Revista de Economía Institucional

Editorial

Revista de Economía Institucional — 2025-09-01

Interim Measures in Competition Policy: Risk and Incentives in the Colombian Public Sector

Juan Pablo Herrera Saavedra — 2025-09-01

This paper examines why Colombia’s competition authority rarely uses interim measures, despite their preventive role. Using a threshold model under uncertainty, it incorporates perceived risks faced by public officials—disciplinary, fiscal, and reputational. The analysis shows that inaction is a rational response under personal risk aversion, and that effective reform must address both legal design and institutional incentives.

Public Debt: Aspects of Economic and Political History

Mauricio Avella Gómez — 2025-09-01

This article explores the historical evolution of public debt in major developed economies and its role in shaping the modern state. By analyzing episodes of accumulation and consolidation, it identifies key fiscal, political, and military drivers. The text also engages with current debates on debt sustainability, austerity, and the institutional dimensions of sovereign borrowing.

Law and Macroeconomics: Listokin’s Proposal Analyzed from the Perspective of John Commons

Agustín R. Vázquez García — 2025-09-01

This article analyzes Yair Listokin’s proposal to use law as an instrument of macroeconomic policy, assessing it through the lens of John R. Commons’s theory of reasonable value—a central figure in original American institutionalism. Listokin’s approach emerges in response to the inefficacy of traditional fiscal and monetary policies under conditions of secular stagnation. The authors warn that this perspective may foster legal despotism by subordinating law to exclusively economic criteria, particularly in the execution of megaprojects. It is argued that such a shift erodes the public purpose and plural distribution of sovereignty advocated by Commons.

Neoclassical Foundations of Protectionist Policies

Martín Esteban Seoane Salazar — 2025-09-01

This article examines the neoclassical foundations that justify protectionist policies in international trade, despite the theoretical dominance of free trade. Through a systematic review, it identifies models that —under specific conditions— either recommend (normative approach) or explain (positive approach) protectionism. It demonstrates that these arguments, structured into four normative cases (externalities, market power, domestic distortions, and redistributive inefficiency) and a theory of political economy, are theoretically sound and empirically relevant. The conclusion questions the exclusive association between neoclassicism and liberalism, highlighting the approach’s capacity to analyze protectionist realities.

The Social State Without Welfare: Judicialization of Social Rights in the Absence of a Redistributive Regime in Colombia

María Luisa Rodríguez Peñaranda — 2025-09-01

This article examines Colombia’s model of the social rule of law, arguing that in the absence of a strong welfare regime, access to social rights has become fragmented and symbolic through judicialization. Drawing on Esping-Andersen’s models, it shows that Colombia follows a residual logic, with the judiciary acting as a subsidiary provider of the social wage. A new social pact grounded in solidarity, universality, and shared responsibility among State, market, and family is proposed.

Cryptoassets regulation: beyond a eficiency problem

Constanza Blanco Barón — 2025-09-01

The fourth industrial revolution has entered with force in the provision of financial services, which have traditionally restricted by regulated financial institutions. Thus, today the public has access to several modalities of digital species, such as technologies, products, processes, exchanges, enterprises and forms of payment that had not previously been considered by the regulation. The objective of this article is to examine the way in which financial regulators in different jurisdictions have addressed in a dissimilar way needs and challenges when it comes to assuming the implications of technological innovations, which are of the economic and political order, but mainly that have effects on the formation of legal norms.

The scope of social capital in building civic responsibility: a comparative study between Bogotá and Medellín, Colombia

Manuel Fernando Cabrera Jiménez — 2025-09-01

The objective of this article is to analyze the scope of social capital in the generation of civility in the cities of Medellin and Bogota from a comparative study, considering social capital as a relevant factor in social and economic relations, affecting its development. For this, official data on social capital measurements in 1997, 2005, 2011, 2017 are analyzed, in methodological terms, which is performed a descriptive type research with quantitative analysis, from linear regression technique, identifying in the results disparities between the generation and use of social capital in the two cities, observing divergence between them, as well as against the national panorama, a phenomenon that obeys to endogenous historical-cultural causes of the territories that shape the recognition and valuation of social capital as an incident agent.

Health System Financing in Colombia: Analysis of Sources and Uses

Clark Granger — 2025-09-01

This study analyzes the financing mechanisms of Colombia’s healthcare system between 2011 and 2022, distinguishing fiscal, parafiscal, and private sources, and their allocation to the contributory and subsidized regimes. It highlights the predominance of insurance spending (80% of total expenditures) and the growing reliance on fiscal funding in response to challenges such as informality, non-UPC spending, the COVID-19 pandemic, and Venezuelan migration. The study also examines institutional changes (FOSYGA–ADRES), the effects of the Statutory Health Law, and the fiscal impact of the Punto Final Agreement on the system’s sustainability.

The story with an end: The role of reading for leisure in the reduction of asymmetries in academic performance

José Manuel Sánchez Martínez — 2025-09-01

This study examines the impact of reading habits on student performance in Colombia. Using micro-level data from the Saber 11 test and linear regressions, the results show that access to books at home and reading two or more hours daily are positively associated with higher scores. Public school students generally score lower than private school peers, though those who read extensively can outperform them. However, neither books nor reading time fully closes the urban–rural gap.

Assessment of Public Debt Sustainability in Peru through the Fiscal Reaction Function (1999–2030)

Juan Carlos Perez Ticse — 2025-09-01

This study assesses the sustainability of Peru’s public debt using quarterly data from 1999 to 2021 and projections up to 2030. The analysis applies the fiscal reaction function through VAR and SVAR models. It identifies key macroeconomic variables affecting the primary fiscal balance as a share of GDP, with a significant influence from the domestic debt interest rate and the export price index. Simulations show that although some variables have short-term effects, fiscal stability tends to consolidate over the medium and long term. The fiscal reaction function is confirmed as a valuable tool for evaluating public debt sustainability in dynamic contexts.

Comparative Analysis of the Impact of Cultural and Creative Industries on GDP and Employment: A Case Study of Germany and Spain

Flor Marleny Gómez Reyes — 2025-09-01

This study presents a comparative analysis of the cultural and creative industries in Spain and Germany, examining them in terms of knowledge, innovation, and intellectual property, as well as the implications of their clusters for regional growth in both countries. For this analysis, descriptive statistics are used to examine economic and employment indicators, analyzing data from various sources, including official national and regional statistics. The results indicate that both industries contribute significantly to economic growth in terms of GDP and employment. In addition, the study provides recommendations for using these clusters to promote economic growth and social cohesion.