Abstract
In 1993, the Colombian government undertook a significant health care reform, in which a subsidized health care regime (SR) was created in order to increase coverage among the poorest population. Using data from the 2008 Colombian Living Standards Survey, I estimate the association between SR participation on a set of Foster-Greer-Thorbecke-like measures of food insecurity. Enrollment to the SR is not exogenous due to self-selection, discretionary policies that a affect eligibility, and manipulation of the assignment process due to electoral purposes. Thus, I use the proportion of lifetime the household head has resided in the current municipality as an instrumental variable. Taking the uninsured population as the comparison group, results show that participation in the SR is associated with a reduction of the probability of being food insecure and the food insecurity gap, but does not have any correlation with the severity of food insecurity. These results occur principally in rural areas.
Acerca del expositor
Camilo Bohórquez en candidato a Doctor en Economía Aplicada de la Universidad de Minnesota. Economista y Magíster en Economía de la Universidad de los Andes, Camilo concentra su investigación en política alimentaria, economía agrícola y econometría aplicada. Anteriormente ha trabajado para el Minnesota Population Center, el Banco Mundial y el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo.