Historical, political and economic links between Colombia and Venezuela have been strong. After economic integration policies that dominated state affairs in the early sixties, the degree of social and economic interaction, especially in the border region of Santander and Tachira strengthened....

During the ongoing financial crisis the analysis of similar historical crises has gained more and more attention among economic researchers and forecasters. Existing studies, however, do not tackle the immense heterogeneity that is present in cross-country samples in a formal and consistent way....