Winners of Caf’s Eleventh Annual Reasearch Competition

In the eleventh edition of CAF's anual research competition, the jury decided to award to proposals of the 42 that were received from eleven countries: Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, United States, China, Uruguay, Spain, Sweden, Peru and Venezuela.

•  "Political Constraints and State Capacity: Evidence from a Land Allocation Program in Mexico", by Leopoldo Fergusson (Universidad de los Andes, Department of Economics. Colombia), Horacio Larreguy (Harvard University, Department of Government. USA)  and Juan Felipe Riaño (Universidad de los Andes, Department of Economics. Colombia). A proposal to understand the political constraints in the development of State capacities through an analysis of the regulation for land allocation in Mexico.
• "Endogenous emergence of tax institutions and tax performance in the context of ongoing internal conflict: The case of Colombia" by Jacob Shapiro (Princeton University. USA), Abbey Steele  (Syracuse University. USA)  and Juan F. Vargas (Universidad del Rosario. Colombia). It proposes to analyze the development of State capacities by strengthening tax institutions in a context of internal conflict. 

Innovation and a rigorous methodology for public policies were some of the aspects considered by the evaluating committee, which included James Robinson and Lant Pritchett, from Harvard, Mariano Tommasi (Udesa), and CAF's research team.

Each winning proposal will receive USD 15 thousand for its development and will be presented in a seminar in July.