Schooling is Associated Not Only with Long-Run Wages, But Also with Wage Risks and Disability Risks: The Pakistani Experience

Many studies document significantly positive associations between schooling attainment and wages in developing countries. But when individuals enter occupations subsequent to completing their schooling, they not only face an expected work-life path of wages, but a number of other occupational characteristics, including wage risks and disability risks, for which there may be compensating wage differentials. This study examines the relations between schooling on one hand and mean wages and these two types of risks on the other hand, based on 77,685 individuals from the wage-earning population as recorded in six Labor Force Surveys of Pakistan. The results suggest that schooling is positively associated with mean total wages and wage rates, but has different associations with these two types of risks: Disability risks decline as schooling increases but wage risks, and even more, wage rate risks increase as schooling increases. The schooling-wage risks relation, but not the schooling-disability risks relation,is consistent with there being compensating differentials.Wages, Risks, Labor Markets, Job Disabilities, Compensating Differentials,Developing Country, Schooling

An evaluation of the impact of PROGRESA on pre-school child height

One of the major components of the PROGRESA program has been directed toward improving the nutritional status of small children in poor rural communities in Mexico. Results suggest that PROGRESA may be having fairly substantial effects on lifetime productivities and earnings of currently small children in poor households.Nutrition. ,

The Impact of the PROGRESA/Oportunidades Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Health and Related Outcomes for the Aging in Mexico

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs link public transfers to human capital investment in hopes of alleviating current poverty and reducing its intergenerational transmission. Whereas nearly all studies of their impacts have focused on youth, these CCT programs may also have an impact on aging adults, by increasing household resources or inducing changes in allocations of time of various household members, that may be of substantial interest, particularly given the rapid aging of most populations. This paper contributes to this under-researched area by examining health and work impacts on the aging for the best known and most influential of these programs, the Mexican PROGRESA/Oportunidades program. For a number of health indicators, the program appears to significantly improve health, with impacts that are larger with a greater time receiving the program. However, most of these health impacts are concentrated on women.conditional cash transfers, aging, health, Mexico

Social Exclusion in Latin America: Introduction and Overview

This paper presents the results of an Inter-American Development Bank Research Network project on Social Exclusion in Latin American and the Caribbean. The object of this project is to document and analyze the extent and consequences of some specific types of social exclusion in Latin America. The project has concentrated on some particular forms of exclusion that are important for the determination of incomeand thus poverty and income inequalityand that are relatively amenable to quantitative analysis. The purposes of the project are also to shed some light on the mechanisms of social exclusion, and to provide some guidance for policies aimed at addressing them.

Schooling Inequality, Crises, and Financial Liberalization in Latin America

Latin America is characterized by high and persistent schooling, land, and income inequalities and extreme income concentration. In a highly unequal setting, powerful interests are more likely to dominate politics, pushing for policies that protect privileges rather than foster competition and growth. As a result, changes in policies that political elites resist may be postponed in high-inequality countries to the detriment of overall economic performance. This paper examines the relationship between structural, high inequality—measured by high levels of schooling inequality—and liberalization of the financial sector for a sample of 37 developing and developed countries for the period 1975 to 2000. Liberalization of the financial sector can be broadly thought of in the Latin American pre-2000 context as opening credit markets that earlier were largely restricted, including by ending directed credit. For our measure of structural inequality we use data on schooling Gini coefficients that have not previously been used in this context. In our sample, we find that increases in financial liberalization were associated with bank crises and other domestic and external shocks, and that higher schooling inequality reduces the impetus for liberalization brought on by bank crises.Latin America, education, inequality, financial liberalization

Movilidad intergeneracional en América Latina

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) El elevado grado de desigualdad ha sido visto por mucho tiempo como uno de los principales problemas que encaran los países latinoamericanos. Para comprender mejor los factores determinantes de la desigualdad y ayudar a orientar el pensar sobre las opciones de políticas, conviene averiguar primero si la desigualdad obedece o no principalmente a una escasa capacidad de movilización intergeneracional, o si es impulsada por diferencias en características individuales que surgen independientemente del historial familiar. En este trabajo empleamos cinco encuestas de hogares con preguntas sobre las características socioeconómicas de los padres de adultos, y un conjunto de 112 encuestas estándar entre hogares, para analizar la transmisión intergeneracional de escolaridad y el estado ocupacional en América Latina y Estados Unidos. Hallamos que la movilidad intergeneracional es mucho mayor en EE. UU. que en América Latina, que hay diferencias considerables de movilidad dentro de América Latina y que la movilidad en América Latina se relaciona fuertemente con los niveles de escolaridad y los gastos en educación.

Improving child nutrition for sustainable poverty reduction in Africa

"While famines and other episodes of severe hunger receive significant press coverage and attract much public attention, chronic hunger and malnutrition are considerably more prevalent in Africa. It is estimated that 14 percent of children are born with low birthweights every year, around 45 million preschool children are malnourished, and 192 million Africans of all ages are hungry.... This brief argues that failing to give adequate attention to child nutrition issues is shortsighted if African governments seek sustainable reductions in poverty. In poorly nourished populations, reductions in hunger and improvements in nutrition provide considerable productivity gains and save resources that can then be used for other pressing investments. It is the existence of these sizeable gains together with the availability of cost-effective interventions that underlies the economic case for improving child nutrition in Africa." from Text

Movilidad de la enseñanza intergeneracional y condiciones macro y políticas de enseñanza en América Latina

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) Los efectos de las reformas de mercado y de políticas sobre la pobreza y la desigualdad en América Latina han sido motivo de considerable preocupación. La región sigue exhibiendo desigualdades de ingresos relativamente grandes. Dos sociedades distintas con la misma distribución del ingreso pueden tener niveles distintos de seguridad social porque tienen grados distintos de movilidad social. A la fecha es poca la atención que se le ha dado a la cuantificación de la movilidad social en la región. La escolaridad se considera un mecanismo importante a través del cual se realiza la movilidad social intergeneracional. En este trabajo se analiza la validez del vínculo entre la extracción familiar y la educación de los hijos y si la fortaleza de dicho vínculo guarda o no relación con algunas variables educacionales importantes a los niveles macro y agregado.