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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2016‒05‒08
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Castaneda Aguilar,Raul Andres; Gasparini,Leonardo Carlos; Garriga,Santiago; Lucchetti,Leonardo Ramiro; Valderrama Gonzalez,Daniel |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the methodological literature on the estimation of poverty lines for country poverty comparisons in Latin America and the Caribbean. The paper exploits a unique, comprehensive data set of 86 up-to-date urban official extreme and moderate poverty lines across 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the recent values of the national purchasing power parity conversion factors from the 2011 International Comparison Program and a set of harmonized household surveys that are part of the Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean project. Because of the dispersion of country-specific poverty lines, the paper concludes that the value of a regional poverty line largely depends on the selected aggregation method, which ends up having a direct impact on the estimation of regional extreme and moderate poverty headcounts. |
| Keywords: | Regional Economic Development,ICT Applications,Pro-Poor Growth,Rural Poverty Reduction |
| Date: | 2016–04–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7621&r=lam |
| By: | Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS - UNLP y CONICET); Guillermo Cruces (CEDLAS - UNLP y CONICET); Leopoldo Tornarolli (CEDLAS - UNLP y CONICET) |
| Abstract: | After a decade of strong progress toward the goal of reducing the high levels of income disparities, there are clear signs of a deceleration in the pace of inequality reduction in Latin America. This paper argues that the deceleration is the result of two set of reasons. First, several of the driving factors of the fall in inequality in the 2000s have lost strength, due to “natural” motives; and second, the external conditions faced by the Latin American economies have worsened in the early 2010s, making further reductions in inequality more difficult. |
| JEL: | D63 I31 J11 J21 J31 J82 N36 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0198&r=lam |
| By: | Andersen, Lykke E.; Breisinger, Clemens; Jemio, Luis Carlos; Mason-D’Croz, Daniel; Ringler, Claudia; Robertson, Richard D.; Verner, Dorte; Wiebelt, Manfred |
| Abstract: | This food policy report is a response to growing concerns about the impacts of climate change on Latin American economies, agriculture, and people. It assesses both local and global effects of changing agricultural yields on the economy, subnational regions, and different household types, including male- and female-headed households in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. The three countries reflect economic and geographic diversity in Latin America and more than half of the region’s population. Climate change impacts tend to be relatively small at an economywide level in all three countries. However, sectoral and household-level economic impacts tend to be diverse across countries and subnational levels. They mainly depend on projected changes in agricultural yields, the share of agriculture in regional gross domestic product (GDP), crop-specific international trade balances, net food buyer/seller position, and income diversification of households. As for gender, results from this study suggest that female-headed households may be less vulnerable than male-headed households to the effects of climate change, highlighting the importance of considering women as a source for solutions for building resilience to climate change. Given the relatively small impacts of climate change and the degree of uncertainty associated with them, it is too early to define specific policy recommendations. All three countries should try to maximize the benefits that may come with higher agricultural world market prices and to minimize the losses from reductions in agricultural yields. |
| Keywords: | BRAZIL, MEXICO, PERU, LATIN AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA, NORTH AMERICA, climate change, households, socioeconomic development, trade, productivity, yields, agricultural sector, agricultural policies, economic policies, trade policies, prices, forecasting, gender, resilience, environmental shocks, economywide modeling |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:fprepo:9780896295810&r=lam |
| By: | Guido Neidhöfer (School of Business & Economics, Freie Universität Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Countries with high income inequality also show a strong association between parents’ and children’s economic well-being; i.e. low intergenerational mobility. This study is the first to test this relationship in a between and within country setup, using harmonized micro data from 18 Latin American countries spanning multiple cohorts. It is shown that experiencing higher inequality in childhood has a negative effect on intergenerational mobility as adults. Furthermore, the influence of economic growth and public education is evaluated: both have a positive, significant, and substantial effect on intergenerational mobility. |
| JEL: | D63 I24 J62 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0196&r=lam |
| By: | Leno S. Rocha; Frederico S. A. Rocha; Th\'arsis T. P. Souza |
| Abstract: | We propose a diffusion process to describe the global dynamic evolution of credit operations at a national level given observed operations at a subnational level in a sovereign country. Empirical analysis with a unique dataset from Brazilian federate constituents supports the conclusions. Despite the heterogeneity observed in credit operations at a subnational level, the aggregated dynamics at a national level were accurately described with the proposed model. Results may guide management of public finances, particularly debt manager authorities in charge of reaching surplus targets. |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1604.07782&r=lam |
| By: | Silvia Adriana Peluffo Geronazzo (Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effects of increased competition resulting from the creation of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) on productivity, employment and wages for the Uruguayan manufacturing sector at the plant level. We use impact evaluation techniques, namely regressions and matching and difference-in-differences estimation for the period 1988-1995. One of the most robust findings is that increased trade liberalization seems to improve total factor productivity. Furthermore, we find reductions in employment driven mainly by the decrease in blue collars, increases in wages and a reduction in the wage gap between white and blue collars as a result of increased trade exposure. Thus, the increase in productivity along with the unemployment of unskilled workers would indicate a room for training, labour and social policies in order to countervail the negative impact of trade liberalization on less qualified workers. |
| Keywords: | trade policy, productivity, employment, wages. |
| JEL: | F13 O12 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2016–04–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cjz:ca41cj:32&r=lam |
| By: | Luis Miguel Rodrigo (Departamento de Economia, Universidad Catolica del Norte); Aurora Sánchez (Departamento de Economia, Universidad Catolica del Norte) |
| Abstract: | Existe una carencia de trabajos sociológicos sobre la Educación Superior Chilena, especialmente de los enmarcados en las teorías de la reproducción social. Este artículo estudia, desde la teoría de Bourdieu, la trayectoria escolar de los estudiantes de la Universidad Católica del Norte (Chile). Se identifican cuatro momentos vitales de dicha trayectoria, I) la elección del tipo de colegio, II) los resultados en la prueba de acceso a la universidad, III) la elección del tipo de carrera y VI) el éxito en dicha carrera, que se analizan mediante árboles de clasificación y regresión, y coeficientes de localización, con información correspondiente al periodo 2002-2007. Los resultados muestran cómo el sistema escolar transforma el origen social de los estudiantes en atributos individuales, y cómo continúan sus efectos después de ingresar en la universidad. |
| Keywords: | trayectoria escolar, origen social, reproducción social, elección racional |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cat:dtecon:dt201603&r=lam |