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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2024‒04‒22
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Luis Laguinge (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP & CONICET); Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP & CONICET); Guido Neidhöfer (ZEW Mannheim & Turkish-German University) |
| Abstract: | Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) have become a key antipoverty policy in Latin America in the last 25 years. The ultimate goal of this kind of programs is to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty through the promotion of human capital accumulation of children in vulnerable households. In this paper, we explore this issue by estimating the long-run effects of the largest CCT in Latin America: the Brazilian Bolsa Familia. Through a combination of the two-stage-two-sample method and a difference-in-differences approach, we find evidence consistent with a positive long-run impact of Bolsa Familia among former beneficiaries. In particular, we find a significant positive effect on education and labor income, and a negative effect on the likelihood of being a current beneficiary of this social transfer. |
| JEL: | D04 I38 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0328&r=lam |
| By: | Esteve, Albert; Castro, Andrés; Becca, Federica |
| Abstract: | This chapter provides an account of the major family transformations that occurred in recent decades across Latin American and Caribbean countries and examines the implications of such transformations for childrens school attendance and progress and womens labor force participation. Latin American and Caribbean families and households have undergone substantial changes in recent years while keeping some of their distinctive features unchanged (Esteve et al., 2022; Esteve & Florez-Paredes, 2018a; Juárez & Gayet, 2014). This combination of stability and change has had profound transformations in the family status in which women raise their children and the family context in which children are raised. We refer to family context as the combination of womens marital status and the type of households in which children reside. We combine references to the literature and own calculations based on Latin American and Caribbean population census samples, available at the Integrated Public-use Microdata Series International (IPUMS) (Minnesota Population Center, 2020). We use data from 25 countries based on the most recent census microdata and, in some instances, historical samples starting in the late 1950s (see Appendix 1). The chapter is organized as follows. First, we document trends in family change and childrens status. To illustrate family change empirically, we focus on women aged 25 to 29 and children aged 7 to 16. For reasons that will be displayed during the paper, these groups offer a reliable overview of major transformations with the advantage of avoiding overlapping cohorts when data are analyzed over time. Variations by educational attainment are also examined to illustrate the role of inequality of opportunities in family change. Second, we focus on the implications of family forms on children's school attendance and progress and women's participation in the labor market. In the absence of tailored indicators about progress in cognitive and non-cognitive skills, school attendance and progress are standard indicators of early human capital accumulation (UNESCO, 2022). We examine these two outcomes among more than 15 million children included in the IPUMS-I census samples. For women, we examine the degree of participation in the labor market (n 16 million). |
| JEL: | J12 J16 I21 |
| Date: | 2023–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13097&r=lam |
| By: | Busso, Matías; Ibáñez, Ana María; Messina, Julián; Quigua, Juliana |
| Abstract: | This chapter examines the redistributive preferences of Latin Americans and investigates the factors that shape them. Using a detailed survey in eight Latin American countries, the study sheds new light on redistributive preferences and explores which aspects of redistribution are more popular and among which groups. The roles of selfinterest, perceptions of inequality, values, and the relationship between citizens and the public sphere in shaping attitudes to redistribution are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Personal Income;Redistributive;Latin American countries;Perceptions of inequality |
| JEL: | D3 D63 D73 H71 H72 |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13183&r=lam |
| By: | Borraz, Fernando; Carozzi, Felipe; Gonzalez Pampillon, Nicolas; Zipitría, Leandro |
| Abstract: | We study how local grocery markets within a city are affected by changes in housing markets. Our empirical strategy exploits a shift in the spatial distribution of construction activity induced by a large-scale, place-based tax exemption in the city of Montevideo. The introduction of new housing stock induced by the policy causes a reduction in grocery prices of 2.3 percent and an increase in locally available product varieties. Using insights from a multiproduct model of imperfect competition and estimates for different types of stores, we show these changes are the result of incumbents' response to an increase in local demand. |
| Keywords: | (JEL L81; O18; R22; R23; R31; R38) |
| JEL: | R31 R23 O18 L81 R22 R38 |
| Date: | 2024–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:119854&r=lam |