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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2018‒05‒28
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Camargo, Juliana; Lima, Lycia Silva e; Riva, Flavio Luiz Russo; Souza, André Portela Fernandes de |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the results from the evaluation of the Student Training Scholarship ('Bolsa Formação Estudante'), a public policy that offers scholarships to current and former high school students of the public educational system in Brazil so that they can attend technical and vocational education courses free of charge. We base our analysis on a waiting list randomized controlled trial in four municipalities and use survey and administrative data to quantify the effects of the program on educational investments, labor market outcomes, noncognitive skills and self-reported risky behaviors. Our intention-to-treat estimates suggest substantial gender heterogeneity two years after program completion. Women experienced large gains in labor market outcomes and noncognitive skills. In particular, those who received the offer scored 0.63σ higher on an extraversion indicator, but, surprisingly, reported more frequently that they were involved in argument or fights and binge drinking. We find no effects of the program on the male sub-sample. The findings corroborate the evidence on gender heterogeneity in the literature on technical and vocational education programs, and also extend it to additional dimensions. |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:eesptd:480&r=lam |
| By: | Rodrik, Dani (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | Populism may seem like it has come out of nowhere, but it has been on the rise for a while. I argue that economic history and economic theory both provide ample grounds for anticipating that advanced stages of economic globalization would produce a political backlash. While the backlash may have been predictable, the specific form it took was less so. I distinguish between left-wing and right-wing variants of populism, which differ with respect to the societal cleavages that populist politicians highlight. The first has been predominant in Latin America, and the second in Europe. I argue that these different reactions are related to the relative salience of different types of globalization shocks. |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp17-026&r=lam |
| By: | Ohanian, Lee E. (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis); Restrepo-Echavarria, Paulina (Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis); Wright, Mark L. J. (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis) |
| Abstract: | After World War II, international capital flowed into slow-growing Latin America rather than fast-growing Asia. This is surprising as, everything else equal, fast growth should imply high capital returns. This paper develops a capital flow accounting framework to quantify the role of different factor market distortions in producing these patterns. Surprisingly, we find that distortions in labor markets — rather than domestic or international capital markets — account for the bulk of these flows. Labor market distortions that indirectly depress investment incentives by lowering equilibrium labor supply explain two-thirds of observed flows, while improvement in these distortions over time accounts for much of Asia’s rapid growth. |
| Keywords: | Capital flows; Labor markets; Domestic capital markets; International capital markets |
| JEL: | E21 F21 F41 J20 |
| Date: | 2018–05–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmsr:563&r=lam |