| REVISTA DE ECONOMÍA
INSTITUCIONAL No. 4, FIRST SEMESTER 2001
A Conceptual Framework for
Devolving Responsability and Functions from Government to the
Private Sector
Steven Cohen [pdf] [html]
[Key words: privatization, scope of government, private
organizations, JEL: E61, H11, H41]
This document presents a conceptual framework and a method
for deciding whether or not a function that was considered
the responsibility of government should be performed by
public organizations or devolved to private for-profit and
non-profit organizations. This conceptual framework goes
beyond ideology and matches functions to organizational
capacity, in a scheme that needs strategic thinking. The
method requires that government managers resist bias and
simplistic assumptions and answer a number of critical questions
that require for the experience and judgment of decision
makers, as well as for the political and social context
in which the decision takes place.
A Classical Model of
Economic Growth
Homero Cuevas [pdf] [html]
[Key words: economic growth, cycles, endogenous shock,
exogenous shock, JEL: D59, E13, E39]
This essay focuses on the conditions under which spontaneous
growth in a developed economy create inestability, fluctuations
and resources waste in a endogenous manner, in contrast
with the neoclassical theories of economic cycles generated
by exogenous shocks.
Institutional Economics,
Mainstream and Heterodoxy
Óscar Rodríguez Salazar [pdf] [html]
[Key words: economic history, economy of conventions, sociology
economics, JEL: H51, L14, N0]
This article explores different analytical approaches to
institutions in economic theory and history. The first part
shows how mainstream economics embraced this theme and the
influence this new analytical approach had on the New Economic
History. The second part analyzes some heterodox tendencies,
such as the theory of conventions, the school of regulation
and the recent developments of economic sociology related
to the work of Mark Granovetter and Pierre Bordieu. Regarding
history, these developments have found support in the school
of Annales, and the formulations of Marx and postkeynesian
economists.
Criminality, Violence and
Defense, Justice and Security Spending
Francisco González y Carlos Esteban Posada [pdf] [html]
[Key words: defense, justice, security, efficiency, expenditure.
JEL: H53, H56]
This document describes the evolution of defense, justice
and security spending and criminality in Colombia since
1950. It presents some considerations about its efficiency
and analyzes some pertinent indicators. Also it proposes
some policies that the authors believe are useful to increase
efficiency in state activities and organizations that are
designed to provide security, defense and justice to citizens.
Among them are the improvement of the reward assignation
system to private citizens and the reform of codes and penal
procedures.
Fundamental Assumptions
of the Agrarian Reform and its Actual Validity
Álvaro Balcázar [pdf] [html]
[Key words: agrarian reform, redistribution, production
factors, economic equity, JEL: N5, Q1, R0]
This article discusses the belief that redistribution of
land tenure is a fundamental condition for social and economic
development. It reviews the effectiveness of prior public
programs of land redistribution and reviews the following
four assumptions: 1. The traditional factors of production
are the main source of the creation of value and wealth.
2. The redistribution of property of traditional factors
determines distribution of income and social and political
power. 3. To improve democracy, economic equity and social
justice it is necessary to redistribute property of the
traditional means of production. 4. The high cost of land
prevents the development of agricultural production.
|
