Looking at the years 1870-2016, this book analyses the reasons behind Colombia’s chronically slow economic growth. As a comparative economic history, it examines why Colombia has seen lower growth rates than countries with similar institutions, culture and colonial origins, such as Argentina in 1870-1914, Mexico in 1930-1980, and Chile from 1982 onwards. While Colombia's history has shown relative macroeconomic stability, it has also shown a limited capacity for integrating into the world economy and embracing technological breakthroughs compared to the rest of the world, including steam, mass production and Information Technology. This volume thus moves away from the long-held view that institutional path dependence is the main determinant of differences in long-run economic growth across countries.

This paper assesses the impact on the poor of the macroeconomic adjustment program undertaken in 1985-86. It finds that program-induced changes in production, employment, and real incomes have benefited the poor, while the adverse impact of program-induced price changes was modest and was largely cushioned by government policies. The paper describes the dimensions of poverty in Colombia, surveys government programs to alleviate poverty, and reviews the factors contributing to the improvement in the income distribution in recent years.

This book analyses the distributional effects of economic growth on different dimensions of poverty in Colombia. It provides a microeconomic perspective on how economic growth affected poverty and inequality at the household level, as well as a macroeconomic perspective on the effects of growth on regional living standards. The study incorporates recent discussions on multidimensional analysis of well-being and goes beyond traditional income based measures, thereby contributing to the ongoing research on how to measure pro-poor growth and on the importance of incorporating different dimensions of well-being in convergence analysis.

The OECD Economic Outlook is the OECD's twice-yearly analysis of the major economic trends and prospects for the next two years. This issue includes a general assessment of the macroeconomic situation, a series of notes on the macroeconomic and structural policy issues related to the COVID-19 outbreak and a chapter summarising developments and providing projections for each individual country.

Examines, through the use of a wide array of statistical data, how Colombia's economic growth during the decade of the 1970s affected the income of its workers.

This Selected Issues paper on Colombia shows that achieving investment grade status would help lower financing costs for the sovereign, and expand the pool of potential buyers of the Colombian economy. Colombia’s debt levels as of end-2008 were broadly similar to the average for investment grade emerging markets, suggesting that other indicators are taken into account in rating agencies’ assessments. A stronger process of fiscal consolidation that results in a significant decline in public sector debt could help compensate the structural weaknesses.

It has been argued that higher levels of inflation lead to greater uncertainty about future inflation and to greater dispersion of relative prices. In either case, inflation could reduce the efficiency of market prices in coordinating economic activities. This paper shows that the rise of inflation in Colombia, from low levels in the 1950s to average rates of 18–22 percent since the 1970s, has been accompanied by increased uncertainty and relative price dispersion; and that inflation has had a negative and persistent effect on real GDP growth.