This study uses data from Colombia’s 2003 Encuesta de Calidad de Vida to examine how well do electricity strata (proxy for socioeconomic status) explain the choice decision for type of institution and session attended. In the model of choice by type – private vs. public universities – I find that as the electricity strata increases, the marginal probability of enrolling in a public university...

• Más detalles

Over the last decade, Argentina embarked on a broad education reform, the Federal Education Law (LFE), being its main objective to expand access to basic education, mainly, by a new organization of the schooling level structure with the extension of mandatory schooling from 7 to 10 years. The provinces reactions were heterogeneous. We try to evaluate the relationship among the LFE and access and...

• Más detalles

In this paper we study the determinants and distribution of learning outcomes in Argentina I measured by PISA 2000 reading and math test scores. To do that, we estimate education production functions at the mean of the distribution using survey regressions and at different parts of the score 's distribution with quantile regressions. In terms of educational policy aimed at improving learning...

• Más detalles

We use the PISA 2003 student-level achievement database for Mexico to estimate state education production functions. Student characteristics, family background, home inputs, resources and institutions are controlled for. We take advantage of the state-level variation and representative sample to analyze the impact of institutional factors such as state accountability systems and the role of...

• Más detalles

This paper draws on a political economy model to hypothesize that the quality of education is likely to be lowered by both economic and political inequalities. In particular, we utilize a panel data set across countries and over time to test the applicability of the hypothesis to quality of education indicators at the primary level. Among the four specific indicators of primary education assigned...

• Más detalles

The evolution of specific welfare-related indicators for these indigenous populations during the last decade is the theme of this important book. The study declares to have four guiding questions, to wit: 1. Have income poverty rates increased or decreased among Indigenous Peoples over the past decade, and what are the main determinants of observed trends?, How does this evolution compare to...

• Más detalles

The Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS) and Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) co-hosted an international conference on "The Quality of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean" in February 2007. The main obj ective of the conference was to examine quality of education in the region, the determinants of learning, policy and program evaluation, and the impact of quality of...

• Más detalles

As the volume title suggests, three of the studies deal with the effects of remittances on incomes and measures of well-being, four address various aspects of highly skilled migration, while the remaining paper examines the determinants of migration from rural Mexico to the US. Each of these is certainly topical: the rise in reported global remittance flows has been a major spur to the recent...

• Más detalles

International migrants are persons who cross national borders and remain outside their countries of birth or citizenship for 12 months or more, regardless of the reason for being abroad or legal status while abroad. According to UN estimates, the number of international migrants was 191 million in 2005, and half were in the labor force of the destination country. International labor migration...

• Más detalles

We seek to further understand the factors that determine per emigrant remittances using data from 23 Latin American and Caribbean countries over the 1980-2003 period. We find that emigrants avoid remitting when the exchange rate is under pressure. This finding is consistent with the notion that remitters strive to reduce their exposure to exchange rate losses by taking into account the expected...

• Más detalles

We explore the time pattern of remittances using data on return migrants from the Mexican Migration Project. Some of these return migrants have settled in the U.S. and are returning to Mexico to visit family and friends, whereas others are temporary migrants returning home after a working spell in the U.S. We find that the dollar amount remitted first increases with time spent in the U.S. to...

• Más detalles

The focus on short-term macroeconomic factors, including unemployment and wages, is insufficient to explain international migration. Institutional factors, bound to change only in the long run, can potentially have a large impact on migration flows. To illustrate this, we analyze Mexico-U.S. migration focusing on social security coverage, an important indicator of job formality. Using...

• Más detalles

In this paper, I use longitudinal data from the 1998 and 2001 Living Standard Measurement Surveys in Nicaragua to examine the impact of the emigration of household members on the household labor market integration and poverty. The main findings of the paper are that households from which an emigrant left had a reduction in members, a reduction in working members, a reduction in labor income than...

• Más detalles

The Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS) and Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) co-hosted an international conference on “The Effects of Migration on Sending Countries” in February of 2006. The major objective of the conference was to examine a variety of channels through which migration affects the sending countries. Migrants change the dynamic of sending households; alter labor...

• Más detalles

The 2006 Issue of the Report on Social Security in the Americas is divided in four chapters. The first two chapters address older-adult issues, the third chapter deals with disability-related problems, and the fourth chapter discusses Social Security agreements in the Americas. In the Presentation, it was pointed out that the objective of the Report on Social Security in the Americas is to become...

• Más detalles

This paper describes the Chilean experience concerning the implementation of a new unemployment insurance (UI) program. The use of individual savings accounts and private management are essential elements. In addition, a redistributive fund (Common Fund) helps workers pool risks, distributing resources from employed to unemployed workers and from stable firms to workers with low incomes and...

• Más detalles

Designing educational policies under limited budgets requires a thorough analysis of the impact of alternative factors on student performance. This work aims at providing an analysis of the relationship between university performance and its explanatory factors. The analysis Will focus on the Argentinean case, using the 1994 Census of Students in National Universities, which includes data on all...

• Más detalles

The purpose of this essay is to appraise alternative hypothesis about the origins of recent social revolt in Mexico. It shows that it is not clear that a severe rise in poverty preceded the origins of violent conflict but social polarisation. Therefore, government attempts to deactivate the economic factors that led to social unrest did not necessarily upgrade povertyreduction policies. The...

• Más detalles

This paper analyzes the roles of health goods and services markets within the regional integration process. It is a known fact that the consolidation of integrated markets is slower regarding social goods and services (as health and education) than among other goods and services (e.g. durable consumption goods). The paper discusses the nature of the health sector and its global dimension, showing...

• Más detalles

This article presents the Mexican experience with the introduction of basic transaction accounts. Basic accounts are relatively cheap simple banking products with restricted functionality targeted at social groups that have limited access to transaction accounts. In Mexico, basic payroll accounts and accounts for the general public were introduced. By law, these products must be offered by all...

• Más detalles