New Economics Papers
on Central and South America
Issue of 2009‒01‒31
three papers chosen by



  1. Diferenciación salarial y condiciones de vida en Bogotá, 1900-1950. By María del Pilar López Uribe
  2. Part-Time Work, Gender and Job Satisfaction: Evidence from a Developing Country By Carmen Pages; Lucia Madrigal; Florencia Lopez Boo
  3. Do Welfare Programs Damage Interpersonal Trust? Experimental Evidence from Representative Samples for Four Latin American Cities By Alberto Chong; Hugo Nopo; Vanessa Rios

  1. By: María del Pilar López Uribe
    Abstract: Bogotá sufrió importantes cambios durante los primeros cincuenta años del siglo XX. La ciudad transformó su economía, su urbanidad y su sociedad y se convirtió en un importante eje de impulso para el desarrollo económico del país. Su población también vivió fuertemente estos cambios, lo que llevó a grandes variaciones en la estructura del mercado laboral y del costo de vida. Este documento describe y analiza los cambios en la diferenciación salarial y en las condiciones de vida en Bogotá para diferentes oficios durante la primera mitad del siglo XX. Se contrastan los salarios nominales con el costo de vida con el fin de ilustrar cómo cambiaron los salarios reales de los distintos sectores económicos. Sumado a esto, se hace una comparación entre los oficios para mostrar cómo evolucionó la desigualdad salarial entre los grupos económicos de la ciudad, cuáles obtuvieron mayor importancia y cuáles se rezagaron económicamente durante este tiempo. Para esto se construyó una base de datos de salarios y de precios con nuevas fuentes, se halló un índice de costo de vida y se calcularon diferenciales salariales, salarios reales y relaciones de bienestar. Al final se demuestra que las diferencias salariales entre oficios no disminuyeron durante este período pero las condiciones de vida de los trabajadores si mejoraron con respecto a lo presentado a comienzos del siglo XX.
    Date: 2008–11–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:005220&r=lam
  2. By: Carmen Pages; Lucia Madrigal; Florencia Lopez Boo
    Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between part-time work and job satisfaction using a recent household survey from Honduras. In contrast to previous work for developed countries, this paper does not find a preference for part-time work among women. Instead, both women and men tend to prefer fulltime work, although the preference for working longer hours is stronger for men. Consistent with an interpretation of working part-time as luxury consumption, the paper finds that partnered women with children, poor women or women working in the informal sector are more likely to prefer full-time work than single women, partnered women without children, non-poor women or women working in the formal sector. These results have important implications for the design of family and child care policies in low-income countries.
    Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Gender, Part-time work, Job Flexibility.
    JEL: C13 J16 J28
    Date: 2009–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:4604&r=lam
  3. By: Alberto Chong; Hugo Nopo; Vanessa Rios
    Abstract: This paper argues that welfare programs are linked with the destruction of social capital, as measured by interpersonal trust in laboratory games. The paper employs experimental data for representative samples of individuals in four Latin American capital cities (Bogota, Lima, Montevideo, and San Jose), finding that participation in welfare programs damage trust. This result is robust to the inclusion of individual risk measures and a broad array of controls. The findings also support the notion that low take-up rates may be due to stigma linked with trust and social capital, rather than transaction costs.
    Keywords: Experiments, Surveys, Social Programs, Trust, Stigma, Latin America
    JEL: D01 O12 O10
    Date: 2009–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:4609&r=lam

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