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This paper studies the effect of transfers from the General Participations System (SGP) on Colombian municipal development indicators during 2003-2017. A Municipal Development Index is proposed, considering indicators of educational achievement, health coverage, and crime rates. This index is studied in the municipal context using spatial autocorrelation techniques. A panel-type econometric model was estimated to evaluate the effect of transfers on the index. The results suggest that increases in education, health, culture, and recreation transfers generate positive, differential effects on the index. Transfers to the health sector have the most significant impact on the index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the theoretical arguments regarding the existence of "smart" territories, a recently-developed concept based on notions related to the knowledge society and knowledge economy, sustainable development, and social inclusion. This paper examines the preconditions necessary to make it possible for this type of territorial space to emerge in relation to the economic development underpinning it, as well as the right type of social structure, qualities required for human agency, and the social innovations demanded for such purpose. Finally, as a case study, this paper provides an empirical analysis of such conditions on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, drawing some final conclusions and recommendations from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The signing of the Final Agreement between the Colombian National Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on November 24, 2016, created many expectations. However, key advances that were achieved during the subsequent months gave way to a period of stagnation and even actual backsliding in its implementation. This paper analyzes the difficulties of fulfilling the Final Agreement, in particular as concerns its first point regarding Comprehensive Rural Reform (CRR). The analysis is based on the argument that if the Agreement was focused on generating the conditions necessary to end armed conflict and reestablish democratic conditions in the country, it also contains structural factors which infringe upon the consolidation of peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between the financial instability generated by shortterm capital flows in the absence of control mechanisms and the restrictions facing the implementation of counter-cyclical fiscal policies in the inflation-targeting regime, using as a springboard the recent financial crises in, specifically, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, showing how an increase in the issuance of public bonds to, via interventions in the exchange rate market, sterilize the effects of short-term capital flows on the monetary base is a source of endogenous instability, because this mechanism entails risks for the exchange rate and interest rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]