The objective of this paper is to analyze how international cycles affect the real GDP cycle and so monetary policy decisions in Colombia. We estimate that cycles in world GDP, export prices and capital inflows are strongly associated with the Colombian business cycle both on impact and even...

The unfolding of the 2007 world financial and economic crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of real economic activity to strong fluctuations in asset prices. Which is the optimal monetary policy in an economy like the Colombian that is exposed to swings in asset prices? What is the...

The recent financial crisis has renewed the interest of economists, both at the theoretical and empirical level, in developing a better understanding of credit and its mechanisms. A rapidly growing strand of the literature views banks as facing funding restrictions that condition their borrowing...

This paper reviews the relationship between the business cycle and public finances in Colombia. The evidence shows that cyclical movements in output systematically affect the situation of public finances. Hence, the distinction between the cyclical and permanent (i.e. structural) components of...

La evidencia empírica para Colombia muestra relaciones tanto positivas como negativas entre el crecimiento del producto y empleo, a diferencia de lo encontrado en economías desarrolladas como la de los Estados Unidos. El presente trabajo usa modelos VAR y de Equilibrio General Dinámico y...

Based on the counting of Help-wanted advertisements in print newspapers, we present national vacancy indexes and vacancy rates for Colombia. These series will allow tackling a myriad of questions related to the functioning of the labor markets in emerging economies, where such datasets were not...

This paper presents a novel monthly dataset of job vacancies in Bogota between 1960 and 2010. The dataset was constructed by counting the number of help-wanted announcements published in the most important newspaper with national circulation—namely, El Tiempo. We describe the methodology used...

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo estimar las elasticidades de demanda de empleo moderno total y no calificado, haciendo énfasis en las asimetrías presentes en las distintas fases del ciclo económico colombiano. Para tal fin, se estiman modelos MS-VAR(p) siguiendo la metodología propuesta por...

A pesar de que el encaje bancario era un instrumento de política monetaria que venía cayendo en desuso, recientemente, varios países lo han empleado con aparente éxito en el marco de una política monetaria contracíclica y macroprudencial. Surge entonces la pregunta de si dicho éxito se...

In this document we lay out the microeconomic foundations of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model designed to forecast and to advice monetary policy authorities in Colombia. The model is called Policy Analysis Tool Applied to Colombian Needs (PATACON). In companion documents we present...