How Do Crises Affect Schooling Decisions? Evidence from Changing Labor Market Opportunities and a Policy Experiment

This paper examines the effect of labor market opportunities on schoolingemployment decisions in 12 urban areas in Argentina over 12 years, emphasizing the recession/crisis years 1998-2002. Over 'typical' years deteriorating job rates increase the probability of attending school and decrease the probability of combining work and school, particularly for boys; the probability of being in school for secondary school children was about 6 percent higher in 2002 than in 1998. These estimates account for the fact that a new Federal Education Law (FEL) in 1996 extended mandatory education to 10 years. Differences across regions in implementation and differences in exposure across cohorts induced by the timing of the Law reveal that children in provinces fully implementing the FEL were 3 percent more likely to be in school and 1.6 percent points less likely to be working

Arid and Semiarid Rangelands of Argentina

Two thirds of continental Argentina are arid and semiarid rangelands. These rangelands include five phytogeographic regions: (1) Puna, (2) Chaco Occidental, (3) Monte, (4) Caldenal, and (5) Patagonia. This review includes and begins with a brief overview of the climate, soil, and vegetation characteristics of each region. After that, the major causes of degradation or desertification of these territories are indicated, together with the previous and current impacts on the water resources; the physicochemical and biological soil characteristics, and vegetation structure; productive activities; economy; and society. Fortunately, in contrast with various other arid and semiarid regions in the world, a threshold of losses of renewable natural resources has not yet been reached as a result of such degradation or desertification of the study ecological systems. Beyond this threshold, reestablishment of benefits which could have been obtained from rational (not abusive) utilization of those resources will be impossible. Our aim is an improved land use that allows sustainable production, the magnitude of which will depend upon its previous degree of degradation or desertification.Fil: Busso, Carlos Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Agronomía; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez, Osvaldo Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Agronomía; Argentin