Biased technological change, human capital and factor shares

We propose a one-good model where technological change is factor saving and costly. We consider a production function with two reproducible factors: physical capital and human capital, and one not reproducible factor. The main predictions of the model are the following: (a) The elasticity of output with respect to the reproducible factors depends on the factor abundance of the economies. (b) The income share of reproducible factors increases with the stage of development. (c) Depending on the initial conditions, in some economies the production function converges to AK, while in other economies long-run growth is zero. (d) The share of human factors (raw labor and human capital) converges to a positive number lower than one. Along the transition it may decrease, increase or remain constant.

A firm-level analysis of ICT adoption in an emerging economy: evidence from the colombian manufacturing industries

This study examines ICT adoption among 3,759 Colombian manufacturing firms, and attempts to identify the factors that are conducive to the adoption and usage of ICT at the firm level. Our major findings are (i) that the adoption of a given information and communication technology is better facilitated when a firm is relatively large, has large human capital, engages in more innovative activities, and when a firm’s organizational structure is better aligned with the given technology; (ii) that positive associations between the key determinants and ICT adoptions are more pronounced for small and medium-sized firms than for large ones, and (iii) that information spillovers within industries is also a determinant of ICT adoptions by the firms.

Gender differences in time allocation of poor children in Colombia

This paper studies the effect of credit constraints and constraints on transfers between parents and children, on differences in labor and schooling across children within the same household, with an application to gender. When families are unconstrained in these respects, differences in labor supply or education are driven by differences in wages or returns to education. If the family faces an imperfect capital market, the labor supply of each child is inefficient, but differences across children are still driven by comparative advantage. However, if interfamily transfers are constrained so that parents cannot offset inequality between their children, they will favor the human capital accumulation of the more disadvantaged child -generally the one who works more as a child. We use our theory to examine the gender gap in child labor. Using a sample of poor families in Colombia, we conform our predictions among rural households, although this is less clear for urban households. The gender gap is largely explained by the wage gap between girls and boys. Moreover, families with the potential to make capital transfers to adult children (e.g. those with large animals), can compensate adult sons for their greater child labor and reduced educational attainment. In such families, as predicted, the male/female labor gap is greater.

The determinants of the health status in a developing country: results from the Colombian case

El artículo busca encontrar evidencia empírica de los determinantes de la salud, como una medición de capital salud en un país en desarrollo después de una profunda reforma en el sector salud. Siguiendo el modelo de Grossman (1972) y tomando factores institucionales, además de las variables individuales y socioeconómicas. Se usaron las encuestas de 1997 y 2000 donde se responde subjetivamente sobre el estado de salud y tipo de afiliación al sistema de salud. El proceso de estimación usado es un probit ordenado. Los resultados muestran una importante conexión entre las variables individuales, institucionales y socioeconómicas con el estado de salud. El efecto de tipo de acceso al sistema de salud presiona las inequidades en salud.

Evaluating An Alternative To Finance Higher Education: Human Capital Contracts In Colombia.

Se presenta un ejercicio para la valuación de Contratos de Capital Humano (CCH), siguiendo a Palacios (2004), en el cual se utilizan datos del Observatorio Laboral para la Educación y su Encuesta de Seguimiento a Graduados–2007. El análisis se hace a través de un modelo Monteriano y uno de Splines para encontrar los pronósticos determinísticos del ingreso. Se encuentra que los retornos a la educación superior proveen un incentivo para la implementación de CCHs para financiar completamente los programas de las universidades públicas y parcialmente en las universidades privadas. Financiar los programas de las universidades privadas requiere más ayudas para hacer los contratos rentables para los inversionistas y atractivos para los estudiantes.