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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2023‒02‒27
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Estefanía Galván (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía); Cecilia Parada (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía); Martina Querejeta (Universidad de la República (Uruguay)); Soledad Salvador (Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios sobre el Desarrollo, Uruguay) |
| Abstract: | Gender equality in the labor market remains a difficult challenge in Latin America and recent literature shows that child penalties play an important role in explaining these gaps. While policies to address gaps related to parenthood were introduced in recent decades, evidence of its effects is still scarce. This paper presents comparable evidence on the adoption of family legislation in 15 Latin American countries and discusses its relationship with the evolution of the gender labor gaps and the prevailing gender norms. We document that from 2000 to 2019 almost all countries increased the weeks covered by family leaves. Following a similar approach to that of Olivetti and Petrongolo (2017), exploiting the variations over time and controlling for country and year-fixed effects, we find that the extension of maternity and paternity leaves has a positive effect on female employment and contributes to reduce employment gaps, in particular in those countries which departed from a worse situation in terms of family policies coverage and which have more traditional perceptions of gender roles. On the other hand, our results suggest that in countries with more gender egalitarian perceptions, the extension of family leaves contributes to reduce the income gaps. |
| Keywords: | J13, J16, H53 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-13-22&r=lam |
| By: | Campos Vázquez, Raymundo Miguel |
| Abstract: | The tax system is one of the main instruments used by the State to finance the provision of public goods and services. In the tax system, there are preferential treatments that seek to promote economic activity or support certain sectors. The public revenues forgone by these preferential treatments are known as tax expenditures. The volume of tax expenditures in Latin America is considerable. On average, they were equivalent to 3.8% of GDP and accounted for 20.6% of tax revenues in 2020. Given the need to promote a transformative recovery and finance the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, methodologies for quantifying tax expenditures in order to assess their efficiency, effectiveness and equity must be improved. This paper analyses reports on tax expenditures in countries of the region in order to provide a guide for estimating their costs. Based on the best practices identified in these reports, it proposes a set of elements to be taken into account for estimating, analysing and reporting on tax expenditures, with emphasis on the features of the most complete reports. |
| Keywords: | POLITICA FISCAL, TRIBUTACION, GASTOS PUBLICOS, MEDICION, DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE, FISCAL POLICY, TAXATION, PUBLIC EXPENDITURES, MEASUREMENT, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT |
| Date: | 2022–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col022:48526&r=lam |
| By: | Ajzenman, Nicolas (McGill University); Ferman, Bruno (Sao Paulo School of Economics); Sant’Anna, Pedro C. (Sao Paulo School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the results of an experiment designed to identify discrimination in users' following behavior on Twitter. Specifically, we created fictitious bot accounts that resembled humans and claimed to be PhD students in economics. The accounts differed in three characteristics: gender (male or female), race (Black or White), and university affiliation (top- or lower-ranked). The bot accounts randomly followed Twitter users who form part of the #EconTwitter academic community. We measured how many follow-backs each account obtained after a given period. Twitter users from this community were 12% more likely to follow accounts of White students compared to those of Black students; 21% more likely to follow accounts of students from top-ranked, prestigious universities compared to accounts of lower-ranked institutions; and 25% more likely to follow female compared to male students. The racial gap persisted even among students from top-ranked institutions, suggesting that Twitter users racially discriminate even in the presence of a signal that could be interpreted as indicative of high academic potential. Notably, we find that Black male students from top-ranked universities receive no more follow-backs than White male students from relatively lower-ranked institutions. |
| Keywords: | gender, economics profession, discrimination, race, social media |
| JEL: | J15 J16 A11 C93 I23 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15878&r=lam |
| By: | Helo Sarmiento, Juliana; Pirelo-Ríos, Ana; Muñoz-Mora, Juan Carlos |
| Abstract: | Climate change is a major threat to agricultural productivity in developing countries. In this paper, we explore the unintended environmental effects of an adaptation policy that conditioned credit programs for the renewal of coffee crops on the use of pest-resistant varieties. We use the case of the Colombian coffee sector, which was severely affected by extreme rainfall events and pest proliferation from 2010–2011. In response, the National Federation of Coffee Growers (NFCG) changed its policy to protect farmers from future weather shocks by conditioning renewal credits to the use of pest-resistant seeds. We exploit the timing of the policy and a novel data set that includes coffee farms’ productive characteristics matched with satellite tree cover data to analyze its environmental effect. We find that conditioning renewal credits on a seed change decrease tree cover in treated coffee growers by 390 m2. If we extend this result to all treated farms in our sample, the total loss increases to 1, 031 (10.31 million m2). We calculate that this average loss in tree coverage on treated farms translates into a release of 61, 912 tons of carbon. |
| Keywords: | Agricultura, Cambio climático, Desarrollo rural, |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblwop:2004&r=lam |
| By: | Mr. Gonzalo Salinas; Yuri Zamora; Carlos Chavez |
| Abstract: | We analyze the recent evolution of ethnic economic inequality in Peru, a major source of social discontent in the country. Household survey data indicates that recent decades of high output growth also witnessed a substantial narrowing of socioeconomic gaps among ethnicities. Most notably, the Mestizo ethnic group surpassed the White group in income per capita, and Native American also experienced a relative improvement. Mincerian regression analysis suggests that the main contributors to these developments were rural-to-urban migration and increased education. Based on our statistical findings, we propose enhancing education and other public services, increasing government revenues, lowering informality, and promoting competition as the main public policies that could accelerate the ongoing narrowing of ethnic gaps. |
| Keywords: | Income Inequality; Informal Economy; Poverty; Welfare.; household survey data; labor income; Earnings function; gaps narrow; regression analysis; Income; Income distribution; Public employment; East Asia; Caribbean |
| Date: | 2022–09–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2022/180&r=lam |