El conflicto y la tradición letrada republicana que en Antioquia no concurrieron sino hasta finales del siglo XIX, permitieron que se diera un debate letrado en el marco del cual la novela sirvió como un arma simbólica propia de esta contradicción. El anverso de este argumento nos dice entonces que ni la sociedad letrada autoreferencial, ni los conflictos son condiciones que tienen per se la capacidad de dar origen a la novela. Como el primer conflicto que se dio dentro de la ciudad letrada republicana fue el de la construcción de la nación no sólo en Antioquia sino en toda Latinoamérica, la novela y nación quedaron asociados en sus orígenes en una relación simbiótica: la nación suponía el conflicto que la novelas reflejaban y las novelas le daban una dimensión a la nación cuando enunciaban las partes que entraban en contradicción. Pero en la Antioquia finisecular, existía además del conflicto propiamente nacional desatado tras el proyecto de la Regeneración que buscaba restarle poder a la región, un conflicto local en el cual los valores y sujetos sociales por cien años vigentes se ponían en cuestión. Y en esta doble contestación la novela inicial definió su carácter: regionalista hacia el exterior y contra hegemónica hacia el interior. Pero el acceso a este debate letrado, en el que Carrasquilla participó por medio de sus novelas y especialmente por medio de Frutos de mi tierra, exigía el seguimiento de unas reglas que iban más allá del hecho de saber leer y escribir. Además del simple alfabetismo exigía demostrar una alineación con el sistema de pensamiento europeo y con las reglas formales del buen decir que los criollos sistematizaron en manuales y códigos, o exigía, al menos, tal como lo hizo nuestro autor, el conocimiento y la capacidad para controvertirlos y poder dialogar con ellos. De todas maneras, y pese a que fue una minoría de antioqueños los que como Carrasquilla pudieron participar en este debate letrado, fueron ellos los que al canalizar sus conflictos en el debate letrado y no en la guerra permitieron hablar de una modernidad potenciada en el marco de la cual tuvo su origen la novela regional.

The need for sustainable agricultural production is generally accepted, and it is increasingly investigated. However, although much has been written about the socio?economic causes of problems with sustainability and the policies needed to overcome them, this has generally been from the viewpoint of the farmer and/or government (FAO, 1991). There has been no assessment of sustainability problems and needs from of the perspective of the marketing system. What is the optimal match between marketing system and sustainability in agriculture ? This study is a first attempt to consider the question of sustainability of agricultural systems from a marketing system perspective. A stable commercial relationship between farmer and enterprise may be an economic incentive for investments in the productive natural resource. Aim To elucidate the contribution of different marketing arrangements on the sustainability of production systems under different conditioning environments. The performance of certain marketing systems may be driven to obtain sustainable effects on the farmer's use of resources. Research A conceptual framework is proposed. Different methods are used to assess and validate the stated hypotheses. Firstly, a positive model approach relates sustainability to physical (e.g. land slope), personal (e.g. attitudes), economic (e.g. income), and institutional (e.g. marketing) factors. Secondly, a normative model approach includes sustainability, but also other goals such as profitability, risk avoidance, and income distribution. The simulation optimizes multiple objectives under different marketing scenarios. Preliminary findings confirm that farmers more integrated to the market are adopters of sustainable technology. Conversely, farmers facing market imperfections do not make an appropriate use of the land. Market imperfections such as transport and communications handicaps, high interests of commercial loans, or ambiguity of input and output prices, can result in sub-optiomal managements of the natural resource. 

Los documentos de transporte marítimo son pieza fundamental en las relaciones contractuales que surgen entre las partes intervinientes en este tipo de contrato. Si bien estos documentos pueden cumplir varias funciones tales como: 1. Ser prueba del contrato de transporte. 2. Ser títulos representativos de mercaderías. 3. Servir de evidencia de la entrega de los bienes al transportador y del estado de los mismos; este trabajo se centra en la última función señalada y en identificar en que variaría un posible escenario de pérdida o avería de mercancía dependiendo del tipo de documento de transporte utilizado. La intención de este escrito es estudiar el verdadero alcance que esta función cumple en los distintos documentos de transporte que se usan en el comercio marítimo y revisar, como las partes dependiendo de sus intereses, pueden reducir o amplificar dicha función.

Active portfolio management aims to deliver superior returns through using an extensive analysis of securities in order to identify mispriced stocks and estimate alphas. Moreover, an active strategy relies on the capability of the active manager to transform his/her forecasting skills into an active portfolio. This thesis assesses the effects of investment constraints in the ex ante capabilities of an active manager to construct portfolios through the fundamental law of active management, and provides evidence on the efficiency loss of the manager in presence of such constraints through a Monte Carlo simulation. 

In Colombia the petrol supply sector lags well behind other sectors such as electricity supply, ports, and motorways, in undertaking an open policy. However, freeing the petrol supply market is considered necessary in order to release the state from the economic burden that it would otherwise have. This situation is particularly true in the oil industry, which is one of the most capital-intensive businesses. This thesis assesses the petrol supply chain in Colombia identifying the key driving factors, the companies involved and the challenges they are facing in the light of world and regional trends. In this way, a comparative assessment of the Colombian Oil Company (Ecopetrol) is undertaken looking at how other state-owned companies such as the Venezuelan, Brazilian, Mexican and the Argentinian are tackling similar problems. In addition, the thesis will assess what is the best trade off between importing and/or refining for supplying petrol to Colombia regarding three different schemes under three different scenarios of demand. The analysis considers environmental, institutional, technical and economic issues; the latter is assessed using a Linear Programming (LP) model. The paper concludes that the Colombian government should elaborate a white paper to restructure Ecopetrol. Administratively, the chairman should be appointed for a fixed period of time with the provide it with autonomy for selecting its most convenient business strategy. Ecopetrol should be opened up to both international competition and foreign partnership in order to compete in the global market. This would involve improving its competitiveness, pursuing international standards of efficiency and using benchmarking targets for its planning and development. In addition, the government and Ecopetrol should separate their accountancy; thus, subsidies for middle distillates consumed by low income groups should be funded through the national budget and not charged to Ecopetrol. Similarly, the government must commit to a policy of not withdrawing economic resources from Ecopetrol to finance independent projects. After undertaking this first series of measures, the next step should be setting a legal and stable framework for the capitalization and opening of Ecopetrol. In this way Ecopetrol should be listed in the stock exchange market both in the country and abroad initially offering a minority stake of its shares in the search for fresh capital, should reduce its political dependency and form strategic alliances to scale up its businesses and improve its efficiency.

