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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2014‒08‒20
fourteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Marta Castilho (Universidade Federal Fluminense - Universidade Federal Fluminense); Marta Menéndez (DIAL - Développement, institutions et analyses de long terme - Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD], UP9 - Université Paris 9, Dauphine - Université Paris IX - Paris Dauphine, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - École normale supérieure [ENS] - Paris - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA)); Aude Sztulman (LEDa - DIAL - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - Equipe Economie de la mondialisation et du développement - Université Paris IX - Paris Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of globalization on household income inequality end poverty using detailed microdata across Brazilian states from 1987 to 2005. Results suggest that the Brazilian states more exposed to tariff cuts experienced smaller reductions in household poverty and inequality. Contrasting results emerge when we disaggregate into rural and uraban areas within states: trade liberalization contributes to growth in poverty and inequality in urban areas and may be linked to evidence indicating that state poverty and inequality in Brazil decrease with rising export exposure and increase with import penetration. |
| Keywords: | Trade Liberalization ; Poverty and inequality ; Latin America ; Brazilian states |
| Date: | 2014–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:gmonwp:halshs-00967356&r=lam |
| By: | Leopoldo Tornarolli (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina) |
| Abstract: | Latin America has historically been considered one of the regions with the highest levels of socio-economic inequalities in the world. All countries in the region are characterised by high levels of inequality as regards the distribution of income, consumption, land, access to education and basic services, as well as other socio-economic variables. This situation has been well documented in several studies, most of them covering just a single Latin American country. However, the lack of reliable and comparable microdata has always been an obstacle to produce analysis at the regional level. Nevertheless, there are some studies which assess the evolution of income distribution in Latin America as a whole by aggregating comparable data from single countries. These studies all reached similar conclusions on the relatively high level of inequality in the region. (?) http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCPolicyRes earchBrief44.pdf |
| Keywords: | The Evolution of Income Distribution inLatin America 2001?2011 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:pbrief:44&r=lam |
| By: | Rodrigo García Ayala; Andrés Estrugo |
| Abstract: | Climate change is imposing a large burden on the most vulnerable populations, particularly in the developing world. Establishing consistent causal relationships, however, is difficult because a multiplicity of climatic, economic and sociodemographic elements are combined to create the conditions for an outbreak of vector-borne disease. Based on a two-step procedure, this paper presents and tests an approach to estimating the effects of epidemic outbreaks on health vulnerability. The model proposed is empirically tested for five countries in Latin America where dengue is a national health priority. Using data from national censuses, satellite climate information and data from a newly developed disease outbreak surveillance online platform, the paper finds that climate has nonnegligible effects on health vulnerability. The evidence found and the vulnerability index constructed can be used to analyze the main determinants of vulnerability in order to address policy concerns. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Human health, Vulnerability, Climate change, Socioeconomic conditions, Vectorborne diseases, Factor analysis |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:85875&r=lam |
| By: | Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (The New School University, New York) |
| Abstract: | Employment Policies in Brazil: History, Scope and Limitations |
| Keywords: | Employment Policies in Brazil: History, Scope and Limitations |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opchin:193&r=lam |
| By: | Darío Tortarolo (CEDLAS-UNLP) |
| Abstract: | In this paper I study the causal relationship between fertility and female labor supply using census data from 14 Latin American countries and the U.S. over the span of three decades (1980, 1990 and 2000). Parental preferences for a gender-balanced family (mixed-sex children) is exploited as a source of exogenous variation in fertility. Although OLS estimates suggest a statistically signicant negative relationship in the 39 censuses used, instrumental variables approach fails to identify a causal eect in most of them. The average eect of moving from a family with two children to more than two is statistically zero for the group of compliers. Considering a pool of married women from Latin America over the span of three decades, a negative causal eect is found. In any case, despite having a highly accurate rst-stage and indirect evidence consistent with the internal validity of the instrument, the analysis of the quality of the instrument reveals a weak explanatory power of sibling sex composition on fertility. The noisy and imprecise IV estimates for Latin America in the second-stage can be attributed to the problem of weak instruments. |
| JEL: | J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0166&r=lam |
| By: | Luis J. Carranza; Angel Melguizo; David Tuesta |
| Abstract: | . |
| Keywords: | defined contributions, matching contributions, pension coverage, pensions |
| JEL: | G23 H55 J32 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbv:wpaper:1232&r=lam |
| By: | Marcelo Neri (FGV, Centre for Social Policies - IBRE and EPGE); Fabio Monteiro Vaz (IPEA); Pedro Herculano Guimarães Ferreira de Souza (IPEA) |
| Keywords: | The Macroeconomic Effects of Government Transfers: a Social Accounting Matrix Approach |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:oparab:244&r=lam |
| By: | Maria Eugenia Bonilla-Chacin; Luis T Marcano Vazquez; Ricardo Sierra; Ursula Aldana |
| Abstract: | To raise awareness among policymakers and health practitioners about unhealthy diets, this document examines dietary patterns in selected Latin American countries using household surveys. The analysis shows that a large percentage of households in the countries examined have inadequate diets. Not only are calorie intakes higher than recommended to maintain a healthy weight, but the diets are also rich in fats, particularly saturated fats, sugars and sodium, and poor in fruits and vegetables. These unhealthy diets are present in both rural and urban areas and in households at different income levels. These dietary patterns are likely to increase the risks for developing non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, certain types of cancer, and diabetes mellitus. These diseases are increasingly representing the main causes of death and disability in Latin America, and thus there is an urgent need to increase efforts to promote healthy diets. There are cost-effective interventions that have proven to improve diets, particularly to reduce sodium and trans fat intake, and there are promising examples in the region of the implementation of some of these cost-effective interventions. In addition, given the harmful effects of these dietary patterns, it is important to monitor the prevalence of unhealthy diets across different population groups as well as the intermediate risks factors linked to these diets, such as overweight and obesity, high blood pressure, and high fasting glucose in the blood. This will require better information than what is currently available and information that is comparable across time. |
| Keywords: | adolescents, Aging, Agriculture, animal fats, animal protein, ascorbic acid, baked goods, beef, beverages, bottles, bran, bread, breakfast cereals, breastfeeding, butter Ca, caffeine, Calcium, caloric intake, Calorie Intake, canned foods, Carbohydrate, carbohydrates, cardiovascular diseases, cheese, child malnutrition, chronic malnutrition, COMMUNICABLE DISEASES, complex carbohydrates, Consumption Quintiles, consumption threshold, cost-effectiveness, cream, daily calories, daily expenditure on food, dairies, dairy, demand for food, diabetes, diet, dietary changes, Dietary Fiber, dietary habits, DIETARY PATTERNS, dietary Sugars, diets, disability adjusted life years, eggs, fats, Folic acid, food availability, food components, food composition, food consumption, food expenditures, food industry, food intake, food preparation, food service, Food supply, foods, Fruit, fruits, grains, health care, health status, high blood pressure, Household Budget, household income, Human Development, Hypertension, ice, income distribution, Income growth, income inequality, income quintile, injuries, intervention, iron, iron deficiency, labeling, leisure time, lipids, liquor, living conditions, Living Standards, low birth weight, maize, margarine, marketing, meal, meat, meats, micronutrients, milk, Minerals, Non-Alcoholic Beverages, nutrient, Nutrition, nutrition surveys, nuts, obesity, pasta, per capita consumption, physical activity, poorer households, Potassium, potatoes, poverty incidence, Pregnant Women, prepared foods, processed foods, Protein, proteins, regional study, restaurants, Rice, Risk Factors, Rural Areas, school health, snacks, sodium, soft drinks, starches, sub-region, Sucrose, Sugar, sugars, supermarkets, sweeteners, tubers, vegetable oils, vegetable proteins, vegetables, violence, Vitamin, Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, vitamins, weight gain |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:hnpdps:80559&r=lam |
| By: | Calero, Carla (Inter-American Development Bank); Corseuil, Carlos Henrique (Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA), Brazil); Gonzales, Veronica (Inter-American Development Bank); Kluve, Jochen (Humboldt University Berlin, RWI); Soares, Yuri (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides findings of a small-scale, innovative labor training program that uses expressive arts and theatre as a pedagogical tool. The corresponding life skills training component is combined with a technical component teaching vocational skills. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of a training program constructed around expressive arts. Using a randomized assignment of favela youth into program and control groups, we look at the short-run treatment effects on a comprehensive set of outcomes including employment and earnings as well as measures of personality traits and risk behavior. We find positive short-run employment and earnings impacts five months after the program finalized; no impacts are found for shorter periods. These short-run impacts are economically very large, compared to those typically found in the literature: a 33.3 per cent increase in the probability of being employed, and a 23.6 per cent increase in earnings. We find no evidence of significant program impacts on other outcomes, including personality-related traits, providing evidence that these traits may not be malleable for young adults in the short-run. We argue that the estimated labor market impacts are due to a combination of both skills formation and signaling of higher quality workers to employers. |
| Keywords: | labor market training, youths, randomized controlled trial, life skills |
| JEL: | J24 J68 I38 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8210&r=lam |
| By: | Bruno De Conti (University of Campinas, Brazil) |
| Abstract: | Peripheral countries usually encounter significant economic problems as a result of external factors. Brazil is an example, since its economy has always been extremely affected by international crises. The external debt crisis of the 1980s and the ?financial globalisation? crisis in the 1990s all caused private capital to suddenly stop flowing into Brazil, demanding restrictive domestic policies and resulting in low economic dynamism and growing unemployment. (?) http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager2 53.pdf |
