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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2020‒02‒24
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Leaver,Clare; Lemos,Renata Freitas; Dillenburg Scur,Daniela |
| Abstract: | Why do some students learn more in some schools than others? One consideration receiving growing attention is school management. To study this, researchers need to be able to measure school management accurately and cheaply at scale, and also explain any observed relationship between school management and student learning. This paper introduces a new approach to measurement using existing public data, and applies it to build a management index covering 15,000 schools across 65 countries, and another index covering nearly all public schools in Brazil. Both indices show a strong, positive relationship between school management and student learning. The paper then develops a simple model that formalizes the intuition that strong management practices might be driving learning gains via incentive and selection effects among teachers, students and parents. The paper shows that the predictions of this model hold in public data for Latin America, and draws out implications for policy. |
| Keywords: | Economics of Education,Education Finance,Educational Sciences,Effective Schools and Teachers,Educational Institutions&Facilities,Public Sector Administrative and Civil Service Reform,De Facto Governments,Democratic Government,Administrative&Civil Service Reform,Public Sector Administrative&Civil Service Reform |
| Date: | 2019–11–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9053&r=all |
| By: | Antonio David; Samuel Pienknagura; Jorge Roldos |
| Abstract: | Labor markets in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are characterized by high levels of informality and relatively rigid regulation. This paper shows that these two features are related and together make the speed of adjustment of employment to shocks slower, especially when regulations are tightly enforced. Evidence suggests that strict labor market regulations also have an adverse effect on medium-term growth. While both regulations on prices (minimum wages) and quantities (employment protection) decrease the speed of adjustment to shocks, they appear to be binding in different phases of the cycle—the former affects mostly the (net) job creation margin and the latter the (net) job destruction margin. The results also highlight possible interactions between labor market regulations and the effectiveness of macro-stabilization tools—including exchange rate depreciation. |
| Date: | 2020–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:20/19&r=all |
| By: | Lavalleja, Martín; Scalese, Federico |
| Abstract: | El presente documento tiene como objetivo sistematizar y cuantificar los incentivos y apoyos públicos que el gobierno otorga al sector productivo en Uruguay, siendo clasificados y analizados por área y sector de actividad. Para ello, se relevan todos los programas y reglamentaciones vigentes en el año 2017. Entre estos instrumentos de apoyo al sector productivo se cuentan las exoneraciones fiscales y de aportes patronales, la devolución de tributos a la exportación, la protección arancelaria, los subsidios, los créditos preferenciales, los programas e incentivos a la capacitación, entre otros. A su vez, algunos de estos instrumentos implican la movilización directa de recursos presupuestales, mientras que otros tienen una naturaleza diferente. En este trabajo se analizan los dos tipos de instrumentos de manera integrada, considerando que los recursos involucrados en las exoneraciones de impuestos al sector productivo se corresponden con el gasto tributario generado a partir de cada exoneración determinada. |
| Date: | 2020–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col032:45107&r=all |
| By: | Jorge Restrepo |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the strategy and data of Blanchard and Perotti (BP) to identify fiscal shocks and estimate fiscal multipliers for the United States. With these results, it computes the cumulative multiplier of Ramey and Zubairy (2018), now common in the literature. It finds that, contrary to the peak and through multipliers reported by BP, the cumulative tax multiplier is much larger than the cumulative spending one. Hence, the conclusions depend on the definition of multiplier. This methodology is also used to estimate the effects of fiscal shocks on economic activity in eight Latin American countries. The results suggest that the fiscal multipliers vary significantly across countries, and in some cases multipliers are larger than previously estimated. |
| Date: | 2020–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:20/17&r=all |
| By: | Lavalleja, Martín; Tenenbaum, Victoria |
| Abstract: | El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los mecanismos de focalización utilizados por los Programas de Transferencias Condicionadas (PTC) en Uruguay y la región. Con este propósito se realiza una sistematización de los PTC de América Latina y el Caribe, profundizando en la información sobre su población destinataria, el mecanismo de selección de beneficiarios, los criterios utilizados para la actualización de su información socioeconómica y los principales resultados de sus evaluaciones. |
| Date: | 2020–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col032:45105&r=all |
| By: | Egger Eva-Maria |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence suggests that the social effects of internal migration may be substantially different from those associated with the arrival of international migrants.In this paper, I provide the first evidence of the effect of internal migration on crime with longitudinal data from Brazilian microregiões.Using local labour demand shocks in the manufacturing sector as an instrument for migratory flows, I find that a 10 per cent increase in the in-migration rate translates into a 6 per cent increase in the homicide rate in destinations.Exploring possible channels, I do not find that crime-prone migrants drive the results. The effect is only significant in locations with high past crime rates, indicating crime inertia, and in places with a small informal sector, suggesting that the impact of internal migration is conditioned by the ability of local labour markets to accommodate migrants. |
| Keywords: | Crime,Internal migration,Brazil |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2019-112&r=all |
| By: | Colacce, Maira; Zurbrigg, Julieta |
| Abstract: | El gasto público social se distribuye siguiendo diferentes pautas, que pueden ser explícitas o no. Las personas de diferentes características (sexo, edad, zona de residencia, nivel socioeconómico, entre otras) se apropian en diferentes proporciones del gasto. Por lo tanto, resulta fundamental analizar si la apropiación del gasto se corresponde con la matriz de riesgo de la población. En este trabajo se evalúa la distribución territorial del gasto público social en Uruguay entre 2006 y 2015, utilizando como unidad territorial los departamentos. |
| Date: | 2020–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col032:45106&r=all |
| By: | Behrman Jere |
| Abstract: | Parental human capital and endowments may affect children’s human capital, which in turn may affect children’s earning and occupations and thus affect social mobility.This paper focuses on what we know about these possible links in low- and middle-income countries. It starts with definitions of human capital and endowments and simple frameworks for guiding the summary of what we know and do not know about these links in low- and middle-income countries.It discusses determinants of children’s human capital in the form of cognitive skills, socioemotional skills and health, which pertain directly to some indicators of social mobility; reviews estimates of the impacts of these forms of human capital, which pertain to some other indicators of social mobility, such as incomes and earnings; and concludes with a summary suggesting some positive impacts of parental human capital and endowments on social mobility in low- and middle-income countries and a discussion of gaps in the literature pertaining to both data and methodology. |
| Keywords: | Human capital,Emotional skills,Cognitive ability,Social mobility,Social skills,Health |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2019-85&r=all |