Using a rich dataset of Colombian manufacturing establishments between 1995 and 2004, we illustrate potential scarring effects of recessions operating through credit constraints. In contrast with the view that recessions are times of cleansing, we find that financially constrained businesses...

In this paper, we examine the determinants of mortgage loans interest rates in Colombia during the period January 2002 - June 2006. We find that the main macroeconomic determinant is public debt interest rates. At the micro level, we find that credit risk is the main determinant. We demonstrate...

Based on the counting of Help-wanted advertisements in print newspapers, we present national vacancy indexes and vacancy rates for Colombia. These series will allow tackling a myriad of questions related to the functioning of the labor markets in emerging economies, where such datasets were not...

Abstract After decades using monetary aggregates as the main instrument of monetary policy and having different varieties of crawling peg exchange rate regimes, Colombia adopted a full-fledged inflation-targeting (IT) regime in 1999, with inflation as the nominal anchor, a floating exchange...

This paper presents a novel monthly dataset of job vacancies in Bogota between 1960 and 2010. The dataset was constructed by counting the number of help-wanted announcements published in the most important newspaper with national circulation-namely, El Tiempo. We describe the methodology used to...

This paper challenges the conventional view according to which disinflations in Latin America -even from low and moderate peaks- have been carried out at no cost to output. After suggesting a new methodology that overcomes some of the shortcomings of the traditional methods used to measure the...

This paper studies the behavior of several macroeconomic variables during disinflationary episodes in Latin-America and the Caribbean (LAC). In particular, it focuses on disinflations from low and moderate peaks for the period 1973-2001. The methodology used for studying the average behavior of...

There is abundant empirical evidence showing that asymmetric price adjustments exist in a wide variety of markets. Prices tend to grow faster when costs rise relative to the rate at which prices drop when costs fall. The objective of this paper is to empirically test whether asymmetric price...

Why is that the achievements of some disinflations from low and moderate peaks are longlived, whereas in others the gains in the inflationary front dissipate quickly? Based on an index of the sustainability of disinflations proposed in the paper, various competing explanations of what determines...

En 1999 la Corte Constitucional determinó que los incrementos en el salario mínimo no debían hacerse por debajo de la inflación pasada. En este artículo exploramos el impacto de esta decisión sobre la efectividad de la política monetaria. En el marco de un modelo macroeconómico sencillo,...