|
on Central and South America |
|
Issue of 2016‒07‒09
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Castillo, Mario; Martins, Antonio |
| Abstract: | Defining deindustrialization as a situation of falling share of manufacturing employment and value added in total employment and GDP, respectively, and a rising specialization in primary goods, this paper provides an empirical analysis of the recent (and in some cases historical) path of four Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico), contributing to the debate on the matter of premature deindustrialization. We argue that Argentina, Brazil and Chile face premature deindustrialization, increasing their specialization in commodities, resource-based manufactures and low productivity services, while Mexico urges a deeper analyze of its structure. |
| Keywords: | INDUSTRIALIZACION, REESTRUCTURAMIENTO INDUSTRIAL, PRODUCTIVIDAD DEL TRABAJO, EMPRESAS INDUSTRIALES, ESPECIALIZACION DE LA PRODUCCION, INDUSTRIALIZATION, INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING, LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY, INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES, PRODUCTION SPECIALIZATION |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col026:40241&r=lam |
| By: | Carlos Henrique Corseuil (IPEA); Miguel Foguel (IPEA); Gustavo Gonzaga (Department of Economics, PUC-Rio) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to evaluate the Brazilian Apprenticeship program (Lei do Aprendiz). This program is a youth-targeted ALMP that has been adopted at a large scale since 2000 in Brazil. The program concedes payroll subsidies to firms that hire and train young workers under special temporary contracts aiming to help them successfully complete the transition from school to work. We make use of a very rich longitudinal matched employee-employer dataset covering the universe of formally employed workers in Brazil, including apprentices. Our identification strategy exploits a discontinuity by age in the eligibility to enter the program in the early 2000’s, when 17 was the age limit to take part in the program. We examine the impacts on employability, wage growth and attachment to the formal labor market using other temporary workers as a control group. We find that the program increases the probability of employment in permanent jobs in 2-3- and 4-5-year horizons. We also find a positive impact on real wages that increases over time. These results hold when we isolate the effects of the training dimension of the program by using an alternative control group composed of subsidized temporary workers. We show evidence that the positive effects of the program are much larger for less-educated workers and for workers who had their first jobs in large firms. These results are robust to other choices of methods to address selection into the program based on unobservables. Creation-Date: 2016-04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rio:texdis:651&r=lam |
| By: | Enriqueta Camps; Stanley Engerman |
| Abstract: | In this paper we present results for educational achievement in the different economic regions of Latin America (Big countries: Mexico and Brazil; Southern Cone; Andean countries; Central America; and others) during the twentieth century. The variables we use to measure education are average years of education, literacy, average years in primary school, average years in secondary school, and average years in university. To attain a broader perspective on the relationship of education with human capital and with welfare and wellbeing we relate the educational measures to life expectancy and other human capital variables and GDP per capita. We then use regressions to examine the impact of race and ethnicity on education, and of education on economic growth and levels of GDP per capita. The most significant results we wish to emphasize are related to the importance of race and racial fractionalization in explaining regional differences in educational achievement. Southern Cone countries, with a higher density of white population, present the highest levels of education in average terms, while countries from Central America and Brazil, with a higher proportion of Indigenous Americans and/or blacks, have the lowest levels. In most countries the major improvements in educational achievement are: the expansion of primary education during the first half of the twentieth century, and the expansion of secondary education after 1950. In all cases, average years in university are low, despite improvements in university quality during the last decades of the century when professors exiled during dictatorships returned to their countries of origin. International comparisons (continental averages for years of education weighted by country population size) place twentieth-century Latin America in an intermediate position between the USA and Europe at the top, and countries from Asia and Africa at the bottom. |
| Keywords: | LA, regional educational achievement, welfare, race and ethnicity, economic growth. |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1528&r=lam |
| By: | Diniz, André |
| Abstract: | We use new data on cyclically adjusted primary balances for Latin America and the Caribbean to estimate e ects of scal consolidations on GDP and some of its components. Identi cation is conducted through a doubly-robust estimation procedure that controls for non-randomness in the "treatment assignment" by inverse probability weighting and impulse responses are generated by local projections. Results suggest output contraction by more than one percent on impact, with economy starting to recover from the second year on. Composition e ects indicate that revenue-based adjustments are way more contractionary than expenditure-based ones. Disentangling efects between demand components, we nd consumption being in general less responsive to consolidations than investment, although nonlinearities associated to initial levels of debt and taxation might play an important role. |
| Date: | 2016–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:eesptd:423&r=lam |
| By: | Lopez Garcia, Italo |
| Abstract: | Labor informality accounts for nearly 40% of the labor force in Latin America. While a more traditional view sees this phenomenon as a consequence of barriers to mobility resulting from poorly designed labor regulations, recent work provides evidence that individuals choose informal jobs based on their comparative advantage. In this paper, I develop a dynamic life-cycle model estimated with rich Chilean longitudinal data, in which individuals jointly decide on their schooling and labor participation, to investigate the extent to which comparative advantage drives participation in informal labor markets. I find that human capital accumulation and preferences for job amenities explain up to 72% of transitions between the informal and the formal sector while labor market segmentation accounts for 28%. These barriers to mobility are decreasing in education. These results are largely driven by heterogeneous preferences and returns to skills across sectors. For example, more educated individuals assign a higher relative importance to non-wage benefits, particularly in formal jobs, while less educated individuals value more monetary rewards; high ability workers are more productive in the formal sector, while low ability workers are more productive in the informal sector; and unlike labor market experience acquired in informal activities, experience acquired in formal jobs is transferable across sectors. Finally, using the model to simulate the effects of a 20% wage subsidy in formal jobs for young workers, I find that individuals react to labor market expectations and their decisions are persistent. The subsidy would decrease the incentives to informality for both targeted groups and younger workers, while the reduction in informality rates as a consequence of the policy would remain persistent for all the life-cycle. |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:1087&r=lam |
| By: | Amaral, Ernesto F. L.; Potter, Joseph E. |
| Abstract: | This study aims to investigate the determinants of female sterilization in Brazil. The analysis is innovative because it adds the time of exposure to the risk of sterilization into survival models. The models control for postpartum duration, age at delivery, parity at delivery, place of delivery, region of residence at the time of interview, color/race, and years of schooling at the time of interview. Data is from the 2006 Brazilian National Survey on Demography and Health of Children and Women (PNDS). The strongest probability that sterilization might occur was observed among women who gave birth at private hospitals and received support from health insurance companies at childbirth. The findings suggest years of schooling do not predict the risk of sterilization. The higher chances of getting sterilized among black women are specific to the public sector at higher-order postpartum duration (interval sterilization). |
| Keywords: | contraceptive agents, female, sterilization, reproductive health, Brazil |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:1093&r=lam |
| By: | Dean, Andrés |
| Abstract: | Este documento analiza el programa de seguro de desempleo (SD) en Uruguay y su utilización por parte de las empresas. El SD en ese país se ha constituido en una de las principales políticas del Estado hacia el mercado laboral. A lo largo del estudio se describen las características del programa, la evolución de su cobertura y el perfil de sus beneficiarios, comparando el seguro uruguayo con esquemas vigentes en otros países. El documento también analiza en profundidad los microdatos del programa de seguro de desempleo provenientes de los registros administrativos del Banco de Previsión Social del Uruguay (BPS). |
| Keywords: | DESEMPLEO, SEGURO DE DESEMPLEO, ESTADISTICAS DEL EMPLEO, MERCADO DE TRABAJO, UNEMPLOYMENT, UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE, EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS, LABOUR MARKET |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col032:40240&r=lam |