The Social Impact of the Banking Sector in Colombia, 1995 – 2002

This document studies the impact of the banking sector on social variables in Colombia, and tries to identify how the difference in banking institutions’ development at the municipal levels influences economic and social prosperity of low income households and firms. One part of the literature emphasizes the role of the financial system in promoting this type of agents’ economic performance as long as it attracts them to the use of financial intermediation, making available to them the use of financial services and technologies, both in deposits and credit. Another trend in the literature studies specific characteristics of liquidity constrained agents. This study empirically identifies how bancarization influences poverty and investment on education, in the case of families; and economic performance and the number of firms, in the municipal level in Colombia for the period 1995-2002. When studying these effects we control for local variables such as public spending in investment, homicide rate and guerrilla conflict. The period of study was characterized by the end of an economic boom and recession, which influences our econometric results. This study shows that banking developments affect households’ education decisions and firms’ performance at the municipal level; it was also found that non performing loans are associated with the decrease in the number of firms, but a relationship between loans and the creation of firms was not present.

Cuestiones sobre historia social. En la estela de Tuñón de Lara

El autor explica que la historia social es una especialidad historiográfica en estrecho contacto con la sociología histórica. Primero analiza la cuestión social en el origen y desarrollo de una historiografía. Después estudia las distintas teorías del conflicto y su evolución metodológica. A continuación profundiza en las interpretaciones de los movimientos sociales, para concluir en que es necesaria la convergencia entre distintas propuestas metodológicas. En concreto, propone el empirismo cualitativo como vía para enriquecer la historia social con las perspectivas planteadas desde la sociología y la antropología.The author maintains that social history is a historiographical specialty in close contact with historical sociology. First, he analyzes the social issue which is at the origin and development of a historiography. Then, he studies the various theories of conflict and their methodological development. Finally, he dives into the interpretations of social movements, to conclude that it is necessary a convergence between various methodological proposals. Specifically, he proposes qualitative empiricism as a way to enrich social history with the outlook raised from sociology and anthropology

Ciudad paisaje

Trabajo de gradoEste documento contiene la planificación de una agrupación de vivienda desarrollada en el predio de los olivos en chapinero alto, mostrando como se desarrolla un plan de terraceo en un terreno bastante inclinado, con características sobresalientes, como su ubicación en el límite de la ciudad con los cerros orientales, con extensas zonas verdes, y dos cuerpos de agua naturales (quebradas).PregradoArquitect

Environmental Standards, Wage Incomes and the Location of Polluting Firms

The purpose of this paper is to study how the choice of environmental standards by governments is affected by the existence of wage incomes when firms' location is endogenous. In developed countries labor is unionized, which allows positive wage incomes to arise. Thus, each government has incentives to persuade firms to locate in its country since its social welfare depends on such incomes. But, as pollution damages the environment, each government will try to persuade polluting firms to locate in its country to obtain the wage incomes only when its valuation of environmental damage shows that it is low.environmental standards, firms' location, wage incomes

Relocation and Investment in R&D by Firms

The literature on foreign direct investment has analyzed firms’ location decisions when they invest in R&D to reduce production costs. Such firms may set up new plants in other developed countries while maintaining their domestic plants. In contrast, here we consider firms that close down their domestic operations and relocate to countries where wage costs are lower. Thus, we assume that firms may reduce their production costs by investing in R&D and also by moving their plants abroad. We show that these two mechanisms are complementary. When a firm relocates it invests more in R&D than when it does not change its location and, therefore, its production cost is lower in the first case. As a result, investment in R&D encourages firms to relocate. When firms do not invest in R&D on relocation, R&D discourages firms to relocate since the investment made by the firms that remain in the country partially offsets the labor cost advantage obtained by the firms that move their plants abroad.relocation, R&D, social welfare, imperfect competition, trade unions

La cooperación internacional para el desarrollo

La Cooperación Internacional para el desarrollo se ha caracterizado por una evolución constante a lo largo de las últimas tres décadas. Las bases sobre las cuales se han practicado dicha cooperación han sido reformuladas, impactando la forma en que los diversos agentes involucrados interactúan. En la primera parte de éste trabajo se busca caracterizar la naturaleza de la interacción entre agentes dentro del proceso de cooperación; para ello recurrimos a la Teoría de Juegos, en particular a los Juegos Cooperativos en su modalidad de Acuerdo; introduciendo el concepto de óptimo de Pareto y el postulado de eficiencia de Coase. La segunda parte de éste trabajo es dedicada al concepto de Desarrollo. Describimos su evolución -caracterizada por la ruptura de paradigmas-; exponemos dos enfoques: uno basado en el cómo y para quién y otro temporario que hace referencia al corto y largo plazo; resaltando que el enfoque actual es aquel centrado en los elementos humanos. Por otra parte, analizamos el rol que tiene la Ayuda Oficial al Desarrollo (AOD), desde un punto de vista político, permitiéndonos entrever los intereses implícitos de la misma en los Estados receptores. Finalmente, describimos los elementos críticos de la evolución de las relaciones y la cooperación para el desarrollo entre América latina y la Unión Europea, así como la relación de Colombia con ésta última. Adicionalmente, detallamos el importante rol que las Organizaciones No Gubernamentales (ONG) han tenido para el desarrollo de los proyectos generados dentro del marco de las relaciones de cooperación entre América Latina y la Unión Europea.The International Cooperation for Development has been characterized by a progressive evolutionduring the past three decades. The basis, on which the cooperation has been practised, has been reformulated, thus impacting the way in which participants interact. The first part of this working paper seeks to characterise the nature of the interaction between agents inside the process of cooperation. We refer to game theory; in particular we use cooperative games and their agreement mode, introducing the concept of Pareto’s optimum and the postulate of efficiency of Coase. The second part is devoted to the concept of Development. We describe its evolution –characterised by the rupture of paradigms-; we expose two approaches: the first one based on how and for whom and the other one a time-based approach that makes reference to the short and long term, emphasizing that the current approach is focused on human features. On the other hand, we analysed the role of Official Aid for Development (OAD) from a political point of view allowing us to see how the underlying political interests affect the States who receive aid. Finally, we describe the critical elements of the evolution of the relationships and the cooperation for development between Latin America and The European Union, as well as the relationship between Colombia and the European Union. Additionally, we explain the important role that the Non Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) have had on development projects set out on the framework of the relations for cooperation between Latin America and The European Union.Universidad del Rosari

