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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2023‒09‒18
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Pablo A. Celhay (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile); Emilio Depetris-Chauvin (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile); Cristina Riquelme (University of Maryland) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically studies the impact of massive and sudden school closures following the 2011 nationwide student strike in Chile on teenage pregnancy. We observe a 2.7% average increase in teenage pregnancies in response to temporary high school shutdowns, equating to 1.9 additional pregnancies per school day lost. The effect diminishes three quarters after the strike’s onset. Effects are predominantly driven by first-time mothers and are aligned with higher school absenteeism periods, and are unrelated to typical teenage fertility seasonality or pregnancies of other age groups. The study also reveals a slight increase in the demand for emergency contraception and condoms due to strikes. This suggests that riskier behavior mainly drives effects due to reduced adult supervision. Additionally, we find persistent negative effects on students’ educational trajectories, evidenced by an increase in dropout rates and a reduction in college admission test take-up. |
| Keywords: | Teenage Pregnancy, Risky Behavior, Student Protests, Incapacitation Effect |
| JEL: | J13 I12 I2 |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aoz:wpaper:267&r=lam |
| By: | Dix-Carneiro, Rafael (Duke University); Kovak, Brian K. (Carnegie Mellon University) |
| Abstract: | We survey the recent literature studying the effects of globalization on inequality in Latin America. Our focus is on research emerging from the late 2000s onward, with an emphasis on empirical work considering new mechanisms, studying new dimensions of inequality, and developing new methodologies to capture the many facets of globalization's relationship to inequality. After summarizing both design-based and quantitative work in this area, we propose directions for future work. Our overarching recommendation is that researchers develop unifying frameworks to help synthesize the results of individual studies that focus on distinct aspects of globalization's relationship to inequality. |
| Keywords: | globalization, inequality, Latin America |
| JEL: | F14 F62 F66 J0 O10 |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16363&r=lam |
| By: | Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner (University of Surrey); Livia Menezes (University of Birmingham) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of maternal dengue infections on birth outcomes using linked administrative records from Brazil estimating maternal fixed-effect specifications. In contrast to previous studies, we find robust evidence for the negative effect of dengue infections on birth weight (BW). The effect is particularly pronounced at lower parts of the BW distribution, with an increase of 15%, 67%, and 133% for low, very low, and extremely low BW, respectively. We also document large increases in children's hospitalizations and medical expenditures for up to three years after birth. |
| JEL: | I15 I18 J13 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sur:surrec:0623&r=lam |
| By: | Livia Menezes (University of Birmingham); Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner (University of Surrey) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the causal effect of individual criminal victimisation in robbery and theft on birth outcomes using a unique dataset from Brazil combining information on the universe of victims of crime with vital statistics data. We find that victimisation during pregnancy reduces birth- weight by about 16 grams - 3 percent of a standard deviation in birthweight - and increases the likelihood of low and extremely low birthweight by about 8.5 and 30 percent, respectively, compared to the baseline. The results are robust to the inclusion of place of residence, maternal and time fixed effects and to the inclusion of a very large array of mother and pregnancy characteristics. We also show that victimisation leads to behavioural adjustments of mothers as we observe a reduction in the number of prenatal visits. Effects are stronger for individuals of lower socio-economic background, indicating that victimisation might contribute to the intergenerational transmission of poverty. |
| JEL: | I12 J13 K42 O12 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sur:surrec:0723&r=lam |
| By: | Ravi Kanbur (Cornell University); Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez (King’s College London); Andy Sumner (King’s College London) |
| Abstract: | The decline in global inequality over the last decades has spurred a "sunshine" narrative of falling global inequality that has been rather oversold, in the sense, we argue, it is likely to be temporary. Our work first formalizes the intuition that the fall in global inequality will eventually reverse. We derive the location of the turning point for a specific measure of inequality: the mean log deviation. We make use of a custom-built database of global income to estimate this turning point. We find there is a potentially startling global inequality "boomerang, " possibly in the mid-to-late 2020s, which would have happened even if there were no pandemic, and that the pandemic is likely to bring forward the global inequality boomerang. The scholarly significance of the main finding is that there is a new type of Kuznets curve, where inequality first falls and then rises as middle-income countries grow fast and approach the income levels of rich countries. The policy significance is that interventions to counteract the upward movement in global inequality will require even stronger focus on lowering the within-country inequality component of global inequality. |
| Keywords: | global inequality, inequality boomerang, COVID-19 pandemic |
| JEL: | D31 D63 O15 |
| Date: | 2022–05–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:615&r=lam |