Vol 18, No 38 (2015)

This document measures the synchronization between the stabilization policy and the Colombian business cycle during the period March 1990 – June 2013. A classical methodology is used for the cycle construction and a reference cycle is constructed parting from three individual cycles of three real economic activity indicators. With the end of measuring the synchronization between the business cycle and the fiscal and monetary policy, the Harding and Pagan statistical analysis (2006) is used. It is concluded that for the period of time studied the stabilization policies tend to be pro-cyclic (for the fiscal case) and counter-cyclic (for the monetary case). This phenomenon is known in literature as when it rains, it pours and it is common to see in economies such as the Colombian.

 This paper evaluates what has been the role of the monetary policy decisions taken by the Central Bank during the financial instability processes that Colombia has gone through during 1996 – 2012. According to the fact analysis, the 1999 crisis questioned the role of the central bank, which defended a counter-cyclic posture that was not strong enough to lead the economic recovery. The 2008 crisis found a stronger stand­ing Central Bank, even though it answered late to the emerging processes regarding financial fragility. With the use of econometric studies it was proven that a contractive monetary policy can accelerate a financial crisis when the measure is implemented in moments when the financial stress is too high.

 The main objective of this paper is to describe the rural and urban households of the Cauca department in Colombia. The idea is to classify the households according to their typology and household life cycle in order to establish their relation with the minimum levels of expenditure on basic goods, this means with the ones that define the critical poverty thresholds. For this end, the 2011 Quality of Life survey is used as well as multifactorial variance analysis. The results show that the most common type of household for both rural and urban areas is the nuclear type of household with children, showing usually a minimal basic expenditure on food, housing and health. Education and transportation present higher consump-tion levels at urban households.

With the presence of hydroelectric settlements in their territory, the municipalities of the eastern and northeastern regions of Antioquia have seen their fiscal and territorial structure affected despite the regulatory compensation established for the electric sector. This article analyses the taxation effects gener­ated by the compensation of property taxes. To do so, different sums received by different municipalities from generating companies are analyzed and an empiric tax analysis is done for both types of territories (with and without hydroelectric settlements). This is how the taxation differential is determined. It is also concluded that, besides the influence of transfers for compensating the loss of the natural capital of the hydroelectric basins, the expansion of the electric sector generates taxation digressivety due to the privileges and exemptions conceived by the law

 This paper analyses the causal relation between knowledge management and technological innovation capacities and the effect of this relation over the operational results of the textile sector for the city of Medellin. In order to value the current state of the organizations in the sector in terms of knowledge ac­cumulation and capacities, a dynamic system methodology with scenario simulation for evaluating the actual conditions was used. The information was obtained through interviews with experts and access­ing specialized information on the sector. It is evidenced that an improvement in the relation between knowledge management and technological innovation generates and approximated increase of 15% over the operational revenue of the sector. Likewise, it was found that in the measure that common variables of interest (organizational strategies, communication channels, training, culture, actions for improving I + D) get closer to the desired values, the knowledge accumulation and the technical innovation capacities reach their goal values.

The goal of this paper is to analyze governance basis of the Science, Technology and Innovation district in Medellin, Colombia through a literature review and the integration of unpublished works done by the authors in order to illustrate key aspects of the administration of this new institutional arrangement. Results show that the District´s governance is based on the understanding of territorial dynamics and trends, the integra­tion of interests between the management agents and Science, Technology and Innovation management

The main objective of this paper is to present opinions that must be bared in mind when hiring ser­vices from logistics operators. The evidence presented in this paper was obtained from information gathered from surveys, interviews, case studies, polls, and literature reviews. The main conclusion shows that contractual clarity is key during the upsurge of a new business model that can drive the development of the country. Businesses must see the hiring of logistics services as a strategic op­portunity as well as listing all the possible situations that can arise in order to include in the contract a course of action to be followed.