Unequal opportunities and human capital formation

This paper develops a tractable, heterogeneous agents general equilibrium model where agents face different costs of access to the educational system. The paper explores the relation between inequality of opportunities (in the form of differential costs of access to the educational process) and efficiency (the levels of human capital and output). More precisely, the results from the simulation of the model suggest that a higher level of inequality of opportunities is associated with a lower level of average human capital, lower output per worker and higher income (wage) inequality. In other words, the model (based on standard assumptions) does not predict a trade-off between efficiency and equal opportunity in human capital formationHuman Capital, Inequality, Equity-Efficiency Tradeoff

The War Against Drug Producers

This paper develops a model of a war against the producers of illegal hard drugs. This war occurs on two fronts. First, to prevent the cultivation of crops that are the raw material for producing drugs the state engages the drug producers in conflict over the control of arable land. Second, to impede further the production and exportation of drugs the state attempts to eradicate crops and to interdict drug shipments. The model also includes an interested outsider who uses both a stick and a carrot to strengthen the resolve of the state in its war against drug producers. The results of the calibration of the model yield an estimate that from 2001 through 2003 subsidies from the United States to the Colombian armed forces under Plan Colombia caused a decrease in the exportation of drugs from Colombia to about 44 percent of what exportation was before Plan Colombia was implemented. The results of the calibration of the model also suggests that a more efficient allocation of the about $2 billion that the United States spent on Plan Colombia through 2003 would have involved larger subsidies to the conflict over control of arable land and smaller subsidies to eradication and interdiction efforts.

Cocaine production and trafficking : what do we know ?

The main purpose of this paper is to summarize the information currently available on cocaine production and trafficking. The paper starts by describing the available data on cocaine production and trade, the collection methodologies (if available) used by different sources, the main biases in the data, and the accuracy of different data sources. Next, it states some of the key empirical questions and hypotheses regarding cocaine production and trade and takes a first look at how well the data match these hypotheses. The paper states some of the main puzzles in the cocaine market and studies some of the possible explanations. These puzzles and empirical questions should guide future research on the key determinants of illicit drug production and trafficking. Finally, the paper studies the different policies that producer countries have adopted to fight against cocaine production and the role consumer countries play in the implementation of anti-drug policies.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Crime and Society,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Economic Theory&Research

The Economics of the Drug War: Unaccounted Costs, Lost Lives, Missed Opportunities

As member states of the United Nations take stock of the drug control system, a number of debates have emerged among governments about how to balance international drug laws with human rights, public health, alternatives to incarceration, and experimentation with regulation. This series intends to provide a primer on why governments must not turn a blind eye to pressing human rights and public health impacts of current drug policies.Fiscally minded policymakers should invest in drug policy reform. Many national drug control policies are centered on aggressive policing and military efforts to reduce drug supplies and punish drug consumers. But these policies come with a very high price tag, rarely resulting in sustained control of drug supply or demand. The economic wastefulness of the drug war is one of the most important motivations for reform.A new report from the Open Society Foundations, The Economics of the Drug War: Unaccounted Costs, Lost Lives, Missed Opportunities, documents both the wastefulness of ill-conceived investment in ineffective policies and the missed opportunity of failing to invest in effective policies and programs that embody good public health practice and human rights norms. The case of Colombia, for example, illustrates the futility—and the harms to individuals and society—of extremely expensive coca eradication efforts. For all the money spent, the efforts merely resulted in a geographical shift of coca production to new and sometimes more environmentally fragile locations. The environmental and health damage caused by aerial spraying of coca crops also negatively impacted the productivity of rural families. Many countries fail to invest in and scale up programs that yield significant economic returns in reduced crime, reduced death from overdose, reduced illness and injury from unsafe injection, and improved productivity of patients who are able to get on with their lives. Programs that provide clean injection equipment are among the most cost-effective interventions in all of public health because they prevent HIV, but too many governments still believe erroneously that they encourage drug use. And overincarceration for nonviolent drug offenses is a drain on public resources that fails to make a dent in drug markets.Health-centered drug policy conceived with human rights norms in mind is effective and cost-effective compared to many status quo approaches. This report explains why less punitive drug policy is good fiscal decision making

Visual Analytics to Support Atomistic Simulations Design

Nowadays, complex simulations of a variety of processes are extensively used in academia and industry. Particularly in academia, powerful scientific software tools are constantly developed to simulate complex systems; for instance, simulations of quantum transport using the non-equilibrium greens Function formalism. The potential impact of these scientific tools in industry is huge, but it is hindered by the lack of usability of the software by those who are not deeply familiar with it. Visual analytics is a new field that has shown the positive impact of interactive visualizations in software usability and the cognitive process of the user. This research investigates whether the implementation of interactive visual aids also improves the usability and the cognitive processes of research codes users, particularly those used for simulation design. To accomplish this goal, this study defines a framework for simulation design in scientific research, identifies the stages in which visual aids can be implemented to increase usability, and implements an interactive visualization system (NemoViz). NEMO5, a tool for designing atomistic simulation, is used as a case study to measure the effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction of the use of visual aids in scientific simulation design. The results from this research provide a framework of reference for development of user-friendly simulation design tools, and will shed light on strategies that scientific developers might implement to broaden the impact of their simulation codes

La microeconomía de la producción y tráfico de cocaína en Colombia

Este capítulo presenta una radiografía detallada de la microeconomía de la producción y tráfico de cocaína en Colombia. El capítulo presenta una breve descripción de la evolución en el tiempo de las cifras agregadas sobre producción de cocaína y luego seconcentra en describir en detalle cada eslabón de la cadena de producción. En particular, se describen los principales costos e ingresos en cada eslabón y, con base en la información disponible, se presenta una estimación de los flujos de recursos que semueven en la economía colombiana producto de estas actividades ilegales. Las fases de producción del clorhidrato de cocaína comprenden desde procesos de economía campesina, que incluye transformaciones de bajo valor agregado, producción a baja ymediana escala de base de coca, participación de actores armados ilegales en los eslabones de mayor generación de valor agregado, y complejas redes de distribución de precursores y control sobre las rutas del narcotráfico. Nuestros estimativos indican que, con datos a 2008, el tamaño del negocio de producción y tráfico de cocaína en Colombia es de aproximadamente $13.6 billones de pesos (2.3$1.2 billones corresponden al valor de la hoja de coca producida; $0.8 billones al valor agregado de la base de coca;$2 billones al valor agregado de la transformación de base en clorhidrato de cocaína; y $9.6 billones alvalor generado en el eslabón del tráfico.cocaína, narcotráfico, Colombia

An evaluation of the Macarena Integral Consolidation Plan (PCIM)

This paper presents a description of the new strategy for the fight against drugs implemented in Colombia since the year 2007. The Strategic Leap Forward, as the Colombian government has called the program, or the Strategic Development Initiative, as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) calls it, is a step forward in the design of anti-drug policies that are more sustainable and effective in the mid-term. Currently, a pilot project is being implemented in the Macarena region, in the department of Meta (southeast of Bogotá), where coca crops and illicit activities were the norm just a few years ago. The Colombian State, partially financed by the United States governments and European countries, consolidates its presence in this region with the different instances and programs of the state apparatus to recover territorial control and combat the production of illicit drugs. But even more important is that this new approach in the fight against illegal drugs is based on a regional economic development plan, to avoid that peasants become involved in the first stages of cocaine production and trafficking process. The adequate functioning of this strategy can be a reference point to other countries that face similar problems of illicit drug production and conflict associated with these activities.Macarena, Consolidation Plan, Colombia, Anti-drug policies