The Employment Advantages of Skilled Urban Areas

This paper explores whether the agglomeration of human capital leads to social employment advantages in urban labor markets of a developing country: Colombia. I estimate the social effects of human capital agglomeration by comparing employment opportunities of individuals located in urban areas in which the level of education differs. Results show that employment opportunities are higher on average in skilled urban areas. Three explanations have been offered: human capital externalities, production complementarities, and consumption spillovers. To distinguish between them, I analyze the effect of an increase on the college share on the employment rate for different education groups. Spatial employment differences in Colombia are mostly explained by human capital externalities and production complementarities.local labor markets, employment, human capital externalities, production complementarities, consumer demand spillovers, signaling, congestion

Spatial Unemployment Differentials in Colombia

This paper studies the geographic distribution of unemployment rates in Colombian urban areas. It introduces measures of spatial correlation and spatial econometric techniques to analyze the dependence in local unemployment rates across municipalities. Results suggest that Colombian municipalities have experienced a polarization process between 1993 and 2005, as municipalities' unemployment rates have followed different evolutions relative to the National average. This process has been accompanied by the creation of unemployment clusters, that is to say, municipalities had very similar unemployment outcomes to those of their neighbors. This analysis uses a spatial Durbin model to explore the influence of various factors in determining differences in regional unemployment rates. According to our findings differences in labor demand, immigration rates, and urbanization are factors behind observed municipal unemployment disparities.local labor markets, unemployment di erential, polarization, clustering, spatial econometrics, spatial Durbin model

¿Las pandemias afectan negativamente los negocios? El caso de Estados Unidos durante el COVID-19

The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 contingency cannot be denied. Many authors have studied the effects of the sanitary emergency on labor force and the demand and supply of goods and services. This paper aims to understand the consequences of the shock to the economy caused by the pandemic, measured through mobility restrictions, in the business context. Using Google Mobility and The New York Times report, stay-at-home orders were used as a proxy for mobility restrictions. The effect of said restrictions on initial unemployment benefit claims and new business applications provides an insight into the change in people’s livelihoods. The difference-in-differences and event study methodologies were applied with data from 2010 to the third week of August 2020. The results indicate that the restrictions on mobility had a significant impact on both outcome variables. The effect on unemployment claims was still present at the time of this paper, while the behavior of new business applications was mostly affected for the first few weeks and then had a quick rebound. No se puede negar el deterioro económico causado por la contingencia del COVID-19. Diversos autores han estudiado los efectos de la emergencia sanitaria en la mano de obra y la demanda y el suministro de bienes y servicios. Este artículo pretende entender las consecuencias del impacto en la economía de la pandemia a través de las restricciones de movilidad en el contexto de los negocios. A través de Google Movilidad y el reporte de The New York Times se usan las ordenes de quedarse en casa como sustitto de las restricciones de movilidad. El efecto de dichas restricciones en las solicitudes iniciales de subsidio por desempleo y las solicitudes de nuevos negocios proporcionan una perspectiva del cambio en los medios de subsistencia de las personas. Se usaron las metodologías de diferencias en diferencias y estudio de evento con los datos desde el 2010 hasta la tercera semana de agosto de 2020. Se encuentra que las restricciones de movilidad tuvieron un impacto significativo en las dos variables de resultado. El efecto en las solicitudes de subsidio por desempleo aún estaba presente al momento de escribir este artículo, mientras que el comportamiento de las solicitudes de nuevos negocios estuvo particularmente afectado durante las primeras semanas y luego se recuperó rápidamente

Progressive care : an examination of male to female transgender sex workers\u27 experiences within the health care and social service systems in San Francisco, California

