Can Non-Agricultural Employment Reduce Rural Poverty? Evidence from Mexico

This paper explores the role of the local context on the effectiveness of policy interventions in reducing poverty through non-agricultural rural employment (NARE). NARE is negatively associated to poverty in Mexico. Manufacturing employment is more poverRural employment, poverty, off-farm, Mexico

Cash transfers, conditions, school enrollment, and child work : evidence from a randomized experiment in Ecuador

The impact of cash transfer programs on the accumulation of human capital is a topic of great policy importance. An attendant question is whether program effects are larger when transfers are"conditioned"on certain behaviors, such as a requirement that households enroll their children in school. This paper uses a randomized study design to analyze the impact of the Bono de Desarrollo Humano (BDH), a cash transfer program, on enrollment and child work among poor children in Ecuador. There are two main results. First, the BDH program had a large, positive impact on school enrollment, about 10 percentage points, and a large, negative impact on child work, about 17 percentage points. Second, the fact that some households believed that there was a school enrollment requirement attached to the transfers, even though such a requirement was never enforced or monitored in Ecuador, helps explain the magnitude of program effects.Small Area Estimation Poverty Mapping,Primary Education,Land and Real Estate Development,Municipal Housing and Land,Real Estate Development

Does infrastructure reform work for the poor? A case study from Guatemala

Following the 1996 Peace Accords, Guatemala embarked on a major program of infrastructure reform involving the restructuring and privatization of the electricity and telecommunications sectors and a substantial increase in infrastructure investments partially financed by privatization proceeds. As a result, the pace of new connections to electricity, water, and sanitation services increased by more than 40 percent. Moreover, households in traditionally excluded sectors-the poor, rural, and indigenous populations-were twice as likely to be the beneficiaries of a new infrastructure connection than they had been prior to the Peace Accords. The teledensity index increased by a factor of five from 4.2 in 1997 to 19.7 in 2001, largely because of the growth in cellular telephones, which now outnumber fixed lines. The number of public telephones in rural areas increased by 80 percent since the Peace Accords, so that 80 percent of rural households are now within six kilometers from a public telephone. Although real electricity tariffs increased by 60-80 percent following the reform, residential consumers have been shielded by a"social tariff"policy that has kept charges at pre-reform levels. This policy, which costs US$50 million a year, does little to benefit poor households. The reason is that 60 percent of poor households are not connected to the electricity network, and those that are consume modest amounts of electricity and hence capture only 10 percent of the total value of the subsidy. In contrast, poor households without access to electricity pay about US$11 a kilowatt-hour (or 80 times the electricity tariff) to light their homes with candles and wick lamps. The resources used to finance the"social tariff"would therefore be better used in further accelerating the pace of new connections for currently underserved households.Health Economics&Finance,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Sanitation and Sewerage,Decentralization,ICT Policy and Strategies,Sanitation and Sewerage,TF030632-DANISH CTF - FY05 (DAC PART COUNTRIES GNP PER CAPITA BELOW USD 2,500/AL,ICT Policy and Strategies,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Public Sector Economics&Finance

The Political Economy of the Budget Process: The Case of Ecuador

This study presents the case of Ecuador. The report describes the main actors (formal and informal) involved in the budget-making process, and presents evidence regarding the main political and economic determinants of fiscal performance. It also discusses whether different political and institutional arrangements governing the budget process affect incentives for the composition of the budget.

Veto Players, Fickle Institutions and Low-Quality Policies: The Policymaking Process in Ecuador

This paper seeks to understand why political actors, institutions and legal reforms have systematically failed to produce cooperation in the Ecuadorian policymaking process. From a comparative and historical standpoint, Ecuador has been trapped in a cycle of low-quality public policies that fail to adjust to environmental conditions, that fluctuate according to political whims and that tend to favor well-organized lobbies rather than pursuing optimal social outcomes. The paper identifies two alternative policymaking paths leading to poor policy outcomes. In the first one, the executive agenda is eclipsed by the short-term clientelistic demands of multiple veto players in the legislature, thus contributing to policy deadlock or rigidity. In the second, executive power is delegated to a decisive, often technical bureaucracy isolated from political pressures, but the lack of institutional stability of such bodies leads to a pattern of policy volatility. Lastly, the paper discusses the formal and informal roles of "last-ditch" veto players to stall or revert unwanted policies. The paper also features two case studies on fiscal and monetary policies, and derives empirical implications to improve the formation of durable intertemporal agreements in the legislature and ensure stable policy implementation and enforcement through a technical bureaucracy and independent judiciary.

