SEMINARIOS Y WORKSHOPS

Fecha: 05/05/2022, 00:00

Modalidad: Presencial - Salón 601, Torre 2.

Presentador: Mauricio Rodriguez

Autor: Mauricio Rodriguez

Amid weak international cooperation a significant stretch of the climate policy efforts will continue to take the form of unilateral policies. However, concerns about competitiveness and the risk of carbon leakage limit the scope and acceptability of carbon pricing on domestic production. In this context, Border Carbon Adjustments (BCA) have gained prominence as a complement to carbon taxes. Using a trade adjustment dynamics model we investigate if, from the perspective of a small open economy (SOE), the credible implementation of a BCAs by a subset of its trading partners provides incentives for the tightening of domestic climate policy. These incentives are grounded on a reduced exposure to the foreign BCA. Using data for the Colombian economy, our results indicate that the scope for domestic climate policy and its sectoral impacts depend on whether the BCA design prescribes a tariff level that responds to climate policy adjustments in other economies.

Fecha: 12/05/2022, 11:00

Modalidad: Virtual

Presentador: Dominic Rohner

Autor: Dominic Rohner

Governments that heavily depend on aid from foreign donors may choose to crack down on political opponents when these donors are distracted by major domestic events. In reaction, the opposition in aid receiving countries may have incentive to reduce agitations so as not to incite such crackdowns. We study this interaction in a simple strategic model, and empirically test the model by looking at both unanticipated (natural disaster) and anticipated (election) shocks to attention in major donor countries. We explore the effects of these shocks on agitations (and social violence) in recipient (African) countries. The theory surmises that oppositions will reduce agitations when shocks are anticipated. When unanticipated shocks hit, and when agitations are already under way, the theory surmises that individuals inclined to violently oppose the government will substitute visible forms of unrest (riots) for more covert operations on soft targets (civilian targeted violence). This pattern is precisely reflected in the data. International inattention hurts political oppositions through the out-of-equilibrium threat of increased repression. And this has knock on violent effects, even when on the surface the situation appears "calm". These findings suggest that observed political crackdowns may only represent the "tip of the iceberg", and policies that would enhance international scrutiny would help safeguard public demonstrations of dissent, and reduce violence against civilians.

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Fecha: 17/05/2022, 09:00

Modalidad: Presencial: Auditorio 3 - Pedro Fermín

Presentador: Marina M. Tavares

Autor: Marina M. Tavares

The green economic transformation needed to achieve net zero emissions will also require changes in employment. This chapter examines the labor market implications of this transition, using a mix of empirical and model-based analyses. Looking at a large sample of countries, the empirical analysis indicates that both greener and more polluting jobs are concentrated among smaller subsets of workers. Individual workers face tough challenges in moving to greener jobs from more pollution-intensive jobs, complicating the labor reallocation. Higher skills make job transitions easier, highlighting the potential importance of training. Stronger environmental policies help green the labor market and appear more effective when reallocation incentives are not blunted. Finally, a policy package incorporating a green infrastructure push, phased-in carbon prices, and targeted training and an earned income tax credit to provide income support and incentivize labor supply, could put an economy on a path to net zero emissions by 2050 with an inclusive transition. Model simulations for a representative advanced economy suggest that about 1 percent of employment would shift toward greener activities over a 10-year period. By contrast, for a representative emerging market economy, about 2.5 percent of employment would shift, reflecting differences in workforce skills and greater reliance on higher-emissions-intensive production. Delays in policy actions will require sharper labor market adjustments to achieve net zero emissions.

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Fecha: 19/05/2022, 11:00

Modalidad: Virtual

Presentador: Paula Beltran

Autor: Paula Beltran

In this paper, I study the transmission of an aggregate funding supply shock in a lendingnetwork and quantitatively assess the implications for the allocative efficiency of funding pro-vision of the US Money Markets Funds Industry. I build a tractable model that features banksand funds that bargain over the terms of trade subject to an incomplete network of existingcounterparties and bilateral bargaining. I discipline the model using data on the funds’ port-folio. I show how to identify the key parameters of the model by exploiting granular shocks ofconnected agents. Taking as primitives the observed changes in assets under the managementof prime funds at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the model accounts for 85% of the drop intotal lending and 70% of the increase in price dispersion. I show that the allocation is inefficient.Faced with the same drop in asset under management and taking as given the network of bilat-eral counterparties, a central planner would reduce lending by 9% instead of 14% in equilibrium.Finally, I use the model to examine the effectiveness of the Overnight Repo Repurchase Facility.

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Fecha: 26/05/2022, 11:00

Modalidad: Virtual

Presentador: Juan Felipe Riaño

Autor: Juan Felipe Riaño

This paper provides the first systematic empirical examination of bureaucratic nepotism and anti-nepotism legislation in an entire modern bureaucracy. By linking confidential information on family ties and administrative employer-employee records for the universe of civil servants in Colombia, I uncover three sets of empirical findings. First, using a novel methodology of family network reconstruction, I provide evidence of the pervasiveness of close family connections in the public administration and demonstrate its negative relationship with the performance of public sector agencies. Second, by further exploiting within-bureaucrat variation in family connections generated by the turnover of top non-elected bureaucrats, I show that family connections to public sector managers and advisors distort the allocation and compensation of workers at lower levels of the hierarchy. Connected bureaucrats receive higher salaries and are more likely to be hierarchically promoted but are negatively selected in terms of public sector experience, education, and records of misconduct. Third, I evaluate an anti-nepotism legislation reform by exploiting a sharp discontinuity in the set of family connections restricted by this law. I prove the limited effectiveness of this reform and show how bureaucrats strategically responded to this policy change by substituting margins of favoritism and reshuffling posts within the public administration. Acerca del presentador: Juan Felipe Riaño is an Applied Microeconomist with research interests spanning the fields of Political Economy, Development Economics, and Economic History. He holds a Bachelor's and Masters' degree in Economics from Universidad de los Andes, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada. His current research agenda focuses on understanding the determinants of state capacity in developing countries and the long-term impact of conflict and historical institutions on economic development. More recently, he has been interested in the Organizational Economics of public sector institutions and the role of Cybersecurity in modern states.

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Fecha: 09/06/2022, 14:00

Modalidad: Presencial Auditorio 3 - Pedro Fermín

Presentador: Danila Serra

Autor: Danila Serra

We investigate whether ethics and integrity training can improve values, attitudes and behavior of police officers. We conducted a field experiment in Ghana, where we randomly selected traffic police officers to participate in a training program informed by theoretical work on the role of identity and motivation in organizations. The training was designed to re-activate intrinsic motivations to serve the public, and to create a new shared identity of ``Agent of Change," aimed at inducing a collective shift in attitudes and behaviors. Data generated by a survey and an incentivized cheating game conducted 20 months later, show that the program positively affected officers' values and beliefs regarding on-the-job unethical behavior and improved their attitudes toward citizens. Moreover, the program significantly lowered officers' propensity to behave unethically, as measured by their willingness to cheat in the incentivized game.

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