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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2006‒09‒30
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Leandro Prados de la Escosura; Isabel Sanz Villarroya |
| Abstract: | Argentina has slipped from being among the ten richest countries in the world by the eve of World War I to its current position close to developing countries. Why did Argentina fall behind? In this paper we employ a structural model to investigate the extent to which contract enforcement, as captured by Clague, Keefer, Knack, and Olson’s “Contract Intensive Money”, conditioned broad capital accumulation and economic growth in Argentina and, consequently, the country’s relative international position. Our results suggest that poor contract enforcement played a major role in Argentina’s unique experience of long-run economic decline. |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:wp06-06&r=lam |
| By: | Pedro Cavalcanti Gomes Ferreira (EPGE/FGV); Samuel de Abreu Pessôa (EPGE/FGV); Fernando A. Veloso |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:epgewp:620&r=lam |
| By: | Orazio Attanasio (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London); Emla Fitzsimons (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Ana Gomez; Diana Lopez; Costas Meghir (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London); Alice Mesnard (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | The paper studies the effects of Familias en Acción, a conditional cash transfer programme implemented in rural areas in Colombia in 2002, on school enrolment and child labour. Using a quasi-experimental approach, our methodology makes use of an interesting feature of the data, which allows us to identify anticipation effects. Our results show that the programme increased school participation of 14 to 17 year old children quite substantially, by between 5 and 7 percentage points, and had lower, but non-negligible effects on enrolment of younger children of between around 1.5 and 2.5 percentage points. In terms of work, the effects are generally largest for younger children whose participation in domestic work decreased by around 10 to 12 percentage points after the programme but whose participation in income-generating work remained largely unaffected by the programme. We also find evidence of school and work time not being fully substitutable, suggesting that some, but not all, of the increased time at school may be drawn from children’s leisure time. |
| JEL: | I28 I38 J22 O15 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:06/13&r=lam |