Invertir en los primeros años de vida: Una prioridad para el BID y los países de América Latina y el Caribe

La importancia de los primeros años para el éxito de las personas durante el resto de su vida se encuentra ampliamente documentada en la literatura. El cerebro humano crece más que en ninguna otra etapa de la vida durante la primera infancia, alcanzando el 80 por ciento del tamaño adulto en los primeros tres años de vida y el 90 por ciento en los primeros cinco años. Las inversiones en la salud, la buena nutrición, el desarrollo cognitivo y el bienestar emocional de los niños durante sus primeros años de vida contribuyen a igualar las oportunidades y por lo tanto, a reducir la marcada desigualdad que caracteriza a la región.Desarrollo social, Jóvenes y niños, Educación en la primera infancia, Cuidado de salud

La nueva normalidad rural

Los efectos esperados en la pandemia podrían tener mayor impacto en la zona rural de América Latina y el Caribe, que se ha caracterizado por condiciones más limitadas y menor estímulo económico, social y educativo en comparación con la zona urban

Validez concurrente y viabilidad de pruebas cortas comúnmente usadas para medir el desarrollo infantil temprano en estudios a gran escala: Metodología y resultados

Medir el desarrollo infantil temprano (DIT) mediante pruebas estándar de diagnóstico en estudios a gran escala resulta difícil y costoso. Por esto, con frecuencia se utilizan pruebas de tamizaje multidimensionales y pruebas que miden un solo dominio del desarrollo como alternativas (nos referimos a ellas como 'pruebas cortas'). La validez de las pruebas cortas en estos contextos es desconocida. En este estudio, analizamos la viabilidad, confiabilidad y validez concurrente de algunas de estas pruebas cortas de uso habitual, incluyendo tres pruebas de tamizaje multidimensionales-los Cuestionarios de Edades y Etapas, la Prueba de Tamizaje del Desarrollo de Denver, el Inventario del Desarrollo de Battelle -y dos pruebas que miden un solo dominio del desarrollo- la versión abreviada de MacArthur-Bates y los Hitos del Desarrollo Motor-en 1.311 niños y niñas de 6 a 42 meses en Bogotá, Colombia. Comparamos las puntuaciones obtenidas en estas pruebas cortas con las de las Escalas Bayley de Desarrollo Infantil, prueba que consideramos nuestro patrón de referencia. El Bayley se implementó en un centro por psicólogos, mientras que las pruebas cortas se realizaron en los hogares por encuestadores, tal y como se administrarían en una encuesta de hogar. La validez concurrente de las escalas cognitivas, de lenguaje y de motricidad fina de las pruebas multidimensionales con la escala correspondiente en el Bayley es baja en niños menores de 19 meses, si bien aumenta con la edad convirtiéndose en moderada a alta a partir de los 30 meses. En cambio, la concurrencia de las escalas de motricidad gruesa es alta en menores de 19 meses y disminuye a partir de esta edad. Con respecto a las pruebas que miden un solo dominio del desarrollo, los Hitos del Desarrollo Motor presentan un alto grado de validez con la motricidad gruesa en niños menores de 16 meses, y las escalas de lenguaje expresivo de la versión abreviada de MacArthur-Bates muestran una correlación moderada con el lenguaje en menores de 30 meses. Por dominio del desarrollo, la motricidad gruesa presenta el grado de validez más alto en menores de 19 meses, mientras que en niños de más de 19 meses, el desarrollo del lenguaje es el dominio que obtiene concurrencias mayores.In low- and middle-income countries (LIMCs) measuring early childhood development (ECD) with standard tests in large scale surveys (i.e. evaluations of interventions) is difficult and expensive. Multi-dimensional screeners and single-domain tests ('short tests') are frequently used as alternatives. However, their validity in these circumstances is unknown. We examine the feasibility, reliability, and concurrent validity of three multi-dimensional screeners -the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ-3), the Denver Developmental Screening Test (Denver-II), the Battelle Developmental Inventory screener (BDI-2) -and two single-domain tests- the MacArthur-Bates Short-Forms (SFI and SFII) and the WHO Motor Milestones (WHO-Motor)-in 1,311 children 6-42 months in Bogota, Colombia. We compare scores on these short tests to those on the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III), which we take as the 'gold standard'. The Bayley-III was given at a center by psychologists; whereas the short tests were administered in the home by interviewers, as in a survey setting. Concurrent validity of the multi-dimensional tests' cognitive, language, and fine motor scales with the corresponding Bayley-III scale is low below 19 months but increases with age, becoming moderate-to-high over 30 months. In contrast, gross motor scales' concurrence is high under 19 months and then decreases. Of the single-domain tests, the WHO-Motor has high validity with gross motor under 16 months, and the SFI and SFII expressive scales show moderate correlations with language under 30 months. Overall, the Denver-II seems the most feasible and valid multi-dimensional test and the ASQ-3 performs poorly under 31 months. By domain, gross motor development has the highest concurrence below 19 months, and language above. Results do not vary by household socio-economic status. Predictive validity investigation is nonetheless needed to further guide the choice of instruments for large scale studies

La calidad de los jardines de cuidado infantil y el desarrollo infantil

El desarrollo en la primera infancia predice lo que serán los resultados en la escolaridad y el mercado laboral en la edad adulta. En este documento usamos una estrategia de identificación de efectos fijos para evaluar el modo en que las diferencias en la calidad de los jardines de cuidado infantil afectan la comunicación, la motricidad fina y las destrezas en resolución de problemas de los niños menores de tres años. Demostramos que los niños logran resultados en su desarrollo significativamente mejores cuando han tenido en las aulas cuidadores más experimentados y cuidadores capaces de ofrecer interacciones de mayor calidad a los niños. Existe una heterogeneidad considerable en los efectos de la calidad del cuidador sobre el desarrollo infantil. Por lo general, los padres no pueden observar, o no valoran, la calidad del cuidado