Since the 70s when cocaine consumption first took off in the US, this country has been fighting in Latin America the supply-side ‘war on drugs’ which was placed mainly in Colombia since the 90s, the only country in the region that has an additional component to the drugs problem, guerrillas and paramilitaries, both who use the drug trade to fuel a protracted conflict. The US fashioned under Clinton’s administration the controversial anti-drug strategy known as 'Plan Colombia' a policy that made Colombia the 3rd largest recipient of military aid in the world after Israel and Egypt until the Afghanistan and Iraq era; however after 9/11 the strategy took a different course from a war against drugs to a war against terrorism, significantly increasing the military counter-insurgency component of Plan Colombia, deepening the US dependence in the country and isolating it from the rest of Latin America. The results after 40 decades of US investment and intervention are questionable since the policies have proven to be a failure as they have not reached the expected results and have worsened the problems they tried to tackle. In a nutshell, the US anti-narcotics policy in Latin America has been a failure since after 40 decades and billions of dollars invested, it has not helped to curb production, trafficking and demand; but it has undermined the democracy and triggered conflict in countries where drugs are produced; the case of Colombia exemplifies this ‘war system’ where the ‘war on drugs’ shifted to ‘war on terrorism’ under the framework of the US strategy.

Does Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) have a positive effect on economic growth in recipient countries? The debate about the positive impact of FDI on economic growth remains open, and therefore the formulation of economic policy in developing regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean is still a dilemma between to adopting policies that support economic openness or implementing policies aimed at promoting the protection of domestic markets. However, in recent years Latin America has been leaning towards policies that promote FDI inflows so as to stimulate market growth and to increase the competitiveness in different branches of economic activity. From this argument, the following thesis investigates the impact of FDI on the growth of Latin American developing economies by presenting an econometric analysis through the application of an OLS pooled panel data analysis for 19 Latin American countries between 1980 and 2010. The result of the research aims to test the hypothesis that establishes a positive relation between FDI inflows and economic growth. To do so, the relation FDI-growth is examined by the use of different control variables related with macroeconomic stability, trade openness, political stability, per capita GDP, and secondary schooling. The results of this research reveal a positive effect of FDI on the economic growth rate of the countries taken in the sample of the study.

This dissertation explores the analytical status of “hybrid” material transformations that flourish in the indigenous communities of Vichada, Colombia, in relation to the concept of culture. It suggests that these indigenous people live in a culturally intermittent reality as a result of the appropriation of the concept of cultura imposed from the outside world. However, their approach to materiality as becoming rather than being reveals a strategy of creation and recreation of value and identity through the production of meaningful connections in a changing environment, achieved through action, and more specifically by means of the act of making.

This paper appraises quantitatively the efficiency of public expenditure of 15 Latin American countries using cross-country data for averages between 2000 to 2009. For this purpose two non-parametric methods are used: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Free Disposal Hull (FDH). Selected output indicators in primary and secondary school are evaluated respect to public spending in education per student. As a study case, Colombia´s efficiency scores are compared with the most efficient peers in each of the educational levels to identify best practices and achieve better results.

This dissertation aims to make an evaluation of the relationship between development and climate change mitigation policies within developmental states, specifically a comparison between China and Brazil. Developmental states are those countries focused on obtaining economic growth through developmentally driven policies. Traditionally, climate change mitigation and environmental protection have been seen as obstacles to development. However, as climate change is a global issue which requires domestic response, countries are required to act locally in order to mitigate carbon emissions into the atmosphere and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. Developing countries, such as China and Brazil, are heavily dependent on carbon consumption to promote development and economic growth. For this reason, international pressure has been focused on these countries to reduce CO2 emissions, threatening their future development. Furthermore, it examines Brazil and China’s climate policies in light of developmental state guidance. So far what has been found is that climate policies have been relevant to the same extent as they contribute to economic growth and social development. China has envisioned the clean energy industry as a business opportunity capable of generating new jobs and exporting technology. Interests mainly focused on other issues independent to those of climate variability mitigation. Brazil, on the other hand, has relied on the promotion of biofuels as an alternative industry to the use of oil. By adopting ethanol and biodiesel as substitutes for fossil fuels, the government has been able to promote the country’s economic development and position itself as the world’s main producer. Similar to China, mitigation actions are generally implemented as long as there are other interests involved. Furthermore, when there is conflict of interests with environmental policies in both countries, they have acted as developmental states, prioritising development over policies of climate mitigation.Adrian Leftwich’s developmental state model was published in the early 1990s, to further address Chalmers Johnson’s interpretation of the Japanese economic miracle. Nonetheless, Leftwich’s characterisation of developmental states was thought to define a model exclusive to the Asia-Pacific region. This dissertation will apply Leftwich’s model, by adapting it to contemporary China and Brazil, two countries deliberately excluded from the developmental state model, but who now days represent the political context that Leftwich had in mind. In addition, the developmental state model allows a broader interpretation to the current policies implemented by the above mentioned countries, specifically on climate change related issues.