International Trade and Strategic Privatization

The literature on mixed oligopoly does not consider that there is strategic interaction between governments when they decide whether to privatize their public firms. In order to analyze this quetion we consider two countries; In each country there is one public firm and n private firms. Firms have a constant marginal cost of production and the public firm is less efficient than the private firms. In this framework, we show that when the marginal cost of the public firms takes an intermediate value only one government privatizes its public firm and that government obtains a lower social welfare than the other.international trade, public firms, privatization

Mixed Duopoly, Merger and Multiproduct Firms

The literature on mergers has extensively analyzed the decision to merge by private firms but it has not considered the decision to merge by private and public firms. We assume that when a private firm and a public firm merge (or when one of them acquires the other), they sets up a multiproduct firm in which the government owns an exogenous percentage stake. In this framework, we show that the decision to merge by firms depends on the degree to which goods are substitutes and on the percentage of the shares owned by the government in the multiproduct firm.mixed duopoly, multiproduct firm, mergers

The Labor Risk System before Workers of the Informal Sector

La Constitución Política considera el trabajo como un derecho fundamental dentro de la categoría de derecho social y económico, bajo los principios de igualdad, libertad y dignidad humana, y es el Estado el encargado de garantizar este derecho por medio del Sistema de Seguridad Social Integral que es un derecho irrenunciable para toda la población colombiana, en especial para el trabajador. El Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística –DANE– (DANE, 2015), en su informe de empleo del trimestre noviembre 2014-enero 2015, en 23 ciudades y áreas metropolitanas, determina que el 49.3% de la población laboral está en el sector informal.El objetivo del presente trabajo es poder establecer si para el trabajador del sector informal, principalmente el trabajador por subsistencia, existen elementos jurídicos desde la Constitución, la jurisprudencia y dentro de la legislación del Sistema General de Seguridad Social, para ingresar al Sistema de Riesgos Laborales.The National Constitution has contemplated work as a basic right within the category of social and economic right, under the principles of equality, liberty, and human dignity. The State is the body responsible for assuring this right through the Integral Social Security System, which is an unalienable right for the entire Colombian population, especially for workers. The National Statistics Administrative Department (DANE, for its initials in Spanish) (DANE, 2015), in its employment report corresponding to the quarter between November 2014 and January 2015, involving 23 cities and metropolitan areas, determined that 49.3% of labor population is found in the informal sector. The objective of this article is to establish whether or not there are juridical elements (including Constitution, Juridical System, and the regulations of the General Social Security System) for the informal worker to be included in the Labor Risk System

Identification and Characterization of Killer Yeasts

Motivation: Killer factor is a virus like particle infecting Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Two lineal doubled stranded RNA episomes are necessary to maintain the killer phenotype, a defective M molecule encoding the killer toxin, and an L molecule encoding the capsid protein and polymerase essential for the maintenance of the M molecule. The killer factor is lethal to sensitive cells of the same or related yeast species, helping the producer strain to prevail in the yeast population. Studies have shown that killer yeasts are common and play an active role during grape must fermentation(1). Killer phenotype analysis is, therefore, essential to understand yeast population dynamics in wine production. So far, four killer viruses have been discovered (K1, K2, K28 and Klus), each one with a completely different toxin. In this context, an efficient and fast test to detect and classify killer yeasts is necessary. In this study, we are designing a PCR based protocol to detect killer yeasts and distinguish between K1, K2, K28 and Klus. We are using this test to study the presence and abundance of killer phenotype in flor yeasts, which grow when the fermentation is saturated. Methods: We have designed a 3 pairs of primers to detect M1, M2 and Mlus, and 3 pairs of primers to detect L molecules (L1, L2 and Llus) upon retrotranscription of a nucleic acid preparation. These primers allow performing multiplex analysis. We use the traditional spot test method to confirm the results we obtain with RT-PCR test. Results: Results prove that our test can distinguish successfully between K1, K2 and Klus. Moreover, the test can identify mixtures of killer yeasts in the same sample and allow us to check what kind of L molecule is associated with each M molecule. All results obtained have been confirmed successfully with the traditional spot test. Regarding flor yeasts, we have found that there is not a single killer yeast in 30 strains studied representing mayor flor yeast types present in Jerez and Montilla wine region. 24 strains are sensitive to K1 and K2, 7 are resistant to K2 and sensitive to K1 and 2 are resistant to both toxins. Conclusions: We confirm that the RT-PCR test designed can identify and distinguish killer yeasts and mixed killer populations. The fact we are not able to find a killer yeast in a varied population of flor yeast may indicate that flor yeasts do not need killer factor to prevail or flor yeast genetic background is incompatible with killer factor