We use a panel data on manufacturing plants in Colombia to estimate the model and evaluate its predictions regarding a counterfactual decrease in tariffs.

The literature on the correlation between exports and economic development runs deep into the history of economic thought and permeates policy debates. This paper studies the microeconomic structure of export growth in Costa Rica, with special emphasis on the extensive margin of trade,...

This paper surveys the recent literature on the political economy of fiscal policy, in particular the accumulation of government debt. We examine three possible determinants of fiscal balances: opportunistic behavior by policymakers, heterogeneous fiscal preferences of either voters or...

Research in international trade, both theoretical and quantitative, is increasingly focussedon the role of firm heterogeneity in shaping trade flows. One strand of the literature showshow firm-specific productivity shocks affect the mix of exporting firms and their foreign salesvolumes (e.g.,...

Este documento contiene una serie de reflexiones sobre políticas de desarrollo del sector productivo en Colombia, que surgen de investigaciones de los autores, algunas de ellas en compañía de otros coautores. El documento, estructurado a manera de “postre de notas”, plantea reflexiones...

We use plant output and input prices to decompose the profit margin into four potential determinants of plant exit: productivity, demand shocks, mark-ups and input costs. We find that each of these market fundamentals are indeed important in explaining plant exit. Then, we use differences across...

We examine various channels through which trade liberalization affects aggregate productivity, exploiting tariff changes across sectors after the Colombian trade reform. An advantage of our analysis is that our TFP measure does not include demand and price effects. We find that higher...

Online appendix for the Review of Economic Dynamics article

Previous work has documented a negative correlation between internal conflict and state capacity. We attempt to shed light on mechanisms that underlie this relationship, using data for Colombian municipalities. We rely on identifying heterogeneous effects of different types of violent events on...

We re-examine the view that wars make strong states, taking advantage of panel data to address two of the most obvious endogeneity concerns that arise in this context: initial conditions and persistence of state capacity. Our main message is that, in modern times, there is no evidence that wars...