Regional Inequalities and Regional Policies in Colombia: The Experience of the Last Two Decades

Galvis, Luis Armando; Meisel, Adolfo

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-39674-8_9

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Colombia is a presidential representative democracy with a relatively long tradition of free elections and deep and persistent regional inequalities, both in terms of political institutions and economic development (Bushnell, 1993;Fergusson et al, 2017;Galvis and Meisel, 2013;Mcgreevey, 1971;Robinson, 2016). The Constitution of 1991, along with key amendments introduced before and after its enactment, introduced major reforms intended to address some of these issues.…”

Section: Institutional Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political alignment in the time of weak parties : electoral advantages and subnational transfers in Colombia

Bonilla‐Mejía¹,

Higuera-Mendieta²

2017

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This paper explores the effect of alignment between local and national politics in a context of weak parties. Based on a regression discontinuity design in close elections, we find that, in absence of strong parties, presidential coalitions become the focal point of political alignment in Colombia. In fact, while parties provide almost no electoral advantages to their members, candidates aspiring to national positions get significantly more votes in municipalities governed by mayors aligned with the incoming presidential coalitions. In turn, aligned mayors receive additional discretionary transfers from the National Government to finance road investments. These discretionary transfers, however, do not translate into local economic growth. ResumenEste documento explora el efecto de alineación entre politicos locales y nacionales en un contexto de partidos débiles. Utilizando métodos de regresión discontinua en elecciones reñidas, encontramos que en ausencia de partidos fuertes, las coaliciones presidenciales se convierten en los ejes de la alineación política en Colombia. De hecho, mientras que los partidos políticos proveen muy pocas ventajas electorales a sus miembros, los candidatos de la coalición a posiciones nacionales obtienen muchos más votos en municipios gobernados por alcaldes alineados. A su vez, los alcaldes alineados reciben más transferencias discrecionales para financiar carreteras por parte del gobierno nacional. Estas transferencias, sin embargo, no se traducen en mayor crecimiento económico en los municipios.Palabras clave: Alineación política, elcciones, transferencias subnacionales, regresión discontinua Clasificaciión JEL: D72, H72, H77, R11 3 The Regional Development and Regional Compensation Funds account for at least 40% of the royalties and prioritizes high impact projects in the poorest regions. Resources are allocated by regional committees,Órganos Colegiados de Administración y Decisión (OCAD), in which national and local officers evaluate and select the projects. 4 There is a long tradition of discretionary transfers in Colombia. Co-financing funds are among the most recent ones, replacing the Auxilios Parlamentarios, parliamentary funds that were eliminated in 1991 in an attempt to eradicate pork-barrel politics Brun and Diamond (2014); Cárdenas et al. (2006). 7

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Section: Institutional Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political alignment in the time of weak parties : electoral advantages and subnational transfers in Colombia

Bonilla‐Mejía¹,

Higuera-Mendieta²

2017

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“…The causes of spatial imbalance also have been explored in previous studies. Galvis and Meisel posited that the regional disparities in Colombia were attributed to the growth of a huge metropolis [17]. However, Barrios and Strobl reckoned that regional imbalance was created through the concentration of technological shocks (industrialization) because regions had their own specific factor endowments and/or institutions [18].…”

Section: Theoretical Basismentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Spatial Balance of China’s Regional Development

Shen

Teng²,

Song

2018

Sustainability

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China’s substantial economic growth and rapid urbanization has brought about some negative effects, one of which is spatial imbalance. Spatial imbalance has attracted considerable attention from both the government and researchers, since it has severely hindered regional sustainable development. This study, from the perspective of the matching relationship between spatial supply capacity and development demand intensity, evaluates the spatial balance of 290 prefecture-level cities in China by establishing an index system that considers the economy, society, resources, and the environment. The findings of this study have demonstrated that the strategies and measures of China in the last few years have brought about a spatial imbalance in regional development while rapidly boosting economic growth. The results reveal that there is not a corresponding relationship between spatial supply capacity and development demand intensity in China’s regional development, indicating that most cities in China are in an imbalanced state regarding regional development. Only a few cities have reached spatial balance, while overexploitation is a common phenomenon. This study displays an overall perspective on the state of spatial balance in China, providing a sound basis for implementing pertinent governance measures in different regions.

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“…Colombia is a country with strong regional disparities. Some of the causes may be institutional, historical, and even geographical (Galvis & Meisel, 2013). Therefore, it is relevant to assess whether public performance also differs across regions.…”

Section: Regional Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficiency of public education in a multiproduct context : the case of colombian municipalities

Melo-Becerra¹,

Hahn-de-Castro²,

Ariza-Hernández³

et al. 2016

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This paper estimates the local efficiency of the public provision of education in Colombia between 2007 and 2014. The empirical analysis relies on a multiproduct function that assesses public performance considering two types of education products: quality and enrolment. Results for Colombian municipalities show efficiencies that vary between 10% and 90%, suggesting that better results in quality and enrolment in public education could be accomplished using the same resources. Sources of inefficiency are explored, such as institutional environment and fiscal autonomy. Differing regional patterns are observed for the cases of education quality and enrolment.

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Regional Inequalities and Regional Policies in Colombia: The Experience of the Last Two Decades

Cited by 18 publications

References 29 publications

Political alignment in the time of weak parties : electoral advantages and subnational transfers in Colombia

Political alignment in the time of weak parties : electoral advantages and subnational transfers in Colombia

Evaluation of Spatial Balance of China’s Regional Development

Efficiency of public education in a multiproduct context : the case of colombian municipalities

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