A social stigma model of child labor

This paper constructs a model in which a social norm is internalized. The social disapproval of people who violate the norm -stigmatization-- is incorporated as a reduction in their utility. That reduction in utility is lower as the proportion of the population that violates the norm increases. In the model, society disapproves of people sending their children to work and parents care about that “embarrassment”. An equilibrium is constructed in which the expected and realized stigma costs are the same; and the wages rates of child and adult labor are such as to equate demand and supply for each kind of labor.

Computerized Schedule Effectiveness Technique /SET/ determines present and future schedule position

Computerized scheduling system calculates an index of overall schedule-effectiveness. The schedule-effectiveness index is a measurement of actual overall performance against the existing schedule, and a series of schedule-effectiveness values indicates the trend of actual performance. This computer program is written in Fortran 4

The recent decline of inequality in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Peru

Between 2000 and 2006, the Gini coefficient declined in 12 of the 17 Latin American countries for which data are available. Why has inequality declined? Have the changes in inequality been driven by market forces such as the demand and supply for labor with different skills? Or have governments become more redistributive than they used to be, and if so, why? This paper attempts to answer these questions by focusing on the determinants of inequality in four countries: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Peru. The analysis suggests that the decline in inequality is accounted for by two main factors: (i) a fall in the earnings gap between skilled and low-skilled workers (through both quantity and price effects); and (ii) more progressive government transfers (monetary and in-kind transfers). Demographic factors, such as a change in the proportion of adults (and working adults) per household, have been equalizing but the magnitude of their contribution has been small by comparison. In Brazil, Mexico and Peru, the fall in earnings gap, in turn, is mainly the result of the expansion of basic education over the last couple of decades, which reduced inequality in attainment and made the returns to education curve less steep. It also results from the petering out of the unequalizing effect of skill-biased technical change in the 1990s associated with the opening up of trade and investment. In Argentina, the decline in earnings inequality seems to be associated with government policies that without the windfall of high commodity prices will be hard to sustain.Income inequality, Latin America, wage gap, government transfers.

A vulnerability approach to the definition of the middle class

Measurement of the middle class has recently come to the center of policy debate in middle-income countries as they search for the potential engines of growth and good governance. This debate assumes, first, that there is a meaningful definition of class, and second, that thresholds that define relatively homogeneous groups in terms of pre-determined sociological characteristics can be found empirically. This paper aims at proposing a view of the middle class based on vulnerability to poverty. Following this approach the paper exploits panel data to determine the amount of comparable income -- associated with a low probability of falling into poverty -- which could define the lower bound of the middle class. The paper looks at absolute thresholds, challenging the view that people above the poverty line are actually part of the middle class. The estimated lower threshold is used in cross-section surveys to quantify the size and the evolution of middle classes in Chile, Mexico, and Peru over the past two decades. The first relevant feature relates to the fact that the proposed thresholds lie around the 60th percentile of the distribution. The evidence also shows that the middle class has increased significantly in all three countries, suggesting that a higher number of households face lower probabilities of falling into poverty than they did in the 1990s. There is an important group of people, however, which cannot be defined as middle class from this perspective, but are not eligible for poverty programs according to traditional definitions of poverty.Rural Poverty Reduction,Inequality,Regional Economic Development,Urban Partnerships&Poverty,Services&Transfers to Poor

Down and out or up and in? Polarization-based measures of the middle class for Latin America

This document presents a systematic review of empirical approaches to the identification and measurement of the middle class as the concept is used in the applied literature. It then presents an arguably less arbitrary definition of the middle class which is based on sound principles of distributional analysis and derived from income polarization measures. The document illustrates the differences between the existing approaches and the proposed methodology with a comparative analysis of the extent and evolution of the middle classes since the early 1990s in six Latin American countries. The polarization-based measurements of the middle class are shown to exhibit a greater degree of homogeneity in terms of some key socioeconomic characteristics than other measures employed in the literatureFil: Cruces, Guillermo Antonio. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Lopez Calva, Luis Felipe. Banco Mundial; Estados UnidosFil: Battistón, Diego Ezequiel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentin

