Spanish Abstract: ¿Pueden los medios determinar el éxito o fracaso de las reformas institucionales? Estudiamos la adopción del voto secreto en los Estados Unidos y el papel de los medios de comunicación en este paso crucial para mejorar la democracia. Utilizando una estrategia de...

We describe the patterns of economic growth and social progress in Colombian "functional territories". Unlike political/administrative divisions that emerge at least partly for historical reasons unrelated to economic interactions, functional territories reflect the patterns of spatial...

Spanish Abstract: La firma del acuerdo de paz colombiano resultó en la desmovilización y reincorporación a la vida civil de más de 12.000 excombatientes de las FARC. El conflicto, que estuvo activo casi 60 años, causó más de ocho millones de víctimas y una sociedad dividida. No abordar...

As part of its Cold War counterinsurgency operations in Southeast Asia, the U.S. government conducted a “Secret War” in Laos from 1964-1973. This war constituted one of the most intensive bombing campaigns in human history. As a result, Laos is now severely contaminated with UXO (Unexploded...

In this paper, international aid is examined as a tool for political agenda-setting. A theoretical model is constructed for the analysis, incorporating the incentives created by foreign aid, on the political benefits of recipient governments. The model also incorporates the compensating benefits...

This paper provides the first systematic empirical examination of bureaucratic nepotism and anti-nepotism legislation in an entire modern bureaucracy. By linking confidential information on family ties and administrative employer-employee records for the universe of civil servants in Colombia, I...