Child Care Provision: Semiparametric Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Mexico

We estimate semiparametrically the impact of the Mexican conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades on the time mothers and older sisters spend taking care of children aged under 3, using the randomization of a program placement and the methodology in Lewbel (2000). Results support the existence of substitution effects: mothers in treatment households are more likely to substitute for their older daughters’ time to child care. As a result, daughters devote more time to schooling and less taking care of their younger siblings. Overall, total household time allocated to child care increases. These findings indicate that Oportunidades not only fosters human capital accumulation through keeping teenage girls in school but also through more and arguably better (mother provided) child care.

Investing cash transfers to raise long term living standards

The authors test whether poor households use cash transfers to invest in income generating activities that they otherwise would not have been able to do. Using data from a controlled randomized experiment, they find that transfers from the Oportunidades program to households in rural Mexico resulted in increased investment in micro-enterprise and agricultural activities. For each peso transferred, beneficiary households used 88 cents to purchase consumption goods and services, and invested the rest. The investments improved the household's ability to generate income with an estimated rate of return of 17.55 percent, suggesting that these households were both liquidity and credit constrained. By investing transfers to raise income, beneficiary households were able to increase their consumption by 34 percent after five and a half years in the program. The results suggest that cash transfers to the poor may raise long-term living standards, which are maintained after program benefits end.Economic Theory&Research,Small Area Estimation Poverty Mapping,Municipal Housing and Land,Land and Real Estate Development,Real Estate Development

Empowering parents to improve education : evidence from rural Mexico

Mexico's compensatory education program provides extra resources to primary schools that enroll disadvantaged students in highly disadvantaged rural communities. One of the most important components of the program is the school-based management intervention known as AGEs. The impact of the AGEs is assessed on intermediate school quality indicators (failure, repetition and dropout), controlling for the presence of the conditional cash transfer program. Results prove that school-based management is an effective measure for improving outcomes, based on an over time difference-in-difference evaluation. Complementary qualitative evidence corroborates the veracity of such findings.Tertiary Education,Education For All,Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Disability,Economics of Education

Modelització i simulació d’un sistema urbanístic de ciutat intel·ligent sostenible

El present treball consisteix en l’aplicació d’una metodologia científica per tal d’analitzar la sostenibilitat d’un sistema socioecològic. A causa del gran creixement demogràfic que estan patint les ciutats els darrers anys i davant la previsió de què segueixin augmentant en població, s’ha escollit l’entorn urbà com al sistema dinàmic d’estudi. A més del creixement demogràfic urbà, s’està produint un gran avenç en tecnologia de sensors i autòmats, així com de robòtica, que facilita l’aparició de les anomenades smart cities. Aquest canvi de paradigma que s’està instaurant requereix d’eines d’investigació i evaluació adequades que permetin l’assessorament per a fer front a les noves problemàtiques que se’n derivaran. L’ús de tecnologies i la instauració d’aquestes en el nostre dia a dia podria significar una degradació de l’ecosistema i dels seus recursos. El treball sobretot se centra en l’aspecte ambiental, per a veure com afecten diferents classes de tecnologia, segons si treballen per a millorar l’entorn o si bé, el malmeten i només n’extreuen els béns i serveis. En aquest projecte es desenvolupa un sistema bàsic per a descriure’n la dinàmica, basat en estudis previs en sistemes socioecològics basats en el turisme, començant per la feina de Casagrandi i Rinaldi i ampliat per Lacitignola et al. Per a la validació, es prenen les dades d’una smart city de debò com és Singapur i es desplega el model basat en l’interacció entre tecnologies (T), la qualitat dels béns i serveis de l’ecosistema (E) i el capital (C), entès com a infraestructures i empreses tecnològiques. En particular, com s’ha dit, el treball fà èmfasi a la interacció entre les dues classes de tecnologies esmentades anteriorment i la del medi ambient. D’aquesta manera, s’exploren escenaris diferents fent referència a la coexistència entre les dues tecnologies i les condicions d’equilibri de les equacions. Finalment, es discuteixen els resultats de la simulació per tal d’arribar a conclusions extrapolables a qualsevol sistema urbà desenvolupat tecnològicament

