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on Central and South America |
| By: | Ryan Abman (San Diego State University); Leah Lakdawala (Wake Forest University); Clark Lundberg (San Diego State University and Center for Effective Global Action); Eduardo Nakasone (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) |
| Abstract: | Trade liberalization can increase schooling while reducing what children learn. We study this tension in Peru, where large unilateral tariff reductions between 2007 and 2016 generated substantial local variation in import competition. Combining household surveys with administrative records of test performance, we examine effects on children's schooling, work, learning, and later outcomes. We document a trade-off between schooling quantity and learning quality: greater exposure increased attendance but reduced relative gains in math achievement. This pattern extends from primary into secondary school, where exposed districts saw even larger participation gains, yet the relative math learning gap continued to widen as affected cohorts aged. We trace these effects to countervailing income and substitution channels. Declining protected-sector opportunities lowered the opportunity cost of schooling, while negative income shocks led more children to work while in school and shifted students from private to public schools, where teachers per student fell. In the longer run, affected cohorts were more likely to complete secondary school but shifted away from university and toward technical and professional programs, and by young adulthood were less likely to be employed and earned lower wages. Trade reforms can thus expand school access while weakening skill formation, revealing human-capital costs that enrollment metrics may miss |
| Keywords: | trade liberalization; import competition; human capital; schooling; learning; child labor; Peru |
| JEL: | F16 F13 I21 I25 J22 O15 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:wfuewp:023632 |
| By: | Busso, Matias (Inter American Development Bank); Gonzalez-Velosa, Carolina (Inter American Development Bank); Muñoz-Morales, Juan (IÉSEG School of Management); Ruiz, Juanita (Georgetown University); Valencia, Juan (Inter American Development Bank); van der Werf, Cynthia (Inter American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies whether government-issued skill certification improves labor market integration when workers' skills are hard to verify. We evaluate a randomized offer of access to an occupation-specific certification program in Colombia among locals and migrants, two groups with different ex ante signaling capacity. The program certifies existing skills rather than providing training. Among locals, the offer increases employment by reducing inactivity and raises hours worked. The effects persist unevenly over time and are robust to attrition bounds and alternative outcome measures. Among migrants, estimates are less precise and provide no evidence of effects in employment, hours, or wages. The results show that a common skill certification generates different patterns of labor-market adjustment among locals and migrants. |
| Keywords: | signaling, certifications, skills, migration, Colombia |
| JEL: | J24 J61 J64 I26 O15 D82 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18963 |