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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2021‒03‒22
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Amory Gethin (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, WIL - World Inequality Lab); Marc Morgan (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, WIL - World Inequality Lab) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the transformation of electoral cleavages in Brazil since 1989 using a novel assembly of electoral surveys. Brazilian political history since redemocratization is largely a history of the rise and fall of the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT). We show that the election of Lula da Silva as President in 2002, followed by the implementation of redistributive policies by successive PT governments, was at the origin of the marked socioeconomic cleavages that emerged. In a relatively short space of time the PT transformed itself from a party of the young, highly educated, high-income elite of the Southern party of the country, to a party of the poor and lesser educated voters, increasingly located in the disadvantaged region of the Northeast. Controlling for a host of socio-demographic factors, a voter in the Northeast was 20 percentage points more likely to vote for the PT in 2018 than voters in other regions, compared to being 5 percentage points less likely to do so in 1989. In sharp contrast to other western democracies, political conflict in Brazil has followed an increasingly unidimensional class-based path. This culminated in the unification of elites and large parts of the middle class behind Bolsonaro in the 2018 presidential election. We argue that contextual policy-driven factors and programmatic alliances are key to understand the PT's singular evolution, and thus the transformation of electoral cleavages in Brazil. |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03165718&r=all |
| By: | Bruna Morais Guidetti; Paula Carvalho Pereda, Edson Roberto Severnini |
| Abstract: | When a health shock hits a location, the healthcare infrastructure needs to be adjusted to meet the increased demand. is may be a challenge in developing countries because of limited hospital capacity. In this study, we examine the consequences of health shocks induced by air pollution in a megacity in the developing world: São Paulo, Brazil. Using daily data from 2015-2017, and an instrumental variable approach based on wind speed, we provide evidence that exposure to particulate matter (PM10) causes an increase in pediatric hospitalizations for respiratory diseases, which in turn leads to a decrease in hospital admissions for elective care – phimosis surgery and epilepsy-related procedures such as video-EEG (electroencephalograph) monitoring. Importantly, emergency procedures such as appendectomy and bone fracture repair are not affected. While strained Sao Paulo hospitals seem to absorb the increased demand induced by poor air quality, our results imply that the common practice of using health outcomes unrelated to pollution as “placebo tests'' in studies on the effects of air pollution might be inadequate in settings with limited healthcare infrastructure. This is often the case in developing countries, where severe pollution is also ubiquitous, but also happens in deprived areas in the developed world. |
| Keywords: | Air Pollution; Health Outcomes; Hospitalization for Respiratory Diseases and Other Causes; Healthcare Infrastructure; Hospital Capacity Constraint |
| JEL: | I15 Q53 Q56 O13 |
| Date: | 2021–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2021wpecon05&r=all |
| By: | Guido Neidhöfer (ZEW); Nora Lustig (Tulane University); Mariano Tommasi (Universidad de San Andres) |
| Abstract: | The shock on human capital caused by COVID-19 is likely to have long lasting consequences, especially for children of low-educated families. Applying a counterfactual exercise we project the effects of school closures and other lockdown policies on the intergenerational persistence of education in 17 Latin American countries. First, we retrieve detailed information on school lockdowns and on the policies enacted to support education from home in each country. Then, we use this information to estimate the potential impact of the pandemic on schooling, high school completion, and intergenerational associations. In addition, we account for educational disruptions related to household income shocks. Our findings show that, despite that mitigation policies were able to partly reduce instructional losses in some countries, the educational attainment of the most vulnerable could be seriously affected. In particular, the likelihood of children from low educated families to attain a secondary schooling degree could fall substantially. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, lockdowns, human capital, school closures, intergenerational persistence, education, inequality, Latin America |
| JEL: | I24 I38 J62 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sad:wpaper:148&r=all |
| By: | Kristian López Vargas (Departamento de Economía University of California, Santa Cruz); Alejandro Lugon (Departamento de Economía de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) |
| Abstract: | En agosto de 2017 entró en funcionamiento el Laboratorio de Economía Experimental LEEX-PUCP. El laboratorio mantiene una base de participantes (subject pool) usando ORSEE 3.0 y software de interacción basado en Linux y oTree. En este artículo presentamos los resultados de las primeras sesiones experimentales en LEEX-PUCP. Estas sesiones implementaron cuatro experimentos económicos clásicos: el juego del ultimátum, el juego de bienes públicos lineales, el juego de la confianza y el “concurso de belleza” de Keynes. En general, los resultados obtenidos son consistentes con los patrones de comportamiento en estos juegos hallados en décadas de experimentación, principalmente en Estados Unidos y Europa. Nuestros resultados constituyen una validación del subject pool, el software y los protocolos que se han implementado en el LEEX-PUCP. JEL Classification-JEL: C91 , D63 , D64 , D91 |
| Keywords: | Bien público, Concurso de belleza de Keynes, Economía Experimental, Juego de confianza, Juego de ultimátum |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pcp:pucwps:wp00488&r=all |