EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF HEALTH CARE REFORM IN COLOMBIA: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

This article presents an evaluation of an ambitious health reform implemented in Colombia during the first half of the nineties. The reform attempted to radically change public provision of health services, by means of the transformation of subsidies to supply (direct transfers to hospitals) into a new scheme of subsidies to demand (transfers targeted at the poorest citizens). Although the percentage of the population having medical care insurance has notably increased, mostly among the poorest, problems of implementation have been numerous. It has not been possible to achieve the transformation of subsidies to supply into subsidies to demand. At the same time, competition has not made it possible to increase the efficiency of many public hospitals, which continue to operate with very low occupation rates, while receiving hefty money transfers. Subsidies increased demand for medical consultations, but have curbed demand for hospitalizations. Nonetheless, subsidies might have adversely affected female´s labor market participation and even household consumption. As a whole, evidence suggests that the health reform has been effective in rationalizing households´ demand for health, but not in rationalizing public supply, and neither in increasing the efficiency of service providers.demand subsidies, targeted social services, instrumental variables

Assessing the Link between Adolescent Fertility and Urban Crime

We use data of neighborhoods of Bogotá to assess the causal relation between their adolescent fertility and their homicide rates. We find that neighborhoods with high adolescent fertility rates, and that have low secondary enrollment and high crime rates at the moment the children of their teen mothers become teenagers, are more likely to have higher homicide rates in the future, when those children reach their peak crime ages, estimated to be between 18 to 26 years old in violent cities of Colombia. The result is robust to various specifications, and to modeling the spatial autocorrelation of homicides.Crime, Illegal Behavior, Law Enforcement, Adolescent Fertility, Spatial Econometrics. Classification JEL: K40, K42, R21, J13, C21

Alcances y limitaciones de la sana crítica en la valoración de las pruebas en el proceso penal colombiano

El propósito de la presente monografía se centra en determinar los alcances y limitaciones de la sana crítica en la valoración de las pruebas en el proceso penal colombiano; para ello, se identifican los antecedentes históricos y legales de la sana crítica como sistema de valoración probatoria; de igual forma, se establecen los sistemas vigentes en Colombia en la apreciación de las pruebas en el proceso penal; y por último, se describen las reglas de la sana crítica en la valoración de las pruebas en el proceso penal colombiano

El orden alimentario internacional de la posguerra: el caso de la agricultura en Colombia

RESUMEN: Since the post-war period, Colombian agriculture has been reshaped mainly by international measures. The post-war international food order (called food regime) over time has exacerbated Colombian rural problems linked to land issues. Emphasizing in five groups of crops (Cereals, Fruits, Pulses, Roots and Tubers, and Vegetables) this article found how Colombia has turned from being a self-sufficient producer into a net importer. Consequently, the food regime has reshaped agricultural structures where policies have favored certain groups rather than solving land issues. Bio-fuel crop policies are following the same direction, jeopardizing food sovereignty and deepening rural Colombian problems. Keywords: Land Use, Agriculture, Global.ABSTRACT: Desde la posguerra, la agricultura colombiana se ha transformado principalmente por preceptos internacionales. El orden alimentario internacional de la posguerra (llamado régimen alimentario) ha exacerbado los problemas rurales colombianos relacionados con la tierra. Al hacer hincapié en cinco grupos de cultivos (cereales, frutas, legumbres, raíces y tubérculos, y vegetales), esta artículo encuentra que Colombia ha pasado de ser un productor autosuficiente a un importador neto. Consecuentemente, el régimen alimentario ha transformado las estructuras agrícolas favoreciendo ciertos grupos en vez de resolver los problemas de la tierra. Los cultivos de biocombustibles apuntan en la misma dirección poniendo en jaque la soberanía alimentaria y profundizando los problemas rurales en Colombia

Air pollution and the willingness to pay of exposed individuals in downtown Medellín, Colombia

Within Colombia, Medellín holds the title of the city with the second worst air quality, and within the city, Downtown Medellín is one of the areas most affected by mobile gas emissions. Individuals that work downtown were surveyed in order to measure their willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce air pollution. Four groups are characterized according to the respondents' answers: Stated Preference (SP), Averted Costs (AV), both (SP and AV), and No WTP. Results show that age, income level, having a symptom/illness, and exposure to pollution (at different levels) are important for characterizing the respondents into these groups and have a direct effect on the probability of them stating a positive WTP. © Universidad de Antioquia, 201

THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF U.S. REGULATION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Artificial Intelligence’s (AI) growing catalog of applications and methods has the potential to profoundly affect public policy by generating instances where regulations are not adequate to confront the issues faced by society, also known as regulatory gaps. The objective of this article is to improve our understanding of how AI influences U.S. public policy. It does so by systematically exploring, for the first time, this technology’s role in the generation of regulatory gaps. Specifically, it addresses two research questions: What U.S. regulatory gaps exist due to AI methods and applications? When looking across all of the gaps identified in the first research question, what trends and insights emerge that can help stakeholders plan for the future? These questions are answered through a systematic review of four academic literature databases in the hard and social sciences. Its implementation is guided by a protocol that identified 5,240 candidate articles. A screening process reduced this sample to 241 articles (published between 1976 and February of 2018) relevant to answering the research questions. This article contributes to the literature by adapting the work of Bennett-Moses and Calo to effectively characterize regulatory gaps caused by AI in the U.S. In addition, it finds that most gaps: do not require new regulation or the creation of governance frameworks for their resolution, are found at the federal and state levels of government, and AI applications are recognized more often than methods as their cause

Burlando el miedo, juntando narices rojas: Papel del arte clown en la transformación del miedo colectivo.

En este artículo se exponen los hallazgos de una investigación que tuvo como objetivo comprender el modo como las acciones estético-políticas del arte clown, constituyen condiciones que agencian, por un lado, la transformación del miedo político asociado a contextos bajo lógicas de poder y amenaza, y por otro lado, la emergencia de otros sentimientos políticos con y desde los cuales pueden resistir a las lógica guerreristas. Se siguió un enfoque interpretativo con diseño cualitativo. Los principales hallazgos de la investigación sugieren que el miedo bien puede inhibir la acción política o potenciarle, en función de si se vive de manera individualizada, o si se hace objeto común al interior de una colectividad

Objeto virtual de aprendizaje (OVA) como apoyo a docentes y a estudiantes del grado segundo para alcanzar competencias básicas de lectoescritura en la institución educativa municipal Agustín Agualongo.

En el presente proyecto de grado, se analizó y diseñó un Objeto Virtual de Aprendizaje (OVA) para apoyar el proceso de enseñanza de Lectoescritura del grado segundo de primaria de la Institución Educativa Municipal Agustín Agualongo. Para lo anterior se realizó una investigación junto a las docentes y estudiantes que participan en el área de Lengua Castellana con el fin de indagar sobre el plan de aula y los estándares curriculares establecidos por el Ministerio de Educación Nacional, escogiendo así las temáticas que se desarrollaron en el OVA. También se tuvo en cuenta los requerimientos en cuanto a hardware y software necesarios para la implementación del objeto, facilitando de esta manera la posterior ejecución del mismo. Por último, se realizó una prueba del OVA dentro del aula de clase y mediante una encuesta se recolectó los resultados que reflejan su usabilidad y funcionamiento. Durante la ejecución del proyecto se observó a los estudiantes motivados, con ganas de aprender y ánimos de participar en el uso del OVA; también se dio a conocer a las docentes del área de Lengua Castellana, los beneficios educativos que ofrecen las TIC cuando se involucran en los procesos pedagógicos, generando nuevos espacios y maneras de enseñar