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on Central and South America |
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Issue of 2024‒06‒17
six papers chosen by |
| By: | Leandro Arozamena; Hernán Ruffo; Pablo Sanguinetti; Federico Weinschelbaum |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udt:wpecon:2024_03&r= |
| By: | Ciaschi, Matías (CEDLAS-UNLP); Fajardo-Gonzalez, Johanna (UNDP); Viollaz, Mariana (CEDLAS-UNLP) |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the adjustment in time allocation to school support activities by mothers and fathers during the pandemic across 22 Latin American and Caribbean countries, exploring the repercussions on labor market outcomes and children's learning losses. Our analysis reveals that mothers experienced a disproportionate increase in time dedicated to children's educational support compared to fathers, particularly when mothers could work from home. The results suggest that these effects were more pronounced in countries with stringent school closure measures and limited access to in-person instruction. Even as mobility restrictions eased and schools reopened, the additional responsibilities taken on by mothers remained above pre-pandemic levels. Mothers also significantly increased the time spent on non-educational childcare, though to a lesser extent than educational support. We also show evidence indicating a decline in maternal labor force participation and a rise in flexible labor arrangements as mothers allocated more hours to child-related duties. Our study also provides descriptive evidence that children's learning losses were less severe in countries where the gender disparity in pandemic-related school support was greater. |
| Keywords: | time use, childcare, labor, COVID-19, Latin America |
| JEL: | I1 J13 J21 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16985&r= |
| By: | Jens Matthias Arnold; Aida Caldera Sánchez; Paula Garda; Alberto González Pandiella; Sebastián Nieto Parra |
| Abstract: | Informality is a long-standing structural challenge of Latin American labour markets, as almost half of people in the region live in a household that depends solely on informal employment. Informal workers are often insufficiently covered by social protection policies, for which the eligibility is often tied to formal-sector employment. The need to reform social protection systems across Latin America to make them more effective and fiscally sustainable has become more salient after the COVID pandemic. This paper argues that a basic set of social protection benefits available to all workers, whether they work in the formal or the informal sector, should and can be put in place, although it would require the ability to raise additional tax revenues. Moreover, the incentives for formal job creation would be strengthened if its principal source of financing for such basic social protection were shifted towards general tax revenues, as opposed to social security contributions, which tend to increase the cost of formal job creation. Reforming social protection systems will not be easy, but these reforms can provide the basis for both stronger and more inclusive growth in Latin America. |
| Keywords: | Labour Markets, Latin America, Pensions, Poverty, Productivity, Social Protection |
| JEL: | I38 J32 J46 O17 O43 O54 |
| Date: | 2024–05–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1804-en&r= |
| By: | Helena Laneuville; Vitor Possebom |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the impact of judges' gender on the outcome of domestic violence cases. Using data From S\~ao Paulo, Brazil, between 2010 and 2019, we compare conviction rates by judge's gender and find that a domestic violence case assigned to a female judge is 31% (10 p.p) more likely to result in conviction than a case assigned to a male judge with similar career characteristics. To show that this decision gap rises due to different gender perspectives about domestic violence instead of rising due to female judges being tougher than male judges, we compare it against gender conviction rate gaps in similar types of crimes. We find that the gender conviction rate gap for domestic violence cases is significantly larger than the same gap for other misdemeanor cases (3 p.p. larger) and for other physical assault cases (8 p.p. larger). Lastly, we find evidence that at least two channels explain this gender conviction rate gap for domestic violence cases: gender-based differences in evidence interpretation and gender-based sentencing criteria. |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2405.07240&r= |
| By: | Eduardo Cavallo (Inter-American Development Bank); Ana Cepeda (International Monetary Fund); Ugo Panizza (Geneva Graduate Institute & CEPR) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the interplay between environmental performance and financial valuation of firms in Latin America and the Caribbean. We provide insights into how environmental considerations are integrated into financial decision-making and investor behavior by analyz-ing the stock market reaction to environmental news of firms with different levels of carbon emission intensity. We find that high emission intensity firms tend to underperform after the release of environmental damage news. Our baseline estimates indicate that, after the release of such news, firms at the 75th percentile of the distribution of emission intensity experience stock returns that are 17% lower than those of firms at the 25th percentile of the distribution of emission intensity. These results suggest that investors care about and price carbon risk, but only when this risk is salient. |
| Keywords: | Carbon emissions; Climate change; Environmental news; Stock returns |
| JEL: | G12 G14 G18 G32 G38 Q54 |
| Date: | 2024–05–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heidwp08-2024&r= |
| By: | Radu Barza; Edward L. Glaeser; César A. Hidalgo; Martina Viarengo |
| Abstract: | Are developing-world cities engines of opportunities for low-wage earners? In this study, we track a cohort of young low-income workers in Brazil for thirteen years to explore the contribution of factors such as industrial structure and skill segregation on upward income mobility. We find that cities in the south of Brazil are more effective engines of upward mobility than cities in the north and that these differences appear to be primarily related to the exposure of unskilled workers to skilled co-workers, which in turn reflects industry composition and complexity. Our results suggest that the positive effects of urbanization depend on the skilled and unskilled working together, a form of integration that is more prevalent in the cities of southern Brazil than in northern cities. This segregation, which can decline with specialization and the division of labor, may hinder the ability of Brazil's northern cities to offer more opportunities for escaping poverty. |
| JEL: | D63 I24 N90 N96 O10 O11 O18 O43 R10 R23 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32426&r= |