Winners of CAF's eleventh annual research contest

In the eleventh edition of CAF's annual Research Contest, the jury decided to choose two winning proposals out of 42 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). This is a proposal to understand the political constraints in the development of State capacity through the analysis of the regulation regarding 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). The proposal is to analyze the development of State capacities through the strengthening of tax institutions in a context of internal conflict.

Innovation and a rigorous methodology in 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.