Working Papers on Economics

Assessing the effects of U.S. monetary policies on portfolio flows is important for policymakers as they could pose risks to the effectiveness of domestic monetary policy. This paper analyzes the effects of the Global Financial Cycle (GFC) and Federal Reserve (Fed) unconventional…

The development of methodologies that enable the diagnosis of the current state and trend of economic activity is particularly important to improve the decision-making process in economic policy. This paper proposes a new weekly indicator of economic activity for Colombia, covering the…

The objective of the study is to evaluate the main determinants of the Colombian gross portfolio inflows and outflows from non-resident and resident investors and to study the role of the interest rate of the domestic monetary policy. The conceptual framework is the standard portfolio…

We revisit an old question but with a new identification strategy, namely the difference in exchange rate effects between announced (“vocal”) and secret (“dirty”) foreign exchange intervention. Using a Regression Discontinuity Design, we exploit a rule-based intervention mechanism…

Assessing the composition of sovereign debt holders is important because investors’ behavior varies according to distinctive  components, including shareholders’ preferences, regulatory constraints, and profitability mandates. To study this issue, we examine the determinants of…

Behavioral Equilibrium Exchange Rate (BEER) models suggest many variables as potential drivers of equilibrium real exchange rates (ERER). This gives rise to model uncertainty issues, as ERER depends and varies, often drastically, on a particular set of chosen variables. We address this…

Price dispersion is a prevalent feature even of markets where, arguably, homogeneous good are traded. At the heart of the causes of price dispersion lie the firms’ strategic interactions with their customers and rivals. Consumers’ eagerness and ability to search for lower prices tends…

This paper estimates the effect of financial development on the transmission of monetary policy. To do so, the paper employs a panel data set containing financial development indicators, policy rates, lending rates, and deposit rates for 43 countries for the period 2000-2019 and…

Colombia is particularly affected by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) weather fluctuations. In this context, this study explores how the adverse weather events linked to ENSO affect the inflation expectations in Colombia and how to incorporate these second-round effects into a…

We introduce a methodology for generating alerts of potential anti-competitive practices in the Colombian wholesale electricity market.

Using a computable general equilibrium model calibrated for 2019, shocks of various characteristics to the minimum wage are simulated to establish the effects on the nation's fiscal accounts. This document is a pioneer in that analysis. The evidence suggests adverse effects of…

The objectives of the study are, first, to build homogeneous and consistent series of macroeconomic savings and investment and their balances for the economy and institutional sectors of Colombia for the period 1975-2021. Second, describe the economic context in which they were…

This study analyzes the expected effects of climate change on Colombia’s current account. To this end, we present a literature review that outlines how climate-related risks could impact the balance of payments, complemented with an analysis that illustrates how the 2014-2015 oil shock…

We provide evidence of the negative effect of the minimum wage on labor market flows, such as job creation, job destruction, hiring, and separations in Colombia. Depicting firms' minimum wage (MW) compliance cost, we find evidence of an adverse effect of increases on MW compliance cost…

In this paper, we examine the financial and real effects of macroprudential policies with a new identifying strategy that exploits borrower-specific provisioning levels for each bank. Locally, we compare similar firms just below and above regulatory…

We investigate the effects of a change in the regulation of the spot market for electricity in Colombia that took place in 2009. Specifically, the regulation switched from an auction mechanism with simple bids to one with complex bids to allow generators to separately bid on variable…

Banks in emerging market economies rely on cross-border interbank lending to financing firms in the real sector. By matching cross-border bank-to-bank loan level data with domestic bank-to-firm loan level data, and firm-level data, this paper shows that sudden yield reversal observed…

This paper assesses whether the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated automation in developing countries. We studied the case of Colombia, a country with low R&D and productivity and with high labor informality and unemployment. We estimated event-study models to assess the differential…

Numerous studies exist about exports at the firm level in Colombia, but only a few exist about the market for imports and the importing firms. This study seeks to fill that gap by looking at the dynamics of imports, the market for imports and the role of importing firms in Colombia…