Suchergebnisse

After half a century of sustained growth, female labor force participation has
decelerated in Latin America, especially among married vulnerable women. Based on a
large database of microdata from household surveys, this paper documents this recent
deceleration and provides evidence on the determinants. We argue that the fast economic
growth experienced by the region in the 2000s was an important driving force: lower
unemployment and higher earnings of male partners plus increased social assistance may
have reduced the pressing need for vulnerable women to take low-quality jobs.
JEL Codes: J2, J1

Este trabajo evalúa el impacto de la implementación del Servicio de Atención Médica de Emergencias (SAME) en la provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina, sobre las muertes por accidentes viales. A partir de información mensual de accidentes de tránsito de los 135 municipios de la provincia para los años 2016, 2017 y 2018, se explota la variabilidad en el momento de implementación entre los municipios y el hecho de que algunos nunca adoptaron el servicio para identificar el efecto promedio de la intervención en los municipios con SAME mediante la metodología de Diferencias en Diferencias. El principal resultado es que la incorporación del SAME produjo una reducción promedio del 19% en la tasa de defunciones cada mil accidentados con respecto a su línea de base.

Abstract
In this paper, we estimate the impact on female labor force participation of a massive conditional cash transfer program—Universal Child Allowance, AUH—launched in Argentina in 2009. We identify the intention-to-treat effect by comparing eligible and non-eligible women over time through a diff-in-diff methodology. The results suggest a negative and economically significant effect of the program on female labor force participation. The disincentive to participate is present for married women, while the effect is not statistically significant for unmarried women with children. We also find evidence on the heterogeneity of the effect depending on woman's education, husband's employment status, number and age of children, and whether the woman is the main responsible of domestic chores. The relatively large value of the benefit and the fact that transfers are mostly directed to mothers may explain the sizeable effect of the program on female labor supply. The welfare implications of the results are not clear and deserve further inspection.

JEL Classification: H53, I38, J16, J22

Argentina has traditionally stood out in terms of educational outcomes among its Latin American counterparts. Schooling of older children, however, still shows room for improvement especially among the more vulnerable. Fortunately, during the last years a sizeable improvement in attendance rates for children aged 15 through 17 took place. This could be related to the 2006 National Education Law that made upper-secondary education compulsory. In this paper, instead, we claim that the Asignación Universal por Hijo (Universal Child Allowance, AUH) -a massive conditional cash transfer program implemented in 2009 in Argentina- may be mostly responsible for this improvement. Using a difference-in-difference strategy we estimate that the program accounts for a 3.9 percentage point increase in the probability of attending secondary school among eligible children aged 15 through 17. The impact seems to be led by boys and is more relevant for children living in larger families where the head of household has a lower educational level. ; Argentina tradicionalmente se ha destacado en términos de resultados educativos entre sus pares latinoamericanos. La escolarización de los adolescentes, sin embargo, todavía debe mejorarse, especialmente entre los más vulnerables. Afortunadamente, durante los últimos años se produjo un considerable aumento en las tasas de asistencia escolar al secundario entre los jóvenes de 15 a 17 años. Esto podría estar relacionado con la Ley Nacional de Educación de 2006 que transformó la enseñanza secundaria en obligatoria. En este artículo, en cambio, sostenemos que la Asignación Universal por Hijo (AUH), un programa masivo de transferencias monetarias condicionales implementado en 2009 en Argentina, puede ser el principal responsable de esta mejora. Utilizando una estrategia de diferencias en diferencias, estimamos que el programa representa un aumento de 3,9 puntos porcentuales en la probabilidad de asistir a la escuela secundaria entre los jóvenes elegibles de 15 a 17 años. El impacto parece estar liderado por los varones y es más relevante para los jóvenes que viven en familias más grandes donde el jefe del hogar tiene niveles educativos más bajos. ; A Argentina tradicionalmente se destacou em termos de resultados educacionais entre seus pares latino-americanos. A escolarização de crianças mais velhas, no entanto, ainda mostra espaço para melhoria, sobretudo entre as mais vulneráveis. Felizmente, durante os últimos anos teve lugar uma melhoria considerável das taxas de frequência escolar para crianças de 15 a 17 anos. Isso poderia estar relacionado à Lei de Educação Nacional de 2006 que tornou obrigatório o ensino secundário. Neste documento, porém, afirmamos que a Asignación Universal por Hijo (Subsídio Universal para Crianças, ou AUH) - um amplo programa de transferencia condicionada de renda implementado em 2009 na Argentina - pode ser o principal responsável por essa melhoria. Usando uma estratégia de diferença em diferença, estimamos que o programa representa um aumento de 3,9 pontos percentuais na probabilidade de frequentar a escola secundária para crianças elegíveis de 15 a 17 anos. O impacto parece ser liderado por meninos e é mais relevante para as crianças que vivem em famílias maiores, onde o chefe de família tem um nível educacional mais baixo.

Fertility rates significantly fell over the last decades in Latin America. In order to assess the extent to which these changes contributed to the observed reduction in income poverty and inequality, we apply microeconometric decomposition to microdata from national household surveys from seven Latin American countries. We find that changes in fertility rates were associated with a nonnegligible reduction in inequality and poverty in the region. The main channel was straightforward: lower fertility implied smaller families and hence larger per capita incomes. Lower fertility also fostered labor force participation, especially among women, which contributed to the reduction of poverty and inequality in most countries, although the size of this effect was smaller.

This article uses a unique panel data set of rural El Salvador to investigate the main sources of persistence and variability in incomes. Our econometric framework validly reduces a general panel model to a dynamic linear model with a covariance structure that can be estimated efficiently with short panels. We find that life-cycle incomes are largely explained by the productive characteristics of families, such as education and access to public goods, and unobserved heterogeneity. Pure state dependence, arising from income shocks persistency, is of second order. In El Salvador, frequent transitory shocks are a more important source of income variation than in developed countries.

This paper studies factors that could account for the asymmetric impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America, by exploiting microdata from the World Bank's high-frequency phone household surveys conducted immediately after the onset of the pandemic. The paper codifies the occupation variables in these surveys, constructs measures of the individual's potential for work from home, and estimates fixed-effects models of job loss and other labor outcomes. In line with previous studies, the findings show that the impact of the COVID-19 shock was (i) harder for women and (ii) strongly decreasing in the ability to work from home. Importantly, the analysis finds that the mitigating effect of working from home on the severity of the impact was especially relevant for women with children. These effects were larger in countries/periods in which the containment measures implemented by governments against the spread of the disease were more stringent. The paper also provides suggestive evidence on a plausible mechanism underlying the results: women with children were more likely to stay home due to school closures and the traditional intrahousehold distribution of childcare responsibilities, and thus the possibility of working from home was crucial for them to keep their jobs.