The social costs of crime in Mexico city and suburban areas

In this paper we measure social costs of crime, following two approaches. First, estimate costs of homicides, at the National level in 1997, under different assumptions about lost wages. When assuming profiles differ over the life cycle, the costs amount from .03 to .6 percent of GDP, depending on the discount factor. Second, we take into consideration other types of crime to estimate social costs of crime in Mexico City. We found costs approximate 3.6 percent of the City's GDP, but consider this figure a lower bound. Further data including costs borne by non-victims would be most helpful for further research in this field.

The Role of Maternal Cognitive Ability in Child Health

The literature on child health suggests mother`s schooling is a key determinant of child health. Little is known of how other sources of maternal human capital contribute to her children`s health. This paper investigates the differential returns on child health of three sources of maternal human capital: schooling, cognitive ability and childhood background. Conditional on schooling and mother`s height, we first analyze the effect of maternal cognitive ability on her children`s health. Next, we relax the assumption of mother`s schooling and reasoning ability as predetermined variables and study the extent to which both returns reflect observed mother`s childhood endowments. We conclude by investigating the importance of mother`s schooling and cognitive ability in enhancing her offspring`s health during first-time motherhood. Results show maternal cognitive ability is an important factor in improving her children`s health. We find these returns robust to the inclusion of mother`s observed childhood endowments. However, estimates of mother`s schooling drop by 30 percent when we control for these variables. This suggests that unlike mother`s schooling, maternal returns to cognitive ability on child health are less likely to reflect mother`s childhood background. Finally, we find maternal reasoning ability to be an important factor in improving her children`s health in first-time motherhood. Our analysis is based on information gathered in the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS-1), which administered Raven`s Colored Progressive Matrices, and collected anthropometric outcomes. Our results focus on child height-for-age (0-17 years) z-scores as long-run health outcomes.

Schooling Inequality among the Indigenous: A Problem of Resources or Language Barriers?

Using large household data sets from rural Mexican communities, where a majority of indigenous people live, we analyze the potential explanatory factors for low educational attainment of indigenous children. We find that, overall, indigenous children fare worse than their non-indigenous classmates. Nevertheless, there is important heterogeneity within the indigenous group. In particular, monolingual indigenous children (those who speak only an indigenous language) perform much worse in school than bilingual indigenous children who speak Spanish as a second language.

Is Self-employment a Way to Escape from Skill Mismatches?

During the last two decades, skill mismatches have become one of the most important issues of policy concern in the EU (European Commission, 2008). Hence, the literature has stressed the necessity to reduce skill mismatches. We contribute to this literature by analyzing the impact of the transition from salaried employment to self-employment on self-reported skill mismatches. To do so, we resort to the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) covering the period 1994-2001. Using panel data, we track individuals over time and measure their self-reported skill mismatch before and after the transition. Our empirical findings indicate not only that the average self-employee is less likely to declare being skill-mismatched but also that those individuals who transit from salaried employment to self-employment reduce their probability of skill mismatches after the transition

Food insecurity measurement and prevalence estimates during the COVID-19 pandemic in a repeated cross-sectional survey in Mexico

Objective: To validate the telephone modality of the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA) included in three waves of a phone survey to estimate the monthly household food insecurity prevalence during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. Design: We examined the reliability and internal validity of the ELCSA scale in three repeated waves of cross-sectional surveys with Rasch models. We estimated the monthly prevalence of food insecurity in the general population and in households with and without children and compared them with a national 2018 survey. We tested concurrent validity by testing associations of food insecurity with socio-economic status and anxiety. Setting: ENCOVID-19 is a monthly telephone cross-sectional survey collecting information on the well-being of Mexican households during the pandemic lockdown. Surveys used probabilistic samples, and we used data from April (n 833), May (n 850) and June 2020 (n 1674). Participants: Mexicans 18 years or older who had a mobile telephone. Results: ELCSA had an adequate model fit and food insecurity was associated, within each wave, with more poverty and anxiety. The COVID-19 lockdown was associated with an important reduction in food security, decreasing stepwise from 38·9 % in 2018 to 24·9 % in June 2020 in households with children. Conclusions: Telephone surveys were a feasible strategy to monitor reductions in food security during the COVID-19 lockdown

Costing of actions to safeguard vulnerable Mexican households with young children from the consequences of COVID-19 social distancing measures

COVID-19 has imposed unprecedented challenges to society. As the pandemic evolves, the social distancing measures that have been globally enforced, while essential, are having undesirable socioeconomic side effects particularly among vulnerable populations. In Mexico, families who depend upon informal employment face increased threats to their wellbeing, and households who in addition have young children may face long-term consequences. The Mexican government has not yet taken actions, but a coalition of non-governmental organizations is advocating in partnership with academic institutions for social protection actions such as a cash transfer and basic services subsidies for families with young children, subsisting from the informal sector economy. To facilitate governmental action, we estimated the costs for implementation of these recommendations. The methodology used could be replicated in other countries facing similar challenges

