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Fiscal credibility plays an important role in creating favorable scenarios for investment and economic growth. Adequate management of public finances can be decisive in the perception of country risk and the attraction of foreign capital. The aim of this paper is to build a fiscal credibility index and evaluate its impact on investment expectations in Colombia for the 2005-2019 period. Using monthly data on fiscal credibility, investment expectations, and a set of control variables, estimates were made using OLS and GMM methods. Robustness tests were performed using impulse-response functions. The findings reveal that fiscal credibility directly influences the investment decisions of private agents, and that local interest rates and international volatility negatively affect investors' expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to analyze the effects and risks of the application of the most-favored nation (MFN clause), which allows investors to benefit from guarantees, which were not initially included in a bilateral investment treaty. In particular, this work will demonstrate that the effects of this clause depend on the exclusions made in the wording of the MFN clause, and that having more detailed conditions can result in a more efficient guarantee of legal certainty, since it prevents an arbitration tribunal from expanding the effects of the clause beyond what States would desire. To further develop this concept, the paper first puts the situation of foreign investment and bilateral investment treaties in Colombia into context, a conceptual review of the MFN clause is made, various decisions by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral tribunals are analyzed and specific clauses of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) signed by Colombia are studied, focusing on treaties with the United States and Switzerland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiscal decay in Colombia has been a constant. Besides, there is a significant number of special treatments, such as exemptions, deductions, discounts and differential fees that distort the tax system and shrink fiscal revenues significantly, generating an unjustifiable unequality in the country's economy. A special case are exemptions on duty-free zones, which are liable to pay an income tax over 15% and are covered by a 40 percent discount on income tax when acquiring fixed assets, among others. This paper aims to show how tax benefits that were granted to some contributors based on duty free zones -originally aiming to generate jobs, encourage foreign investment, and contribute to economic growth and development-, did not accomplish that goal, but rather have contributed to increase fiscal deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document addresses Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and the effect they have on the protection of intellectual property agreed between both parties. It examines the specific case of the BIT between Colombia and Spain, analyzing the specific clauses related to the subject. Finally, it concludes that for a country like ours, that is, a developing country (DC), it is more desirable to conduct debate and negotiations related to intellectual property in the international forums of the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Intellectual Property Organization, or even the Andean Community of Nations, rather than through bilateral relations as in the case of investment agreements. However, due to the government's trend toward BITs, this paper also concludes with a series of recommendations for the handling of intellectual property in this context and others to be considered in cases where there are claims by investors whose rights may have been infringed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several regional integration and globalization processes have arisen in recent years and have produced a real change in foreign investment policies in developing countries, in general due to the necessity of attracting foreign inflows and the advantages these inflows bring. This is the reason why Colombia, in the decade of the 90's, implemented important constitutional and legislative amendments and started to negotiate several International Investment Agreements (IIAs). In light of this reality, this paper intends to analyze the main Colombian and Canadian provisions for negotiation and ratification in a bilateral investment treaty between the parties that dynamizes the Colombian economy through facilitating its access to an important country like Canada and ensuring the conditions for Canadian investors in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This second paper from Mauricio Avella describes the complete cycle of capital exports originating in the United States in the 1920's: the conversion of United States into a creditor nation; the role of New York as the dominant financial center; and the distribution of United States investments, particularly in South America. Moreover, it examines the availability of these exports to Colombia, and the consequences from collapsing of external credit granted by the United States. Finally, it reviews the balance of the main international creditors when the export cycle of American capital closed in the 1920's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]