Sistemas de transferencias subnacionales: lecciones para una reforma en Colombia

América Latina adoptó profundos procesos de descentralización que se iniciaron en las décadas de los ochenta y noventa. Estos se dieron con mayor intensidad en los gastos que en los ingresos, dando como resultado desbalances fiscales verticales, que ocurren cuando se presenta un desequilibrio entre los ingresos y los gastos en diferentes niveles de gobierno. En América Latina esos desequilibrios en los gobiernos subnacionales son más elevados que en otras regiones del mundo, lo que se debe a dos causas principales: los mayores gastos descentralizados y la baja recaudación tributaria subnacional.- Prólogo. Por: Rafael de la Cruz y Ramiro López Ghio. Pág. 9. - Introducción. Por: Jaime Bonet y Luis Armando Galvis. Pág. 13. - Primera parte: Visión internacional de la teoría y la práctica en los sistemas de transferencias subnacionales. - Teoría y práctica internacional en las transferencias intergubernamentales. Por: Teresa Ter-Minassian. Pág. 21. - Reformas recientes al sistema mexicano de transferencias. Por: Emilio Pineda. Pág. 37 - Transferencias intergubernamentales en Brasil. Por: Luiz Villela, José Roberto Afonso, Ana Calvo. Pág. 55. - Segunda parte: La experiencia colombiana - ¿Cómo va el sistema general de participaciones? Por: Jorge Toro. Pág. 73. - Contexto histórico y evolución del SGP en Colombia. Por: Jaime Bonet, Gerson Javier Pérez, Jhorland Ayala. Pág. 81. - Una reflexión para mejorar la eficiencia en la asignación de las transferencias intergubernamentales en Colombia. Por: Juan Gonzalo Zapata y Tomás Concha. Pág. 129. - Eficiencia en el uso de los recursos del SGP: los casos de la salud y la educación. Por: Luis Armando Galvis. Pág. 161. - A manera de conclusión. Por: Antonio Hernández Gamarra. Pág. 193. - Acerca de los autores. Pág. 199

We Are Caregivers: Social Identity Is Associated with Lower Perceived Stress among Rural Informal Caregivers

Informal caregivers often experience high stress levels with little support, especially in rural settings. With a mixed-methods approach, this research explored experiences of rural informal caregivers, including how social identification as a caregiver, social interactions, and formal and informal coping support related to perceived stress. Major focus group themes (n = 8) included lacking available services, balancing challenges, unmet practical needs, and strong community identity. Survey data (n = 22) revealed that perceived coping support (e.g., having someone to turn to), social interactions, and caregiver identity (e.g., perceiving the role as important to one's self-concept) were associated with lower life upset stress, but only caregiver identity was associated with managing the personal distress and negative feelings associated with caregiving stress. Results suggest that, although available rural services may fall short, other options might alleviate caregiver stress, including facilitating access to coping support, encouraging social interactions, and enhancing caregiver social identity

Love thine enemy? Evidence that (ir)religious identification can promote outgroup tolerance under threat

The divide between religious traditionalists and secular humanists has been widening for decades; yet, little is known about factors that attenuate hostility between these groups. Two studies examined whether (ir)religious identification could mitigate negative feelings toward (ir)religious outgroups. Following priming to make salient religious groups in daily life or group-based threat, Atheists and Christians in Britain (Study 1, n = 113), and Atheists, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and Protestants in Canada (Study 2, n = 181) reported intergroup feelings, ingroup evaluations, and perceptions of their group as viewed by others. Atheists reported the lowest ingroup identification and felt equally negative toward all religious groups. Likewise, religious group members generally felt most negative toward Atheists. However, identification with the (ir)religious ingroup was associated with less hostility toward the outgroup(s). This was particularly marked for Atheists who perceived that religious followers felt positively toward them. These results challenge suggestions that (ir)religious identification and threat necessarily promote intergroup hostility

The Ambivalent Role of Religion for Sustainable Development: A Review of the Empirical Evidence

Until recently, academia has largely neglected the impact of religion on sustainable development. However, empirical studies have shown that religion remains important in many societies and that its importance has been increasing since the beginning of the new millennium. This paper reviews the empirical quantitative literature on the effect of religion on development from the last decade. We start by disaggregating the concepts of religion and sustainable development into four religious and three developmental dimensions and proposing a framework to identify causal mechanisms. Numerous mechanisms are possible, and this complexity explains why only a few uncontested findings exist. Religion is ambivalent vis-à-vis development: although religious dimensions exert a positive influence on physical and mental health as well as on general well-being, scholars have found a negative relationship between religious dimensions and both income and gender equality. Studies agree that the dominance of one religious group together with parallel ethnic and religious cleavages increases the risk of conflict, while studies on the pro-peace effects of religious factors are largely missing. Methodological challenges relate to the availability of fine-grained data, especially for non-Western countries, and the use of concepts and definitions. Most importantly, the study of religion and development requires methods that allow for causal inference