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...

In 2002 the career of Colombian public school teachers was significantly reformed through the introduction of a selective entry competition and of further quality incentives. This paper estimates how the new quality-screened teachers impact students' high school performance. We exploit the fact...

This paper examines the impact of urban violence on the standardized test scores of public school students in Medellin. I use the school-level variation in exposure to local homicides for years 2004-2013 in a model that includes school and year fixed effects, allowing me to control for the...