Costing a Maternity Leave Cash Transfer to Support Breastfeeding Among Informally Employed Mexican Women

Background: Investing in maternity protection for working women is an important social equity mechanism. Addressing the maternity leave needs of women employed in the informal sector economy should be a priority as more than half of women in Latin America, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa are employed in this sector. Objective: To develop a costing methodology framework to assess the financial feasibility, at the national level, of implementing a maternity cash transfer for informally employed women. Methods: A World Bank costing methodology was adapted for estimating the financial need to establish a maternity cash transfer benefit. The methodology estimates the cash transfer’s unitary cost, the incremental coverage of the policy in terms of time, the weighted population to be covered, and the administrative costs. The 6-step methodology uses employment and sociodemographic data that are available in many countries through employment and demographic surveys and the population census. The methodology was tested with data for Mexico assuming different cash transfer unitary costs and the benefit’s time coverage. Results: The methodological framework estimated that the annual financial needs of setting up a maternity cash transfer for informally working women in Mexico ranges between US$87 million and US$280 million. Conclusions: A pragmatic methodology for assessing the costs of maternity cash transfer for informally employed women was developed. In the case of Mexico, the maternity cash transfer for women in the informal sector is financially feasible

Costos de la licencia de maternidad para apoyar la lactancia materna en Brasil, Ghana y México

Objective To develop a method to assess the cost of extending the duration of maternity leave for formally-employed women at the national level and apply it in Brazil, Ghana and Mexico. Methods We adapted a World Bank costing method into a five-step method to estimate the costs of extending the length of maternity leave mandates. Our method used the unit cost of maternity leave based on working women’s weekly wages; the number of additional weeks of maternity leave to be analysed for a given year; and the weighted population of women of reproductive and legal working age in a given country in that year. We weighted the population by the probability of having a baby that year among women in formal employment, according to individual characteristics. We applied nationally representative cross-sectional data from fertility, employment and population surveys to estimate the costs of maternity leave for mothers employed in the formal sector in Brazil, Ghana and Mexico for periods from 12 weeks up to 26 weeks, the WHO target for exclusive breastfeeding. Findings We estimated that 640 742 women in Brazil, 33 869 in Ghana and 288 655 in Mexico would require formal maternity leave annually. The median weekly cost of extending maternity leave for formally working women was purchasing power parity international dollars (PPP$) 195.07 per woman in Brazil, PPP$ 109.68 in Ghana and PPP$ 168.83 in Mexico. Conclusion Our costing method could facilitate evidence-based policy decisions across countries to improve maternity protection benefits and support breastfeeding

Prevalencia mensual de trastorno de ansiedad generalizada durante la pandemia por Covid-19 en México

Objective. Estimate the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) from April to June 2020. Materials and methods. Repeated cross-sections design based in the Encovid-19, a series of monthly mobile surveys with represen- tative samples of Mexico (N= 833-1 674).The questionnaire includes the GAD-2 scale, and, in July, the GAD-7 scale was added; we examined its internal validity with confirmatory factor analysis and its concurrent validity with sociodemo- graphic variables. Using GAD-7 as criterion, we analyzed the predictive validity of the GAD-2.We estimated the monthly prevalence with the GAD-2. Results. The GAD-7 and the GAD-2 are reliable and valid.The GAD-2 has a sensitivity of 0.87 and a specificity of 0.90.The monthly prevalence remains high and stable, between 30.7 and 32.6%. GAD concentrated in women, unemployed and persons with low socioeconomic status. Conclusions. GAD is a public health problem that worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic

Migration as a determinant of childhood obesity in the United States and Latin America

International migration has economic and health implications. The acculturation process to the host country may be linked to childhood obesity. We use the Community Energy Balance (CEB) framework to analyze the relationship between migration and childhood obesity in Mexican households with international migrants. Using longitudinal data from the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS), we examine how migrant networks affect childhood obesity in origin communities. We also review binational health programs that could be effective at tackling childhood obesity in migrant households from Mexico. Children embedded in migrant networks are at greater risk of developing overweight or obesity, suggesting a significant relationship between childhood obesity and international migration in Mexican households. Based on our search criteria, our analysis of health outreach programs shows that Ventanillas de Salud (VDS)/Health Windows has great promise to prevent childhood obesity in a culturally sensitive and trustful environment. The CEB framework is useful to understand how migration contributes to the risk of childhood overweight and obesity in migrant households. VDS is a feasible and replicable strategy with great potential to address childhood obesity among migrant families accounting for the dynamic and binational determinants of childhood obesity