Agglomeration and Skills: Explaining Regional Wage Disparities in Colombia

This article aims to analyze the differences in regional labor markets in Colombia based on new theories that integrate the analysis of occupational characteristics of the workforce, urban agglomeration, and specialization patterns. In this way, it contributes to the Colombian literature since i) it adapts the classification of occupations, an important input to understanding the […]

The internal labor marketsof business groups

This paper provides micro evidence of labor mobility inside business groups. We show that worker flows between firms in the same group are stronger than with unaffiliated firms. More over, the reallocation of top workers between group firms is more sensitive to international shocks. Top workers that move within the group in response to shocks […]

Price elasticity of demandfor voluntary health insurance plans in Colombia

Background: Since 1993, Colombia has had a mandatory social health insurance scheme that aims to provide universal health coverage to all citizens. However, some contributory regime participants purchase voluntary private health insurance (VPHI) to access better quality health services (i. e., physicians and hospitals), shorter waiting times, and a more extensive providers’ network. This article […]

Human capital, innovationand productivity in Colombian enterprises: astructural approach usinginstrumental variables

In this paper we explore the R&D–innovation–productivity linkage for the Colombian manufacturing industry, paying special attention to the role of human capital. Using data from two firm-level surveys, the Survey of Development and Technological Innovation (EDIT) and the Annual Manufacturing Survey (EAM), we extend the model of Crépon, Duguet, and Mairesse [1998. ‘Research, Innovation and […]

Bounded learning by doing,inequality, and multi-sectorgrowth: A middle-class perspective.

This paper develops a multi-sector model of middle-class-led economic growth, whereby (i) learning by doing interacts with scale economies and nonhomothetic preferences giving rise to endogenous growth, and (ii) the “middle class” label is an endogenous outcome of the model, depending on past economic growth. The emphasis is placed on the entire income distribution, which […]

Crime and education in a model of information transmission

We 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 […]