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on Central and South America |
| By: | Matias Busso; Sebastián Montaño; Juan S. Muñoz-Morales; Nolan G. Pope |
| Abstract: | Teacher quality is a key factor in improving student academic achievement. As such, educational policymakers strive to design systems to hire the most effective teachers. This paper examines the effects of a national policy reform in Colombia that established a merit-based teacher-hiring system intended to enhance teacher quality and improve student learning. Implemented in 2005 for all public schools, the policy ties teacher-hiring decisions to candidates’ performance on an exam evaluating subject-specific knowledge and teaching aptitude. The implementation of the policy led to many experienced contract teachers being replaced by high exam-performing novice teachers. We find that though the policy sharply increased pre-college test scores of teachers, it also decreased the overall stock of teacher experience and led to sharp decreases in students’ exam performance and educational attainment. Using a difference-in-differences strategy to compare the outcomes of students from public and private schools over two decades, we show that the hiring reform decreased students’ performance on high school exit exams by 8 percent of a standard deviation, and reduced the likelihood that students enroll in and graduate from college by more than 10 percent. The results underscore that relying exclusively on specific ex ante measures of teacher quality to screen candidates, particularly at the expense of teacher experience, may unintentionally reduce students’ learning gains. |
| JEL: | I25 I28 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33008 |
| By: | Barrios-Fernandez, Andres (Universidad de los Andes); Neilson, Christopher A. (Princeton University); Zimmerman, Seth D. (Yale School of Management) |
| Abstract: | Do elite colleges help talented students join the social elite, or help incumbent elites retain their positions? We combine intergenerationally-linked data from Chile with a regression discontinuity design to show that, looking across generations, elite colleges do both. Lower-status individuals who gain admission to elite college programs transform their children's social environment. Children become more likely to attend high-status private schools and colleges, and to live near and befriend high-status peers. In contrast, academic achievement is unaffected. Simulations combining descriptive and quasi-experimental findings show that elite colleges tighten the link between social and human capital while decreasing intergenerational social mobility. |
| Keywords: | elite universities, intergenerational mobility, human capital, social capital |
| JEL: | I24 D64 J62 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17252 |
| By: | Naspolini, Giovanna; Libra, Jesse Madden; Cunial, Santiago; Pérez Urdiales, María |
| Abstract: | Water is not only vital for human life but also is a critical economic input. Climate change will likely exacerbate conflicts over the multiple uses of water in Latin America. Adopting a south-south perspective approach, this study compares direct water requirement patterns over time among Brazil, Colombia, and Costa Rica, applying an environmental-extended Structural Decomposition Analysis between 2013 and 2017. While all countries experienced increased water consumption during the period, Brazils and Colombias results suggest gains in water productivity at the national level and for Agriculture. Results also indicate that Exports are the main water consumption driver of Agriculture in Brazil and Costa Rica. The Water and sanitation sector in Colombia experienced a decrease in direct water requirements, which is illustrated by a strong negative intensity effect. In contrast, an expressive positive intensity effect in Costa Rica resulted from a sectoral GDP fall. The findings of this study offer support to sectoral climate adaptation plans in all countries as well as water conservation and sustainable development policies. |
| Keywords: | water;Sanitation;environment;Development;Water footprint;input-output tables |
| JEL: | Q25 Q56 R15 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13733 |
| By: | Busso, Matias (Inter-American Development Bank); Montaño, Sebastián (University of Maryland); Muñoz-Morales, Juan S. (IÉSEG School of Management) |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal data of college graduates in Colombia, we estimate labor market returns to postsecondary degrees and to various skills—including literacy, numeracy, foreign language, and field-specific skills. Graduates of academic programs and schools of higher reputation obtain higher earnings relative to vocational public programs. A one standard deviation increase in each skill predicts average earnings increases of one to three percent. Returns vary along the earnings distribution, with tenure, with the degree of job specialization, and by gender. Our results imply that degrees and skills capture different human capital components that are rewarded differently in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | returns to skills, returns to education, numeracy, literacy, foreign language, field-specific, Colombia |
| JEL: | I20 I24 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17283 |
| By: | Bautista, Maria Angélica (University of Chicago); Galán, Juan Sebastián (Universidad de los Andes); Robinson, James A. (University of Chicago); Torres, Rafael (University of Chicago); Torvik, Ragnar (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | Political leaders make policy choices which are often hard to explain via institutions. We use the behavior of Colombian paramilitary groups as an environment to study non-institutional sources of variation in how public good provision and violence are combined to control populations. We hypothesize that a significant source of variation stems from the social preferences of the paramilitary commanders. Reciprocators adopt a strategy of offering public goods in exchange for support, but also use violence to punish those who do not reciprocate back. Reciprocity, developed via childhood socialization, is a characteristic of rural “peasants”. We develop a model which generates these hypotheses and test them using a unique dataset compiled from transitional justice documents. |
| Keywords: | Leader Behavior; Public Goods; Violence; Socialization. |
| JEL: | D70 D90 H42 P00 |
| Date: | 2024–09–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:021198 |