After building up foreign currency-denominated (FC) liabilities over several years, the balance sheets of Colombian firms might be particularly vulnerable to a shift in external conditions. This paper undertakes four exercises in order to get a better understanding of these vulnerabilities....

After building up foreign currency denominated (FC) liabilities over several years, Colombian firms might be vulnerable to a shift in external conditions. We undertake three empirical exercises to better understand these vulnerabilities. First, we identify the determinants of FC borrowing....

Using the 2003 and 2008 Quality of Life Surveys, this paper identifies the factors that affect housing tenure decisions in Colombia. Households with higher incomes are more likely to purchase than to rent, and the choice of formal housing is positively associated with wealth. Households eligible...

Between 1989 and 1993 a structural reform program was introduced in Colombia. If the reform package paled in comparison to those of other countries, it was remarkable given Colombia?s long-standing record of moving very cautiously in the reform front. The fact that the reform effort did not...

This paper examines the decentralization process in Colombia, particularly as it relates to reforms embodied in the 1991 Constitution, and the bailouts of territorial entities that have occurred in subsequent years as a result of perverse incentive structures. The paper provides a summary of the...

This paper looks into the political economy forces that helped shape exchange rate policy in Colombia since the early 1960s. As witnessed by the remarkable longevity of the managed crawl, Colombian exchange rate policies since 1967 did not take the form of major regime changes. Policy shifts...

After several decades of financial repression with some partial attempts at liberalization, Colombian policymakers set out to complete the liberalization process in the early nineties, reducing financial taxation, freeing interest rates, facilitating entry/exit, and eliminating capital account...

Using matching estimator techniques developed by Heckman, Ichimura, Smith and Todd (1998) and Heckman, Lalonde and Smith (1999), we explore the determinants of achievement rates in standardized tests of Colombian students attending public and private schools. This methodology allows us to...