Previous studies indicate that Colombian farmers make production decisions based on informal sources of information, such as family and neighbors or tradition. In this paper we randomize recipients of price and climate information using text messages (SMS technology). Under this experimental...

The economic crisis from the Covid-19 pandemic has generated a fall in tax revenues and an increase in the need for public spending in most economies throughout the world. This situation has led to a substantial increase in the sovereign debt levels and has dramatically reduced the fiscal space...

Economic literature has identified positive effects of peer abilities on individual achievement. However, the intuitive arguments supporting this evidence are not clear. This article presents a specific mechanism: cooperation and competition among group members; more precisely, the presence of...

This paper develops a simple model of the war against illegal drugs in producer and consumer countries. Our analysis shows how the equilibrium quantity of illegal drugs, as well as their price, depends on key parameters of the model, among them the price elasticity of demand, and the...

This chapter presents a detailed analysis of the microeconomics of cocaine production and trafficking in Colombia. The chapter first presents a brief description of the evolution over time of the aggregate figures on the production of cocaine, then focusing on describing in detail each link in...

The Plan Nacional de Vigilancia Comunitaria por Cuadrantes (PNVCC) is a new police patrolling program introduced in the eight major cities of Colombia in 2010 by the National Police. The strategy divides the largest cities into small geographical areas (cuadrantes), assigns six policemen to...

There is scarce empirical evidence on the impacts of drug consumption decriminalization, especially, on problematic drug use and violence. In 2001, Portugal decriminalized the consumption of all illicit drugs. In this paper, we focus on determining the short, medium, and long-term impact of...

We study the effects of broken windows policing on crime using geo-located crime and arrest reports for 80 Colombian cities. Broadly defined, broken windows policing consists of intensifying arrests - sometimes for minor offenses - to deter potential criminals. To estimate causal effects, we...

Spanish Abstract: En este artículo estimo el efecto causal de las condiciones de reclusión sobre la reincidencia explotando la entrada en operación de nuevos centros de reclusión en Colombia. Entre marzo de 2010 y enero de 2013 entraron en funcionamiento diez nuevos centros de reclusión...

We investigate if there is any effect on crime following the installation of public surveillance cameras. To do so, we benefit from a quasi-experiment that took place in Medellin, Colombia with the installation of 587 cameras between 2013 and 2015. We highlight three main findings. First, there...