ARTICLES IN Journals

Articles published in peer-reviewed journals

Oil revenues, public procurement and armed conflict: A case study of a subnational government in Colombia (The Extractive Industries and Society, 2020)

Abstract: This paper aims at linking the literature on the natural resource curse with the studies on public investment management. It seeks to bridge these bodies of literature through a case study that focuses on the subnational scale and takes into account political economy. The case is an oil-rich Colombian municipality, Arauca. The level of competition in public bidding processes undertaken by the mayoralty of Arauca was muted between 2005 – 2015. Arauca exhibited an extremely high level of single-bidder-ratio (96%) and a very low average number of bids submitted per open tendering process (1.05). The paper explores the factors and processes that contributed to explain this outcome. Qualitative and quantitative data was triangulated to address three aspects of the implementation of investment projects in Arauca: (i) transparency in public management; (ii) integrity in public procurement; and, (iii) the adverse effects of the oil-fuelled armed conflict on local democracy and the municipal procurement processes. The paper reports significant shortcomings in the implementation stage of investment projects in Arauca linked with these three components. After three decades of receiving a windfall of oil revenues, Arauca’s subnational government was not able to develop strong institutional arrangements to invest the revenues from resource extraction.

Keywords: Oil revenues; Subnational resource curse; Public investment management; Procurement process; Armed conflict

Suggested citation: Gutiérrez R., J. D. (2020). Oil revenues, public procurement and armed conflict: A case study of a subnational government in Colombia. The Extractive Industries and Society, 7(2), 686–703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2020.03.018

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**The subnational resource curse: Theory and evidence (The Extractive Industries and Society, 2020), con Osmel Manzano**

Abstract: The “subnational resource curse” refers to the overall negative effects of natural resource wealth in the economy, politics, polity or environment of a subnational area. As the name suggests, the emerging literature that studies this variant of the “natural resource curse” uses subnational units of analysis to examine the processes and effects associated with natural resources (both abundance and dependence of). The literature which examines the characteristics and the causal mechanisms of the subnational resource curse is not conclusive. This special section of The Extractive Industries and Society examines the theory underpinning and empirical evidence in support of the natural resource curse at the subnational level. Specifically, the papers in this special section explore the dynamics of the subnational curse, its potential transmission channels, and policy implications of this phenomenon. The papers profile the impacts of oil and mineral producing areas from different countries across Africa, America, Asia and Europe. They share fresh evidence about the adverse consequences of resource wealth at the subnational level. However, some of the articles also offer more nuanced accounts about the impact of natural resource wealth and evidence that suggests that the effects are shaped by subnational institutional features and contexts.

Keywords: Subnational resource curse; Oil; Minerals; Extractives; Political economy

Suggested citation: Manzano, O., & Gutiérrez R., J. D. (2019). The subnational resource curse: Theory and evidence. The Extractive Industries and Society, 6(2), 261–266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2019.03.010

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**The connection between oil wealth and internal armed conflicts: Exploring the mechanisms of the relationship using a subnational lens (The Extractive Industries and Society, 2019)**

Abstract: Most econometric based studies have found some connection between oil wealth and conflict. But the literature, both quantitative and qualitative-based studies, is less conclusive about the processes that may link the two variables. The main objective of this paper is to contribute to the literature on the oil-conflict relationship through a case study that explores the questions with a subnational lens. The research analyses localised evidence about the channels of transmission by which oil wealth affected the onset and intensity of armed conflict in an oil-producing Colombian municipality, San Vicente de Chucurí. The contribution of the subnational approach is particularly relevant to the literature because civil wars and intra-state armed conflicts, like the current one in Colombia, may present major regional variations that are not attributable to national factors. The central argument of this paper is that San Vicente’s oil wealth and the spill-over effects from the neighbouring oil-producing regions contributes to explain the onset and intensity of the armed conflict in this municipality. Additionally, the paper unveils political processes behind such connection. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected in fieldwork, the paper undertakes a process-tracing analysis covering the period from the early 1960s to 2017.

Keywords: Oil; Resource curse; Internal armed conflict; Armed groups; Colombia

Suggested citation: Gutiérrez Rodríguez, J. D. (2019). The connection between oil wealth and internal armed conflicts: Exploring the mechanisms of the relationship using a subnational lens. The Extractive Industries and Society, 6(2), 319–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2018.10.008

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**Control de concentraciones en Colombia: recientes desarrollos institucionales y de gestión pública (Latin American Law Review, 2018)**

Abstract: This article examines the main institutional and public management developments related to the control of business concentrations in Colombia during the 2013-2017 period. The article identifies and discusses in detail four developments that occurred during the study period, related to: i) international cooperation, ii) institutional stability, iii) transparency of the process, and iv) trends on objection and conditioning decisions. In addition, there are some challenges in the implementation of the control, as well as alternatives that may be relevant for the Colombian context.