This qualitative study explores male to female transgender sex workers\u27 experiences within the social service and health care systems in San Francisco, California. Twenty one male to female transgender sex worker participants were asked to rate services provided to them by the social service and health care systems. Ten of these participants were then asked a series of questions about their experiences within the social service and health care systems in San Francisco. Participants\u27 racial identities and ages were not diverse. Most participants identified as African American and their ages fell between the ranges of 41 and 50 within this study. All participants had worked as sex workers and accessed social services and health care within the last five years. Participants rated health care and social services positively and discussed areas in which these systems could better address for the male to female transgender sex worker community in San Francisco. The major findings reveal the positive services that male to female transgender sex workers have experienced from health care and social services in San Francisco. These findings also reveal the continued discrimination this group faces within these systems and the work force, and the continued violence and health risks they face on the streets. Lastly, this study implicates the need for job trainings for this group and sensitivity trainings for providers and the general public

Incursiones urbanas en Poble Nou : imágenes y experiencias en un territorio en transformación

En este texto reivindico la subjetividad y la experiencia en la interpretación de los espacios urbanos. El sujeto soy yo misma en derivas a través del barrio Poble Nou en Barcelona, dejándome llevar por mis sentidos y percepciones. Desde esta subjetividad nómada otorgo preferencia a recorridos marcados por las imágenes, metáforas y la estética, proponiendo sentidos sociales no limitados por constricciones gramaticales. Además de su valor estético, las imágenes revelan cómo el poder actúa performativamente bajo matices de imagen global. En Poble Nou, las imágenes están en las calles: desde el modelo hegemónico de ciudad que se presenta en el slogan ciudad del conocimiento y se visibiliza en las nuevas edificaciones de diseño, hasta el imaginario de barrio industrial-obrero y barrio artístico en las antiguas fábricas ocupadas por talleres de arte, hoy en proceso de desalojo. Para retratar la tensión entre mi mirada a lo global y al imaginario cotidiano, figuro los recorridos desde dos metáforas: cartografías de la mirada cenital y escenario de la mirada impura.Trough this research, I'm interested to argue subjectivity and experience in urban spaces. The subject it's me; in wanderings through the streets of Poble Nou's neighbourhood in Barcelona, driven by my senses and perceptions. This nomadic subjectivity offers a preferential position to images, metaphors and aesthetics as social senses beyond the limits of grammatical constructions. Images also reveal how mechanisms of power circulate in our ordinary live under the shades of global images. In my comprehensions along Poble Nou, images are surrounding the streets: from the global image-model of knowledge city, -that shows us through the new design architectures-, to the labourer neighbourhood imaginaries as an industrial and artistic area. To clarify the tension among global power and local practices of every day life, I propose a trip through two metaphors that also figures my two situated perspectives to the neighbourhood: zenithal view cartographies and impure view location

Sustainable innovation and inclusive business in Latin America

Purpose – This exploratory research aims to analyze sustainable innovation in the context of inclusive business in Latin America. Design/methodology/approach – The study performs a summative content analysis of 22 inclusive businesses (IBs) of current Business Call to Action (BCtA) members in Latin America. Codes were created to identify the modification or introduction of sustainable products/services/processes. Data were analyzed using NVivo 12. Findings – Results show a prevalence of Colombian examples within Latin American inclusive business, and a more significant proportion in the agricultural sector, consistent with reports found in the literature. The authors found that sustainable innovation takes place when introducing new products/services/processes that respond to the needs of the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) population, or modifying existing processes and services to make them more sustainable. Originality/value – As most sustainable innovation literature is product-oriented and technically dominated, these results contribute to the newer works adopting a more comprehensive conception of innovation, providing empirical evidence at the product, service and process levels. The results provide insights on how inclusive businesses make adaptations to improve the sustainability of their supply chains to bring their products/services within reach of isolated and disadvantaged communities. The findings also suggest that sustainable product innovation in an inclusive business goes beyond a cost reduction objective. Tailored design reveals a hybrid socioeconomic goal with a high degree of local context embeddedness and precise attention to nascent specialized demand. The results could be of practical use for organizations that want to operate an inclusive business in BoP markets