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Regional Problems and Policies in Latin America pp 197–223Cite as

Regional Inequalities and Regional Policies in Colombia: The Experience of the Last Two Decades

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Part of the book series: Advances in Spatial Science ((ADVSPATIAL))

Abstract

Colombia has one of the worst income distributions in the world. This finding is a matter of concern since abundant empirical evidence at the international level shows a negative relationship between economic growth and inequality (Deininger and Squire 1996; Alesina and Rodrick 1994; Bertola 1993; Engermann and Sokoloff 2002). In Colombia large differences in the distribution of income have become worrisome. For the last three decades inequality has increased and the most impoverished areas, such as the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, continue to lag behind. What is observed in the Colombian context is an increasing territorial polarization. Moreover, several key economic policies seem to have worsened the situation of economic imbalances in this respect.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This section is based on the paper by Galvis and Meisel (2009). Parts of it are reproduced here with permission from the editor of the journal Foreign Affairs- Latinoamérica.

  2. 2.

    The infrastructure was built mainly with the resources obtained as an indemnity from the loss of Panama and with other resources coming from credits from US investors (Ramírez 1999).

  3. 3.

    Calculations based on National Department of Statistics, DANE.

  4. 4.

    Calculations were made until 2000, the latest date for which data is published for per capita income by CEGA.

  5. 5.

    The UBN index is the percentage of households with deficiencies in at least one of the following characteristics: (1) quality of housing (2) public utilities (3) crowding (4) school attendance (5) dependency ratio.

  6. 6.

    The Pacific coast is the sum of the departments of Chocó, Nariño and Cauca, together with the municipality of Buenaventura.

  7. 7.

    Poverty rates are measured as the percentage of population with unmet basic needs, UBN, (NBI for its Spanish acronym).

  8. 8.

    Both correlation coefficients are statistically significant even at 1 %, using Bonferroni-adjusted significance levels.

  9. 9.

    This is not always the case, as documented by Dalgaard and Vastrup (2001).

  10. 10.

    The T2-statistic is expressed as \( {T}_2=\left(N-2.5\right)* ln\left[1+\frac{1}{4}{\frac{\left(\sigma \frac{2}{1}-\sigma \frac{2}{T}\right)}{\sigma \frac{2}{1}\sigma \frac{2}{T}-\sigma \frac{2}{1T}}}^2\right] \), where σ 1T is the covariance between per capita income at time 1 and time T.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Estudios Económicos Regionales -CEER-, Banco de la República, Cartagena, Colombia

    Luis Armando Galvis & Adolfo Meisel

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  1. Luis Armando Galvis
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  2. Adolfo Meisel
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Correspondence to Luis Armando Galvis .

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  1. Economia Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Alcalá de Henares - Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Juan R. Cuadrado-Roura

  2. Universidad Adolfo Ibánez, Vina del Mar, Chile

    Patricio Aroca

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Galvis, L.A., Meisel, A. (2013). Regional Inequalities and Regional Policies in Colombia: The Experience of the Last Two Decades. In: Cuadrado-Roura, J., Aroca, P. (eds) Regional Problems and Policies in Latin America. Advances in Spatial Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39674-8_9

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