| Keywords: | Brazil: Strengthening Resilience through an Innovative Income-led Strategy |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opager:253&r=lam |
| By: | Sandra García Jaramillo; Darío Maldonado Carrizosa; Catherine Rodríguez Orgales |
| Abstract: | Con el propósito de promover su discusión en el marco de los Debates Presidenciales de 2014, Fedesarrollo lideró la elaboración de varios documentos con propuestas de política pública en áreas críticas para el desarrollo económico y social del país. Una prioridad fundamental en este contexto es el mejoramiento de la calidad de la educación preescolar, básica y media. Los resultados de las pruebas PISA y Saber demuestran que los estudiantes en Colombia no están adquiriendo las herramientas necesarias que les permitan integrarse de manera productiva a un mundo cada vez más globalizado. Adicionalmente, contrario a lo que debe suceder en una sociedad con igualdad de oportunidades, hay inequidades importantes que dependen del lugar de nacimiento del individuo, el estrato socioeconómico de su familia y la naturaleza de la institución educativa a la que asiste. Es necesario mejorar la calidad de la educación para todos los niños y jóvenes para aumentar de manera significativa el logro educativo, reducir las inequidades y promover la movilidad social. Con el apoyo de la Fundación Compartir, Sandra García, Darío Maldonado y Catherine Rodríguez plantean en este documento propuestas concretas para abordar el tema de una manera integral y a la vez realista. Como dicen los autores, únicamente dando una educación de alta calidad a su población podrá Colombia alcanzar niveles de crecimiento económico altos y sostenibles, que aseguren la reducción de la pobreza y la desigualdad, y sienten las bases para una sociedad en paz. |
| Keywords: | Educación; Calidad de la educación; Política educativa; Educación preescolar; Educación básica; Educación Media; Pruebas PISA; Pruebas Saber |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2014–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000439:011566&r=lam |
| By: | Ana María Ibáñez Londoño; Juan Carlos Muñoz Mora; Philip Verwimp |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the importance of the risk of violence on the decision making of rural households, using a unique panel data set for Colombian coffee-growers. We identify two channels. First, we examine the direct impact of conflict on agricultural production through the change in the percentage of the farm allocated to coffee. Second, we explore how conflict generates incentives to substitute from legal agricultural production to illegal crops. Following Dercon and Christiaensen (2011), we develop a dynamic consumption model where economic risk and the risk of violence are explicitly included. Theoretical results are tested using a parametric and semi-parametric approach. We find a significant negative effect of the risk of violence and the presence of illegal crops on the decision to continue coffee production and on the percentage of the farm allocated to coffee. Results are robust after controlling for endogeneity bias and after relaxing the normality assumption. |
| Keywords: | selection model, armed conflict, and agricultural production |
| JEL: | C21 C34 D13 D74 |
| Date: | 2013–08–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:011465&r=lam |
| By: | Marta Rubio-Codina; Orazio P. Attanasio; Costas Meghir; Natalia Varela; Sally Grantham-McGregor |
| Abstract: | We study the socio-economic gradient of child development on a representative sample of low- and middle-income children aged 6-42 months in Bogota, using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, a high quality test based on direct observation of the child's abilities. We find a statistically significant difference between children in the 90th and 10th percentile of the wealth distribution in our sample of 0.33 standard deviations (SD) in cognition, 0.29 SD in receptive language and 0.38 SD in expressive language at 14 months. The socio-economic gap increases substantially with age to 1 SD (cognition), 0.80 SD (receptive language) and 0.69 SD (expressive language) by 42 months. While the gap persists after controlling for mediating factors such as parental and biomedical characteristics, the level of stimulation in the home, and the quality of the institutional care setting; its size is significantly reduced by variables related to the home environment i.e. parental investments in care quantity and quality. These findings have important implications for the design of well-targeted, effective and timely interventions that promote early childhood development. |
| Keywords: | Child development, Cognitive development, Poverty, Nutrition, Women, Colombia, Socio-Economic Gradient, Early Childhood Development |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:85594&r=lam |
| By: | Roberto Steiner; Alex Cañas |
| Abstract: | Este trabajo analiza qué tan equitativos son los impuestos más importantes en términos de recaudo para el Gobierno Nacional, el Impuesto al Valor Agregado (IVA) y el impuesto sobre la renta. En el caso del IVA, se estudian los efectos de la estructura tributaria sobre la distribución del ingreso a partir de técnicas no paramétricas. En el impuesto sobre la renta, divido entre personas jurídicas y naturales, se destaca el papel jugado por los beneficios tributarios sobre el recaudo y la equidad. Se encuentra que la estructura del IVA es regresiva, que el impuesto sobre la renta sobre las personas jurídicas exhibe fuertes inequidades horizontales y que el impuesto sobre la renta de las personas naturales es ligeramente progresivo por efecto de los beneficios tributarios. |
| Keywords: | Tributación, Distribución del Ingreso, IVA, Impuesto sobre la Renta, Modelos No Paramétricos. |
| JEL: | H21 H22 H23 H24 H25 |
| Date: | 2013–05–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:011453&r=lam |