Politics, policies and the dynamics of aggregate productivity in Colombia

Arbeitspapier

This paper describes private actors' involvement in Colombia's policymaking process. While more transparent and formal channels are used to discuss horizontal policies, they are also less effective. The adoption of targeted policies, however, follows a faster track and depends more on political power than on those policies' potential as engines for productivity growth. Data targeted policies and political characteristics across sector-region units are used to further characterize the different groups' weight in policymaking, and the effect of the implied unbalance on aggregate productivity. Electoral weight and being represented by business groups and associations are found to be important determinants of the policy benefits received by a sector in a region, especially when activities are located in regions affected by armed conflict. It is also found that the resulting imbalance of policies damages aggregate productivity.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 687

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Institutions and Growth ; Industrial Policy ; Capitalist Systems: Political Economy
• Subject: Productivity ; political economy ; interest groups ; targeted policies ; Produktivität ; Wirtschaftspolitik ; Interessenpolitik ; Kolumbien

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Eslava, Marcela ; Meléndez, Marcela
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department
• (where): Washington, DC
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/51505
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET