Fiscal decentralization and economic growth in Colombia: evidence from regional-level panel data

This paper provides evidence for the positive effects of fiscal decentralization on regional economic growth in Colombia since the enactment of the Political Constitution of 1991. The empirical strategy involved choosing a suitable estimator for the panel data approach, the augmented mean group (AMG) estimator, that enabled unobserved determinants suggested by the literature to be added to traditional long-term explanatory factors. The strategy was supplemented with exercises that provided support for the results from (i) cross-sectional models for different periods and various control variables; (ii) a test of the hypothesis of complementarity between public goods provided by different jurisdictions (spillover effects), and (iii) an assessment of unconditional convergence in regional income differences.