Keywords: Institutions; Public Management; competition law; control of integrations; administrative Procedure.

Suggested citation: Gutiérrez R., J. D. (2018). Control de concentraciones en Colombia: Recientes desarrollos institucionales y de gestión pública. Latin American Law Review, 1, 123–148. https://doi.org/10.29263/lar01.2018.05

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**Desarrollo de proveedores locales en el sector extractivo colombiano: cuellos de botella, factores de éxito e implicaciones de política pública (Revista Opera, 2015)**

Abstract: Societies with abundant non-renewable natural resources can transform such natural capital into other types of capital (e.g. human, produced, infrastructure) through different channels. For governments that must manage the wealth of natural resources, the substitution of one type of capital – which is depleted as it is exploited – by other sustainable capitals is a public policy challenge. One of the transformation channels is the creation of productive linkages – «forward» and «backward» – between the extractive sector and other economic sectors. This article has two objectives: i) to identify the main bottlenecks and success factors for the development of national and local suppliers for the Colombian extractive sector and ii) the public policy implications related to the promotion of productive linkages between the mining sectors and hydrocarbons, and other sectors in Colombia.

Suggested citation: Gutiérrez R., J. D. (2015). Desarrollo de proveedores locales en el sector extractivo colombiano: Cuellos de botella, factores de éxito e implicaciones de política pública. Revista Opera, 17, 5–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.18601/16578651.n17.02

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**Smallholders’ agricultural cooperatives in Colombia: ¿vehicles for rural development? (Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, 2014)**

Abstract: This article focuses on assessing whether the main conditions required for smallholders’ agricultural cooperatives to successfully develop are currently met in Colombia. The main objective is to formulate policy implications on how the State may contribute to facilitate that these organizations constitute vehicles for rural development. The article argues that the conditions that facilitate the development of agricultural cooperatives are not adequately achieved in Colombia. Furthermore, it suggests that the State and other external agents may have an important role to play in advancing these conditions. In short, it proposes the formulation of policies that allow the State to exert a facilitating role that aims to “midwife” the formation and development of self-reliant grassroots organizations. This “facilitatory” role would represent a third-way between two previous approaches that have failed in Colombia in the past: the “top-down” interventions on farmer enterprises devised by the State in the 1960s and 1970s and the “hands-off” approach that was indifferent toward the development of smallholder organizations in the 1990s and 2000s.

Keywords: Colombia; rural development; agriculture; peasant economy; agricultural cooperatives; public policies

Suggested citation: Gutiérrez R., J. D. (2014). Smallholders’ Agricultural Cooperatives in Colombia: Vehicles for Rural Development? Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, 73, 219–271. https://doi.org/10.13043/dys.73.6

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**Expert Economic Testimony in Antitrust Cases: A Comparative Law and Economics Study (International Law, 2009)**

Abstract: The purpose of this document is to assess two questions that have a positive and normative nature respectively: 1) What incentives does the legal and institutional framework of the European Community (EC) and the United States (Federal level) provide to the different agents involved in antitrust proceedings in regards to the use of expert economic testimonies? 2) What legal and social norms could provide appropriate incentives to the different agents involved in antitrust proceedings in order to align the use of expert economic testimonies with antitrust enforcement goals? The research questions are assessed from a comparative law and economics approach. The law and economics approach is based upon the Asymmetric Information Theory and Principal-Agent Theory. The document contains five conclusions that may be summarized in the following statement: regarding expert economic testimonies, an antitrust enforcement system must aim at the minimization of its costs through the mitigation of the consequences of asymmetric information between the adjudicator and the expert. A cost-benefit analysis of the use of expert witnesses must take into account the incentives produced by the interaction among the different regulatory and non-regulatory features of the antitrust enforcement system.

Keywords: Antitrust; EC Competition Law; US Federal Antitrust Law; Expert Economic Testimony; Quantitative Methods; Asymmetric Information

Suggested citation: Gutiérrez R., J. D. (2009). Expert Economic Testimony in Antitrust Cases: A Comparative Law and Economics Study. International Law, 14, 221–251.

Disponible para descarga (libre) aquí.

Articles published in other academic journals

Investing for peace? On the use of resource revenues to finance an eventual post-conflict process in Colombia (2015)

Suggested citation: Palacios Ll., A., & Gutiérrez R., J. D. (2015). Una Nueva Visión Sobre los Orígenes del Derecho de la Competencia Colombiano. Revista de Derecho de la Competencia, 11, 137–176.