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on Central and South America |
| By: | Rivero, Rosario (Universidad Diego Portales); Sánchez, Rafael (CUNEF, Madrid); Valencia, Edgar (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile); Rojas, Maria Eugenia (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso) |
| Abstract: | Research on teacher preparation programs (TPPs) continues to debate whether program quality meaningfully influences teacher effectiveness. Evidence from the United States often reports substantial program-level variation, but the external validity of these findings for other contexts remains uncertain. Using national administrative records and value-added models, this study examines the contribution of TPPs to student achievement in Chile. Results show that TPPs account for only about 5% of the variance in student outcomes. Rather than reflecting uniformly strong preparation, this limited variation reveals a paradox: programs appear remarkably similar, yet convergence reflects alignment around a mid-level standard rather than excellence. Interpreted through the theoretical lenses of teacher learning trajectories, accountability, and equity-oriented preparation, the findings suggest that regulatory reforms may yield uniformity without quality. This study contributes new empirical evidence from Latin America and advances theory by identifying institutional convergence and bounded instructional learning as mechanisms linking accountability reforms to teacher effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | teacher preparation programs, teacher education, teacher learning, institutional isomorphism, Latin America, Chile |
| JEL: | I20 I28 I29 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18505 |
| By: | Mr. Alberto Behar |
| Abstract: | Skilled wage premia in Latin American countries have continued declining, albeit more slowly and unevenly. Is the decline driven by demand or supply? This paper proposes a novel adaptation to the demand-supply decomposition framework by incorporating directed technical change (DTC), specifically supply-induced skill-biased technical change that acts to increase the wage premium. DTC counters the traditional substitution effect through which higher education wage attainment reduces the skill premium. Therefore, DTC makes adjusted inferred demand changes less skill biased than the standard framework’s traditional inferred demand changes. We apply the framework to ten Latin American countries over three periods, namely the length of the sample, the period between maximum wage premia and 2015, and since 2015. In our baseline results, DTC is quantitatively significant while the substitution effects remain important. Traditional demand shifts were skill biased over the length of the sample including since 2015 but our novel adjusted demand shifts were skill neutral. During the period between maximum premia and 2015, unadjusted demand shifts were skill-neutral and adjusted demand shifts favored unskilled workers. Equivalently, sizeable DTC effects imply wages would have fallen significantly faster in the absence of DTC. For an alternative elasticity of 1.25, DTC effects are smaller, supply effects are bigger, and adjustments to demand effects are smaller. For alternative supply measures, the results are relatively robust. |
| Keywords: | Skill-biased technical change; directed technical change; elasticity of substitution; schooling premium; wage premium; wage inequality. |
| Date: | 2026–03–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2026/054 |
| By: | Berlinski, Samuel (Inter-American Development Bank); Giannola, Michele (University of Naples Federico II, CSEF and the Institute for Fiscal Studies); Toppeta, Alessandro (SOFI, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | We study the relative effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and interaction of family- and school -based learning interventions using a randomized controlled trial in Colombia that assigns children to a parental engagement program, a teacher professional development program, both, or a control group. Both interventions are grounded in a child-centered learning approach that emphasizes active engagement and the progression from informal to formal mathematical understanding. Each intervention independently generates sizable and statistically similar gains in early numeracy (0.17σ and 0.20σ). Combining them produces no additional learning gains, suggesting that the two interventions act as substitutes over the time horizon and skill domain we study. When benefits accruing to future cohorts are taken into account, the teacher development program becomes at least as cost-effective as, and potentially more cost-effective than, the parental engagement intervention. Our results suggest that, in this setting, strategically concentrating resources on a single binding constraint – either at home or in school – maximizes the short-run learning gains per dollar spent. |
| Keywords: | numeracy, childhood development, teacher development, parental engagement, randomized control trial, Colombia |
| JEL: | I21 I25 O15 J13 C93 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18485 |
| By: | Guarín, Angela (Universidad de los Andes); Ham Gonzalez, Andres (Universidad de los Andes) |
| Abstract: | This article provides evidence on the economic consequences of union dissolution, divorce, and the breakup of cohabiting unions, using three waves of a nationally representative longitudinal survey. We estimate individual fixed‑effects models with region‑specific time trends and conduct a battery of robustness checks to address selection. Results show no average change in household resources, but sharp gender and spatial asymmetries. After separation, men’s per‑capita household income rises by about 40 percent, while women’s falls by 20 percent in urban areas and nearly 45 percent in rural ones. Two mechanisms explain the gap: (i) household size contracts for men but not for women because children remain with mothers, and (ii) urban women partly offset losses through greater transfers and a 14 percentage point rise in employment, options largely unavailable to rural women. By separately identifying marriage and cohabitation break‑ups in a middle‑income country with limited safety nets, this study extends the literature on the consequences of union dissolution and highlights policy levers, child‑support enforcement, cash transfers, and childcare access, needed to mitigate post‑separation poverty, especially for rural mothers. |
| Keywords: | divorce, separation, union dissolution, Colombia, panel data |
| JEL: | D10 J12 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18506 |