I apply the Beveridge-Nelson business cycle decomposition method to the time series of murder in the United States (1900-2004). Separating out “permanent” from “cyclical” murder, I hypothesize that the cyclical part coincides with documented waves of organized crime, internal tensions,...

We estimate a model to account for homicide cycles in Colombia, 1950-1999. The variables that together account for about eighty percent of the variation in murder cycles are the years of Colombia(s La Violencia period, the years of collusion between the two establishment parties (the National...

This paper examines the potential impact of institutional shocks on long-term development of property rights and on institutions regulating contracting. The paper seeks to demonstrate that the external institutional shocks might have an uncontemplated side-effect on the institutional development...

I examine the contribution of institutional breakdowns to long-run development, drawing on Argentina's unique departure from a rich country on the eve of World War I to an underdeveloped one today. The empirical strategy is based on building a counterfactual scenario to examine the path of...

The role of the agricultural sector during the ISI period and the debate about the agricultural wage and the living conditions of the farm workers have a long historiography. But until today there is little information about workers' income in the long run. In this paper we want to reflect about...

This article analyzes the monetary and institutional impacts of the domestic public debt in 19th century Colombia. It shows the nature of this debt and its evolution so as to ultimately sketch one side of the institutional matrix of that century. The article draws upon the New Economic...

Desde una perspectiva histórica discute la paradoja de un crecimiento sostenido y mejoras en los indicadores sociales en medio de una escalada en los niveles de violencia y corrupción, para lo cual toma como referencia los planes de desarrollo y la política económica de los últimos treinta...

By the Constitution of 1891 , Brazil's public land came under the jurisdiction or the states, although still following the fundamental rules of the 1850 Lei do Terras (Land Tenure Act). This provoked political reactions from the Brazilian agrarian elite, which resisted to compulsory land...

The weak performance of the Brazilian merchant marine is surprising, as a huge external sector is normally expected to go hand in hand with the development of a national merchant marine. To elucidate this question, the article proposes an analysis and discussion of the development of the...

Resumen En el presente trabajo se muestra que el Sistema Nacional de Planificación de 1958 fue el resultado de un proceso que se inició con el ascenso al poder de Eleazar López Contreras en 1936. Así, durante su gobierno, concurrieron acciones ejecutadas por el Estado que teóricamente han...