Intergenerational Mobility of Income: The Case of Chile 1996-2006

Using the largest household panel data available in Chile we investigate intergenerational mobility of income during the decade 1996-2006. Following recent literature we control our estimates by time-series variation in intergenerational mobility. In addition, we control for sample selection following new weight adjusting methods proposed for intergenerational mobility analysis using longitudinal data. Our results indicate low income mobility compared with developing countries and that income elasticities are higher for men. Furthermore, a cohort analysis suggests that intergenerational mobility decreased with time.Chile, income mobility, intergenerational mobility

What leads to measurement errors? Evidence from reports of program participation in three surveys

Measurement errors are often a large source of bias in survey data. Lack of knowledge of the determinants of such errors makes it difficult to reduce the extent of errors when collecting data and to assess the validity of analyses using the data. We study the determinants of reporting error using high quality administrative data on government transfers linked to three major U.S. surveys. Our results support several theories of misreporting: Errors are related to event recall, forward and backward telescoping, salience of receipt, the stigma of reporting participation in welfare programs and respondent's degree of cooperation with the survey overall. We provide evidence on how survey design choices affect reporting errors. Our findings help survey users to gauge the reliability of their data and to devise estimation strategies that can correct for systematic errors, such as instrumental variable approaches. Understanding survey errors allows researchers collecting survey data to reduce them by improving survey design. Our results indicate that survey design should take into account that higher response rates as well as collecting more detailed information may have negative effects on survey accuracy

Asentamientos informales y mercado laboral : análisis comparado de campamentos y villas sociales de la R.M.

Tesis para optar al título de Magíster en Políticas PúblicasEl aporte de estudio es estudiar por primera vez utilizando datos representativos de los asentamientos informales de la R.M., las diferencias en participación laboral, empleo y salarios que puedan existir entre habitantes de villas sociales y campamentos

SNAP Participation and Labor Supply Decisions: Evidence from Exogenous Changes in Transaction Costs to Program Participation

In addition to understanding benefit receipt, researchers and policy makers often seek to know the effects of program participation on incomes and work decisions (e.g. employment or working hours) as well as other outcomes. This proposal will exploit exogenous variation in SNAP participation using quasi-experimental variation in program rules in New York State to build evidence on the labor supply effects of SNAP. I will use survey data linked to SNAP administrative records, overcoming issues of misreporting of program participation in surveys that have recently been documented

Schooling Mobility across Three Generations in Six Latin American Countries

This paper presents new evidence on schooling mobility across three generations in six Latin American countries. By combining survey information with national census data, we have constructed a novel dataset that includes 50,000 triads of grandparents, parents, and children born between 1890 and 1990. We estimate five intergenerational mobility (IGM) measures, finding that (i) the empirical multigenerational persistence in our six countries is twice as high as in developed countries, and 77% higher than what the theoretical model by Becker & Tomes (1986) predicts; (ii) Clark's (2014) theory of high and sticky persistence provides a better approximation for describing mobility across multiple generations in our sample; (iii) Even with high persistence, we uncover significant mobility improvements at the bottom of the distribution by estimating measures of absolute upward mobility (Chetty et al., 2014) and bottom-half mobility (Asher et al., 2022) over three generations. This novel evidence deepens our understanding of long-term mobility, and we expect future research to replicate it as more multigenerational data becomes available in different contexts

Early skill gap effects on long-run outcomes and parental investments

This paper examines the effects of skill advantages at age six on different types of parental investments, and long-run outcomes up to age 27. We exploit exogenous variation in skills due to school entry rules, combining 20 years of Chilean administrative records with a regression discontinuity design. Our results show higher in-school performance and college entrance scores, and sizable effects on college attendance and enrollment at more selective institutions, in particular for low-income children. Our findings suggest that parental time investments are neutral to early skills gaps, while monetary investments are reinforcing and likely to be mediating the long-run effects

Is Results-Based Aid More Effective than Conventional Aid?: Evidence from the Health Sector in El Salvador

Results-based aid (RBA) models link funds to outcomes, rather than paying for inputs. Despite their theoretical appeal and recent adoption by donors and multilateral development banks, there is limited empirical evidence supporting this form of aid for national governments. We estimate the effects of a RBA model using a natural experiment in El Salvador, where the same community health intervention was implemented in 98 municipalities using one of three financing models. The Salud Mesoamerica Initiative funded fourteen municipalities with a RBA model that partially conditions funds on the attainment of externally measured maternal and child health targets. Fifty-four municipalities funded inputs using conventional aid and thirty had national funds. Using a difference-in-difference approach and national health systems data we find that preventive health services increased by 19.8% in conventional aid municipalities and by 42% in RBA municipalities compared to national funds, suggesting that the results-based conditionality roughly doubled aid effectiveness. Effects are driven by increases in maternal and child preventive services incentivized by the RBA model. Rather than diverting resources from other populations, we find that the expansion of health services under RBA also benefited men and the elderly, not explicitly incentivized by the results model. While data on final health outcomes are not available, our results on proxy measures point to potential improvements in population health. The effects appear to have been driven by a more rapid expansion of health infrastructure and qualified personnel by motivated national authorities

Socioeconomic gaps in child development: Evidence from a national health and nutrition survey in Bolivia

This paper examines gaps in child development by socioeconomic status (SES) using a large nationally representative sample of children 0-59 months old in Bolivia and a rich set of child health and development outcomes including measures from dried blood samples. Child development is assessed with nutritional status, gross motor, and communicative development. Household SES is measured using direct and proxy indicators. We find an average difference of 0.80 and 0.60 standard deviations (SD) in height for age and weight for age z-scores respectively, between children in the top and bottom quintile of the expenditure distribution. Children in the top quintile are less likely to have iron deficiency (11 pp) and anemia (17 pp), whereas the gap in gross motor and communicative skills reach 0.28 and 0.20 SD respectively. By the age of three, these gaps have increased substantially to 0.92 SD (height for age), 0.24 pp (anemia), and 0.45 SD (gross motor). Our findings are robust to the choice of SES measurement and highlight the need to target social policies that can reduce these development gaps for children in low-income households