Export Subsidies in a Heterogeneous Firms Framework: Evidence from Colombia

We evaluate the impact of firm-specific export subsidies on exports in Colombia. Using a twostage selection correction procedure, we obtain firm-specific predicted subsidy amounts that can be explained by the characteristics that determine the firms’ eligibility for government support and its amount. Drawing on the accounts of the discretionary allocation of subsidies in developing countries, we regard the discrepancy between the predicted and the observed subsidy amounts as a proxy for a firm’s ties to government officials. Controlling for observable and unobservable firm characteristics and persistence in exports, we find that although, in general, subsidies exhibit a positive impact on export volumes, this impact is diminishing in subsidy size and in the degree of a firm’s connectedness.Export promotion; export subsidies

Teaching Locals New Tricks: Foreign Experts as a Channel of Knowledge Transfers

Gains from productivity and knowledge transmission arising from the presence of foreign firms have received a good deal of empirical attention, but theoretical micro-foundations for this mechanism are limited. Here we develop a dynamic model in which foreign experts may train domestic workers who work with them. Gains from training can in turn be decomposed into two types: (a) obtaining knowledge and skills at a lower cost than if they were self-learnt at home, (b) producing domestic skilled workers earlier in time than if the domestic economy had to rediscover the relevant knowledge through "reinventing the wheel." We use fixed effects and nearest neighbour matching estimators on a panel of plant-level data for Colombia that identifies the use of foreign experts, to show that these experts have substantial, although not always immediate, positive effects on the wages of domestic workers and on the value added per worker.

У Раді ботанічних садів та дендропарків України

In the Council of Botanical Gardens and Dendroparks of Ukrain

Orphanhood and Critical Periods in Children's Human Capital Formation: Long-Run Evidence from North-Western Tanzania

Losing a parent is a trauma that has consequences for human capital formation. Does it matter at what age this trauma occurs? Using longitudinal data from the Kagera region in Tanzania that span thirteen years from 1991-2004, we find considerable impact heterogeneity across age at bereavement, but less so for the death of opposite-sex parents. In terms of long-term health status as measured by body height, children who lose their same-sex parent before teenage years are hit hardest. Regarding years of formal education attained in young adulthood, boys whose fathers die before adolescence suffer the most. Maternal bereavement does not fit into this pattern as it affects educational attainment of boys and girls in a similar way. The generally strong interaction between age at parental death and sex of the late parent suggests that the preferences of the surviving parent partly protect same-sex children from orphanhoods detrimental effects on human capital accumulation. --orphans,health,education,timing of parental death,child development,HIV/AIDS

У Раді ботанічних садів та дендропарків України

In the Council of the Botanical Gardens and Dendroparks of Ukrain

У Раді ботанічних садів та дендропарків України

In the council of the Botanical Gardens and Dendroparks of Ukrain

Kratko-vremenske promjene prve derivacije gravitacionog potencijala

Results of experimental registration of minute variations of the gravitational potential first derivative by means the Scintrex CG-3 gravitometer are presented.Prikazani su rezultati mjerenja minutnih varijacija prve derivacije gravitacionog potencijala pomoću Scintrex CG-3 gravimetra