This article contributes to the literature on the impact of transitional justice measures using microfoundational evidence from experiments. We argue that there is a distributional dilemma at the heart of transitional justice programs, given that the State must allocate goods and services both...

In this paper, we study how between-group wealth and size heterogeneity affectsuccess probabilities as well as aggregate rent-seeking efforts when two groups compete for the allocation of a pure public good. Unlike with previous models, we measure the utility cost of rent-seeking in terms of the...

Free media may not favor political accountability when other democratic institutions are weak, and may even bring undesirable unintended consequences. We propose a simple model in which politicians running for office may engage in coercion to obtain votes. A media scandal that exposes these...

This paper studies the effect of strengthening democracy, as captured by an increase in voting rights, on the incidence of violent civil conflict in nineteenth-century Colombia. Empirically studying the relationship between democracy and conflict is challenging, not only because of conceptual...

This article highlights a nefarious effect of elections during civil wars by demonstratingthat they can facilitate the displacement of civilians. This occurs through two main mechanisms: they reveal information about civilians' loyalties directly to armed groups; and they threaten the status quo...

En Colombia la democracia ha sido el mecanismo normal para acceder al poder. Sin embargo, desde los albores de la república los enfrentamientos bélicos partidistas y los cambios constitucionales fueron una constante. Este trabajo muestra cómo en el siglo XIX en Colombia, los cambios...

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...

Este artículo presenta una descripción de la nueva estrategia de la lucha contra las drogas implementada en Colombia desde el año 2007. El Salto Estratégico, como ha llamado el gobierno colombiano a este programa, o la Iniciativa de Desarrollo Estratégico, como lo llama USAID (la agencia...

Este artículo presenta una descripción de la nueva estrategia de la lucha contra las drogas implementada en Colombia desde el año 2007. El Salto Estratégico, como ha llamado el gobierno colombiano a este programa, o la Iniciativa de Desarrollo Estratégico, como lo llama USAID (la agencia...

El desarme, la desmovilización y la reintegración (DDR) es la iniciativa de consolidación de la paz más utilizada en todo el mundo. A pesar de su popularidad, las evaluaciones empíricas de la contribución que el DDR ha hecho a la seguridad y la paz han sido desatendidas en gran medida....