The Impact of Return Migration to Mexico

Hundreds of thousand of Mexicans leave their country each year for the United States. Almost half these migrants return to Mexico within twelve months. Using a sample of working-aged males from (MxFLS) we find that being a return migrant affects the probability of employment. In states along the US border return migrants are less likely to be employed and those in the Central and Capital areas more likely. But these effects disappear when we correct for the fact that factors that determine migration also affect employment.Migration, Mexico, labor outcomes, MxFLS

Does Educational Attainment Reduce Agricultural Day Laborer Injuries in Mexico?

Agricultural work is an inherently dangerous job with the risk of injury considered part of a worker’s compensation. We focus on the determinants of an agricultural day laborer (jornalero) having experienced an injury while working. The policy variable of interest is the worker’s level of educational attainment as workers with a higher level may be better able to understand how equipment works and safety warnings. Controlling for other factors, we find that at the variable means, a jornalero with an additional year of education has a 7.7 percent lower probability of having experienced an accident

The Impact of Return Migration to Mexico

Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans leave their country each year for the United States. Almost half these migrants return to Mexico within twelve months. Using a sample of working-aged males from (MxFLS) we find that being a return migrant affects the probability of employment. In states along the US border return migrants are less likely to be employed and those in the Central and Capital areas more likely. But these effects disappear when we correct for the fact that factors that determine migration also affect employment

Crisis, Food Security, and Conditional Cash Transfers in Nicaragua

Nicaragua’s Red de Protección Social (RPS), is part of a wave of conditional cash transfer programs that provide substantial cash payments to households if certain requirements are met such as school attendance, visits to health care facilities, and participation in nutritional seminars. Utilizing the experimental design of RPS we test the impacts of the program on food expenditures and variety in consumed food bundles by examining the influences of initial poverty and an exogenous shock to coffee prices on coffee producing communities. Through cash payments, RPS was able to increase food consumption and variety. Additionally, nutrition education programs provided by RPS appear to have been successful, as household expenditure share on food increased (although not significantly), while Engel’s law suggests that food share should decrease with a conditional cash monetary transfer. Results also show that coffee price shocks tended to decrease both the variety and expenditures on cereals and vegetables. Moreover, the shock to coffee prices seems to have had a greater impact on the consumption of households relatively better off pre-program. Finally, RPS impacts on food security appear to remain constant across households even when there are differences in initial poverty or the exogenous shock to coffee prices.

Women’s Power, Conditional Cash Transfers and Schooling in Nicaragua

The Red de Protección Social (RPS) in Nicaragua is one of a growing number of conditional cash transfer programs that pay households cash stipends in exchange for school attendance and regular visits to health clinics. A key feature of these programs is that the cash is given to the woman head of household. The rationale stems from previous research in the developing world that transfers to women are more likely to be spent on health, nutrition, and education of children and thus to reinforce the goals of these programs. One concern is that less powerful women may not be as impacted by program funds, because males in those household will decrease their contributions in response to the transfers. Utilizing randomized experimental data from RPS, we test for heterogeneous program impacts on school enrollment and spending based on a woman’s power as proxied by her education relative to her husband . Our results confirm previous findings that generally more household resources are devoted toward children when women are more powerful; however, when women’s power greatly exceeds her husband’s additional female power lowers school enrollment., Additionally we find that RPS’ impacts on schooling are substantially larger than expected income effects estimated from the control group, although we do not find evidence that female power alters RPS impacts on school enrollment. In terms of spending effects, RPS increased food and education expenditures in all households, yet this impact is attributable mostly to income effects. Finally, we find RPS had non-income impacts on milk expenditures particularly for less powerful women

Women's Power, Conditional Cash Transfers, and Schooling in Nicaragua

The Social Safety Net (Red de Protección Social, RPS) program in Nicaragua is one of many conditional cash transfer programs that pay households cash stipends in exchange for school attendance and regular visits to health clinics by the children. A key feature is that payments go to the female head of household. Previous research suggests that exogenous transfers to women are more likely to be spent on their children's health, nutrition, and education and thus to reinforce the goals of these programs. Randomized experimental data from RPS are used to test for heterogeneous program impacts on school enrollment and spending based on a woman's power, as proxied by her years of schooling relative to her husband's years of schooling. The results confirm previous findings that more household resources are devoted to children when women are more powerful. However, when a woman's power greatly exceeds her husband's, additional female power reduces school enrollment. RPS impacts on schooling are much larger than the expected income effects estimated from the control group, although no evidence is found that female power alters the impact of RPS on school enrollment. The conditionality of RPS is probably decisive. While RPS significantly increases food and education expenditures, the impact is attributable primarily to income effects. Copyright The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / the world bank . All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected], Oxford University Press.

Top Prospects and Minor League Baseball Attendance

Minor League Baseball attracts over 40 million fans a year. One potentially important attendance draw is the ability for a fan to see a future major league baseball star. Each year Baseball America, a leading industry publication, ranks 100 top prospects that have yet to play substantially in the major leagues. Many of these top prospects continue to develop for a year or more in the minor leagues, which gives fans an opportunity to see potential future Major League Baseball (MLB) stars at their local minor league club. The authors use a data set encompassing all AA and AAA minor league baseball teams from 1992 to 2009 to estimate the impact of having a top 100 Baseball America prospect on a minor league team’s attendance. Their results suggest that only those prospects ranked in the top 5 and at the highest level (AAA) have an impact on their team’s attendance and their impact on attendance is small.minor league baseball; attendance; top prospects