Time-dependent attractors for non-autonomous nonlocal reaction-diffusion equations

In this paper, the existence and uniqueness of weak and strong solutions for a non-autonomous nonlocal reaction-diffusion equation is proved. Next, the existence of minimal pullback attractors in the L2 -norm in the frameworks of universes of fixed bounded sets and those given by a tempered growth condition, and some relationships between them are established. Finally, we prove the existence of minimal pullback attractors in the H1-norm and study relationships among these new families and those given previously in the L2 - context. The results are also new in the autonomous framework in order to ensure the existence of global compact attractors, as a particular case.Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadFondo Europeo de Desarrollo RegionalJunta de Andalucí

Robustness of time-dependent attractors in H1-norm for nonlocal problems

In this paper, the existence of regular pullback attractors as well as their upper semicontinuous behaviour in H1-norm are analysed for a parameterized family of non-autonomous nonlocal reaction-diffusion equations without uniqueness, improving previous results [Nonlinear Dyn. 84 (2016), 35–50].Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadFondo Europeo de Desarrollo RegionalJunta de Andalucí

Comparing english communicative competence in Infant Education: CLIL and EFL classrooms

En vista de la creciente necesidad de aprender inglés en una sociedad cada vez más exigente, el presente estudio pretende evaluar la competencia comunicativa en inglés mostrada por niños y niñas de cinco años, valorando tanto la cantidad como la calidad del lenguaje producido en dicha lengua. Esta investigación ha sido llevada a cabo en dos escuelas de Navarra que siguen dos metodologías de enseñanza diferentes. Esto nos ha permitido demostrar cómo la metodología de enseñanza utilizada influye tanto en la mejora de la competencia comunicativa en inglés, como en la naturalidad con la que se habla el idioma. Por otro lado, hemos realizado un estudio exhaustivo de las actividades de evaluación para asegurarnos un material fiable y válido para llevar a cabo nuestra investigaciónIn view of the increasing need for learning English in a more and more demanding society, the present study aims at evaluating the communicative competence in English that five-year-old children show, assessing both the quantity and quality of language productions. The investigation has been carried out in two schools of Navarre which follow two different teaching methodologies. This has enabled us to demonstrate how the use of a certain teaching methodology influences the communicative competence in English and the ease with which the language is spoken. In addition, the activities put into practice have been assessed in order to make sure that they are quality teaching materialsGraduado o Graduada en Maestro en Educación Infantil por la Universidad Pública de NavarraHaur Hezkuntzako Irakasletzan Graduatua Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa

Child Care Provision: Semiparametric Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Mexico

We estimate semiparametrically the impact of the Mexican conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades on the time mothers and older sisters spend taking care of children aged under 3, using the randomization of a program placement and the methodology in Lewbel (2000). Results support the existence of substitution effects: mothers in treatment households are more likely to substitute for their older daughters’ time to child care. As a result, daughters devote more time to schooling and less taking care of their younger siblings. Overall, total household time allocated to child care increases. These findings indicate that Oportunidades not only fosters human capital accumulation through keeping teenage girls in school but also through more and arguably better (mother provided) child care

Child Care Provision: Semiparametric Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Mexico

We estimate semiparametrically the impact of the Mexican conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades on the time mothers and older sisters spend taking care of children aged under 3, using the randomization of a program placement and the methodology in Lewbel (2000). Results support the existence of substitution effects: mothers in treatment households are more likely to substitute for their older daughters’ time to child care. As a result, daughters devote more time to schooling and less taking care of their younger siblings. Overall, total household time allocated to child care increases. These findings indicate that Oportunidades not only fosters human capital accumulation through keeping teenage girls in school but also through more and arguably better (mother provided) child care