Conflict, Post-Conflict and Capacities of Municipal Governmentsin Colombia, 2002 – 2012

Abstract

This article analyzes the effects of the armed conflict in Colombia over the municipalities’ income and expenditure of investment generation between 2002 and 2012. We use difference in difference methodology to determine changes on local government’s capacities, considering that some municipalities were declared as post-armed-conflict areas and were integrated into consolidation zones of the Territorial Consolidation National Plan (PNCT in Spanish). The analysis let us determine if there are significant differences between the government capacities of those municipalities included in consolidation zones (treatment group) and others that were not included in it (control group). The results indicate that there are no statistically significant differences between these two reference groups.