Este ensayo realiza una prueba empírica de la hipótesis del “ciclo político de los negocios” en 547 municipios colombianos en el período 1989-2008. El trabajo econométrico indica que en los municipios de categoría 6 (los más pequeños) y categoría 4, el gasto de inversión y el...

This essay links empirical evidence of public budgets with some political habits (informal institutions) in Colombia. The first part is theoretical and fixes the concepts of institutions, fiscal rules and clientelism. The second reviews some empirical studies which connect colonial institutions...

The basis of this essay, which analyzes the use of mathematics in economics, is the supposed dilemma between axiomatics and empiricism. The proponents of formalist axiomatics hold that economic phenomena should be explored and expressed with the language of mathematics, because mathematics is a...

This essay displays an empirical verification to the “political business cycle” hypotheses applied to 547 Colombian towns from 1989 to 2008. The econometric study reveals that smaller towns exhibit a cycle in public investment and fiscal deficit: both variables increase before elections and...