Conocimiento y compromiso vital: los desafíos de la ética planetaria en la práctica profesional de la investigación educativa

Partiendo de la propuesta de ética planetaria de Edgar Morin (2005), así como de la “ética de la realización” y las “especialidades funcionales” del método de las ciencias humanas y sociales propuestos por Bernard Lonergan (1988), este trabajo sostiene como idea central la imposibilidad de separar la construcción del conocimiento en la investigación del compromiso ético vital del investigador. El artículo inicia planteando los graves problemas del presente y la necesidad de una “reforma del espíritu” guiada por la educación y el papel que juega la investigación educativa en la construcción de esta reforma profunda, caracterizando los distintos tipos de investigación educativa en el marco de las “especializaciones funcionales” planteadas por Lonergan (1988) y enfatizando la necesidad de comprender que la construcción de conocimiento sobre la educación no puede estar desligado de la ética del profesional de la investigación educativa. A partir de esta relación, se explicita la visión de una ética humanista compleja y las fuentes de tensiones y contradicciones éticas que enfrenta el investigador en su práctica profesional. Se concluye afirmando que el investigador educativo requiere de una conciencia explícita de la relación entre conocimiento y ética en su quehacer profesional y de la inevitabilidad de estas tensiones y contradicciones para cumplir con los dos compromisos fundamentales que le plantea este cambio de época: El compromiso con el conocimiento que lo lleve a un ejercicio continuo para “pensar bien” y el compromiso vital con el “bien humano en construcción” a través de la contribución al mejoramiento de la calidad de la Educació

Is there such thing as middle class values ? Class differences, values and political orientations in Latin America

Middle class values have long been perceived as drivers of social cohesion and growth. This paper investigates the relation between class (measured by position in the income distribution), values, and political orientations using comparable values surveys for six Latin American countries. The analysis finds that both a continuous measure of income and categorical measures of income-based class are robustly associated with values. Both income and class tend to display a similar association to values and political orientations as education, although differences persist in some important dimensions. Overall, there is no strong evidence of any"middle class particularism": values appear to gradually shift with income, and middle class values are between the ones of poorer and richer classes. If any, the only peculiarity of middle class values is moderation. The analysis also finds changes in values across countries to be of much larger magnitude than the ones dictated by income, education, and individual characteristics, suggesting that individual values vary primarily within bounds dictated by each society.Inequality,Economic Theory&Research,Social Inclusion&Institutions,Labor Policies,Access&Equity in Basic Education

Child labor, school attendance, and indigenous households : evidence from Mexico

The authors use panel data for Mexico for 1997 to 1999 to test several assumptions regarding the impact of a conditional cash transfer program on child labor, emphasizing the differential impact on indigenous households. Using data from the conditional cash transfer program in Mexico PROGRESA (OPORTUNIDADES) they investigate the interaction between child labor and indigenous households. While indigenous children had a greater probability of working in 1997, this probability is reversed after treatment in the program. Indigenous children also had lower school attainment compared with Spanish-speaking or bilingual children. After the program, school attainment among indigenous children increased, reducing the gap.Street Children,Children and Youth,Labor Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,Street Children,Youth and Governance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Children and Youth,Child Labor

Is There Such a Thing As Middle Class Values? Class Differences, Values, and Political Orientations in Latin America - Working Paper 286

Middle class values have long been perceived as drivers of social cohesion and growth. In this paper we investigate the relation between class (measured by the position in the income distribution), values, and political orientations using comparable values surveys for six Latin American countries. We find that both a continuous measure of income and categorical measures of income-based class are robustly associated with values. Both income and class tend to display a similar association to values and political orientations as education, although differences persist in some important dimensions. Overall, we do not find strong evidence of any “middle class particularism”: values appear to gradually shift with income, and middle class values lay between the ones of poorer and richer classes. If any, the only peculiarity of middle class values is moderation. We also find changes in values across countries to be of much larger magnitude than the ones dictated by income, education and individual characteristics, suggesting that individual values vary primarily within bounds dictated by each societyMiddle class, income, values, political orientations