Good teachers are essential for high-quality educational systems. However, little is known about teachers' skills formation during college. By combining two standardized tests for Colombian students, one taken at the end of senior year in high school and the other when students are near...

This paper assesses the link between democracy and inequality. Inequality is measured at the cohort level with pseudo-panel data built from nine Latin American countries' household surveys (1995-2009, biannual). Democracy is measured as a stock during long periods of time both before and after...

As well acknowledged in the literature, housing is often the dominant consumption good for most households. As such, it should be included in a comprehensive welfare aggregate to measure people's living standards accurately. However, assigning a value to the flow of the dwelling for homeowners...

This study explores the short-run transitions between poverty, vulnerability, and middle class, using synthetic panels constructed from multiple rounds of Colombia's Integrated Household Survey (in Spanish Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares). The paper reports results from two approaches to...

Do tariff revenues affect democratization? We argue that tariff revenues have two effects: i) A rapacity effect because the fiscal windfalls generate incentives to control government, and ii) A redistributive effect because tariffs impact the returns to the factors of production, changing the...

As climate change accelerates, a looming question is what effects warming will have on the stability and organization of political systems. We argue that extreme weather associated with climate change can reshape societal relations by altering citizen perceptions of their political environment....

The combination of populism and protectionism emerged primarily from social class cleavages during the 20th century, to protect those affected by international economic competition. In the 21st century these cleavages have also involved an ethnic dimension, which regards the ethnic majority as...

International economic competition has led to the increasing adoption of labor-replacing technology. What are the consequences of this development for the political influence of organized labor? I posit that robots make (skilled) workers more productive, increasing the opportunity cost of...

Good teachers are essential for high-quality educational systems. However, little is known about teachers'skills formation during college. By combining two standardized tests for Colombian students, one taken at the end of senior year in high school and the other when students are near...

This paper assesses the link between democracy and inequality. Inequality is measured at the cohort level with pseudo-panel data built from nine Latin American countries'household surveys (1995-2009, biannual). Democracy is measured as a stock during long periods of time both before and after...