the demobilization the deforestation effect of the paramilitaries disappears. We explore a number of potential mechanisms that may explain the conflict-driven deforestation, and show evidence suggesting that paramilitary violence generates large outflows of people in order to secure areas for growing illegal crops, exploit mineral resources, and engage in extensive agriculture. In turn, these activities are associated with deforestation.

The impact of broadband quality standards on internet services market structure in Colombia

This paper develops a structural model which allows estimating the impact of regulatory decisions looking for the setting of download-speed standards on market structure and performance. We characterize a setting under which quality standards improve both service quality and availability. As to quality, we evaluate the impact of quality standards on the performance of local demand from a detailed database of broadband internet subscribers, discriminated by the main attributes of an internet subscription contract as location, supplier, monthly-fee, download- and upload-speed features. From these results, we are able to identify the effect of quality regulation on the behavior of internet providers in a differentiated product market approach. As a consequence, we are able to assert that the response of internet service providers to quality regulation is a more intense product differentiation that contributes to demand expansion and therefore to improve broadband penetration indicators.

TIC y productividad en las industrias de servicios en Colombia

Este trabajo analiza los determinantes de la productividad laboral en las empresas de servicios de Colombia. En particular se examina la relación entre las tecnologías de la información y de la comunicación TIC (en términos de inversión y uso) y la productividad. El estudio encuentra que en conjunto, la inversión en TIC y el uso de las TIC incrementan la productividad laboral en un 18% en promedio aproximadamente. La evidencia empírica sustenta la hipótesis de que los recursos tecnológicos de TIC (tanto inversiones en equipo como uso de TIC), junto con el capital no TIC, la capacitación, el porcentaje de capital extranjero y el porcentaje de empleados permanentes son los recursos más importantes que impactan positivamente sobre la productividad de las empresas de servicios de Colombia.

Trade diversification in Colombia, 1991-2011

We describe the evolution of international trade and the behavior of export diversification in Colombia during the period 1991-2011. For measuring trade diversification and following up its behavior along the period, we employ alternative ways of decomposing trade flows along its intensive and extensive margins, using the latter as a measure of diversification. Results indicate that, in the short run, trade diversification in Colombia can be characterized as weak but that there is a modest trend for an increase in its importance. With some differences in degree, for both exports and imports, the number of partner countries increases faster than the number of products contained in the average basket traded and, simultaneously, the number of traded products increases faster than the average number of countries with which they are traded. Hence, trade diversification in Colombia seems to follow a pattern that implies that trade with new partners tends to be relatively slowly populated in terms of products or, from the opposite point of view, trade of new products is relatively sluggish in extending to new partner countries

Tratado de libre comercio entre Colombia y Estados Unidos: ¿qué impacto puede tener en Colombia?

Para evaluar el impacto de un Tratado de libre comercio (TLC) entre Colombia y Estados Unidos, describimos las características de la economía colombiana, enfatizando en sus patrones y perspectivas de comercio, e identificando los sectores y regiones más sensibles a la firma de un TLC. Afirmamos que los efectos de un acuerdo bilateral entre Colombia y Estados Unidos, serán similares a los que han tenido anteriores reformas de liberalización comercial. Sin embargo, mientras Colombia espera la firma del TLC con Estados Unidos, ese país está cerca de firmar tratados bilaterales con algunos países de Latinoamérica. Por lo tanto, también puede haber efectos sobre la economía colombiana producto del cambio en las reglas comerciales entre sus socios. Primero analizamos el efecto de anteriores reformas comerciales en Colombia, México y Chile. Luego, a través de un modelo de equilibrio general multiregional aplicado, simulamos los efectos sobre la economía colombiana de un acuerdo bilateral con Estados Unidos. Concluimos que, aunque moderados, habrá aumentos en el bienestar y en la producción de los consumidores y firmas colombianos.

Use of informal mobile telephony in low income households in Colombia

El acceso a la telefonía móvil en Colombia evidencia ciertas particularidades con respecto a otros países. En Colombia surgió una nueva alternativa de comunicación que consistía en la venta de minutos de celular en las calles y en pequeños negocios durante los primeros años de ésta década. En este documento se analizan las principales características de quienes usan esta modalidad de comunicación con base en una encuesta dirigida a usuarios y no usuarios de bajos ingresos. Se usa un modelo probabilístico para explicar las características de las personas que lo usan y se encuentra que las personas que están en la modalidad de contrato prepago y que viven en ciudades pequeñas tienen una mayor probabilidad de usar esta alternativa de comunicación. De otro lado se encuentra que quienes están con el operador dominante tienden a usar este servicio también de una forma más notoria. Estos resultados parecen indicar que los diferenciales de precios entre las llamadas off-net y on-net así como entre prepago y postpago son los que alimentaron el surgimiento de esta actividad

Violence and growth in colombia : a review of the quantitative literature

This is a critical review of the empirical literature on the relationship between violence and economic growth in Colombia: an interesting case study for social scientists studying violence, conflict, crime and development. We argue that, despite the rapid development of this literature and the increasing use of new techniques, there is still much room for research. After assessing the contribution of the most influential papers on the subject, we suggest directions for future research.

An estimation of the pattern of diffusion of mobile phones: the case of Colombia

In this paper we find that the diffusion pattern of mobile telephony in Colombia can be best characterised as following a Logistic curve. Although in recent years the rate of growth of mobile phone subscribers has started to slow down, we find evidence that there is still room for further expansion as the saturation level is expected to be reached in five years time. The estimated saturation level is consistent with some individuals possessing more than one mobile device.

¿Existe una trampa de pobreza en el sector rural en Colombia?

A diferencia de la generalidad de trabajos sobre la pobreza rural en Colombia, este estudio emplea un enfoque de activos para indagar acerca de los determinantes de la pobreza rural. En particular se examinan la existencia de no convexidades locales en el proceso de generación de ingresos, el grado de concentración de los hogares en ciertos rangos de acumulación de activos y la presencia de retornos marginales diferenciados a los activos. Con base en esto se proporciona evidencia prima facie acerca de la existencia de una trampa de pobreza en el sector rural, abriendo una línea promisoria de investigación sobre el tema, que puede contribuir de forma importante a su comprensión y a un mejor diseño de política social y sectorial.

Beyond the mincer equation: the internal rate of return to higher education in Colombia

In order to present an estimation of the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) to higher education in Colombia we take advantage of the methodological approach provided by Heckman, Lochner and Todd (2005). Trying to overcome the criticism that surrounds interpretations of the education coefficient of Mincer equations as being the rate of return to investments in education we develop a more structured approach of estimation, which controls for selection bias, includes more accurate measures of labor income and the role of education costs and income taxes. Our results implied a lower rate of return than the ones found in the Colombian literature and show that the Internal Rate of Return for higher education in Colombia lies somewhere between 0.074 and 0.128. The results vary according to the year analyzed and individual’s gender. This last result reinforces considerations regarding gender discrimination in the Colombian labor market.

Body mass index as a standard of living measure: a different interpretation for the case of Colombia

We analyze the Body Mass Index (BMI) in a distinct way of its traditional use and it lets us use it as a proxy of standard of living for the case of Colombia. Our approach is focused on studying how far the people are from the normal range and not on the score of each one and this lets us to treat equally extreme cases as severe thinness and obesity. We use a probabilistic model (Ordered Probit) that evaluates the probability of being within the normal range or another level. We found that socioeconomic variables have a significant effect on the dependent variable and that there are no linear effects. Besides, people with difficulties for walking and adults have less probability of having a normal BMI.