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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2013‒05‒19
six papers chosen by |
| By: | Jose Rosero (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Although the literature on the effectiveness of child care centers in developing countries is thin, most of the studies have concluded that the provision of these services are beneficial to enhance the development of poor children at early ages. Using different matching techniques, the results in this paper contrast with that conclusion as it finds no support of a positive effect of a large scale child care program in Ecuador on any of the dimensions considered of cognitive development. This paper also provides evidence that the program increased mother's labor force participation and family income but reduced health outcomes of children. The results are in line with the ones found in (Rosero and Oosterbeek, 2011) and support the existence of a trade-off between children development and labor market participation that should be considered at the moment of designing and implementing social policies. |
| Keywords: | Early childhood development, child care centers, propensity score matching, developing country, Ecuador |
| JEL: | J13 I28 H40 O12 |
| Date: | 2012–07–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:2012075&r=lam |
| By: | Paula Herrera (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Enrique López-Bazo (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Elisabet Motellón (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the returns to education taking into consideration the existence of educational mismatches in the formal and informal employment of a developing country. Results show that the returns of surplus, required and deficit years of schooling are different in the two sectors. Moreover, they suggest that these returns vary along the wage distribution, and that the pattern of variation differs for formal and informal workers. In particular, informal workers face not only lower returns to their education, but suffer a second penalty associated with educational mismatches that puts them at a greater disadvantage compare to their formal counterparts. |
| Keywords: | Educational Mismatch; Formal/Informal Employment; Economic Development; Wage Gap. JEL classification: O17; J21; J24. |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:201307&r=lam |
| By: | Imori, Denise; Guilhoto, Joaquim José Martins; Postali, Fernando Antonio Slaibe |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to analyze the technical efficiency of farms in Brazil and its regions, based on the data from the 2006 Census of Agriculture. More specifically, it seeks to compare the technical efficiency of farm households in relation to business farms, considering the regional differences in the country. To do so, one simultaneously estimated, under different assumptions, stochastic production frontiers and inefficiency effects models. Thus, it was possible to measure the technical efficiency of farms, as well as analyze the influence of factors related to the production environment, allowing the indication of public policies aimed at improving the performance of producers. In the empirical estimation, it was observed, as expected, lower technical efficiency for farm households. In regional terms, with respect to the technical efficiency of business farms, the South region of Brazil stood out, also presenting, along with the Midwest region, the highest efficiency rates for farm household, on average. Regarding the influence of production environment, it was found that formal education and access to credit are noteworthy as important factors for the technical efficiency of Brazilian agriculture. |
| Keywords: | Censo agropecuário; Econometria; Economia agropecuária |
| JEL: | C5 Q1 R15 R19 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:46954&r=lam |
| By: | Asongu, Simplice A |
| Abstract: | This seminal paper provides global empirical evidence on catch-up processes in scientific and technical publications. Its purpose is to model the future of scientific knowledge monopoly in order to understand whether the impressive growth experienced by latecomers in the industry has been accompanied by a similar catch-up in scientific capabilities and knowledge contribution. The empirical evidence is based on 41 catch-up panels which together consist of 99 countries. The richness of the dataset allows us to disaggregate countries into fundamental characteristics based on income-levels (high-income, lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income and low-income), legal-origins (English common-law, French civil-law, German civil-law and, Scandinavian civil-law) and, regional proximity (South Asia, Europe & Central Asia, East Asia & the Pacific, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean and, Sub-Saharan Africa). Three main issues are investigated: the presence or not of catch-up processes, the speed of the catch-up processes and, the time needed for full (100%) catch-up. The findings based on absolute and conditional catch-up patterns broadly show that advanced countries will continue to dominate in scientific knowledge contribution. Policy implications are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Research and Development; Catch-up |
| JEL: | F42 O10 O30 O38 O57 |
| Date: | 2013–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:46959&r=lam |
| By: | M. Shahe Emran; Asadul Islam; Forhad Shilpi |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an analysis of potential unequal burden of bribery in schools on poor households in developing countries. The rich are more likely to pay bribes in the standard model where the probability of punishment for bribe taking by a teacher is the same irrespective of income of the household. This model is, however, not appropriate in the context of a developing country lacking in rule of law, where the ability to punish a corrupt teacher depends on a household's economic status. Bribery is likely to be regressive at the extensive margin in this case. The conditions required for progressivity at the intensive margin are also quite stringent. A significant part of the available empirical evidence, however, finds bribes in developing countries to be progressive, thus contradicting the theoretical predictions above. We argue that this conflict may largely be due to the identification challenges arising from ability and preference heterogeneity. Using ten year average rainfall variations as instrument for household income in rural Bangladesh, we find that corruption is doubly regressive: (i) the poor are more likely to pay bribes (income elasticity [-0.73, -1]), and (ii) among the bribe payers, the poor pay a higher share of their income. The IV results for intensive margin are in contrast to the OLS estimate that shows bribes to be increasing with household income, substantiating the worry about spurious progressive effects. The results imply that ‘free schooling' is free only for the rich, and corruption makes the playing field skewed against the poor. |
| Keywords: | Corruption, Bribes, Education, Schools, Inequality, Income Effect, Bargaining Power, Regressive Effects. |
| JEL: | O15 O12 K42 I2 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2013-11&r=lam |
| By: | Guilhoto, Joaquim José Martins; Siroën, Jean-Marc; Yucer, Ayçil |
| Abstract: | WTO, OECD with many others, suggest the trade in value-added would be a “better” measure to understand the impact of trade on employment, growth, production etc. when import content in exports is important. We use in this work an Input-Output table for 2008, to calculate the value-added exported by Brazilian states. We distinguish the value-added exported directly by the state itself or indirectly via other states. First, by using value-added we define the extent of vertical specialization among Brazilian states. Exported value-added are then used in a gravity model to determine the structure of trade in value-added terms. We also define a trilateral gravity structure which permits to control for the vertical specialization between states and to estimate the trade determinants at three steps: origin state, re-exporter state and importer country. |
| Keywords: | Vertical Specialization, Input-Output Analysis, Gravity Model, Brazil, intra-national trade |
| JEL: | F02 F15 R12 R15 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:46897&r=lam |