In early May I attended a conference on Skills, Education and Labor Market Outcomes at the University of Maryland. Five papers were presented discussing investments in human capital, its effects and mechanisms through which these investments provide returns later in the labor market. A link to the papers and information on the conference can be found here. This research … [Read more...] about Go to school, but only if it is a good one
Where the wild beasts are (and attack randomly)
As you sit in front of your screen, the thought of wild dangerous beasts in faraway places may sound quaint and take you to another era when Sandokan fought off ferocious felines or to the protection of innocence in the Life of Pi. But less cinematic beasts such as wild boars can inflict significant economic hardship on poor farmers. … [Read more...] about Where the wild beasts are (and attack randomly)
CCTs: not the silver bullet, but with long lasting positive effects
Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) were a major social policy innovation in the mid/late 1990s. Instead of providing generalized subsidies, using price controls, and/or directly distributing food as means to help the poor (instruments that are inefficient, distort markets and in general are regressive), governments began to transfer cash directly to the poorest families, … [Read more...] about CCTs: not the silver bullet, but with long lasting positive effects
“Running raffles”: random assignment in the field
By Gastón Gertner and Lucas Figal Garone* In one of the case study panels in our Surveys and Impact Evaluation Workshop in Santiago this week (#Taller_EEiPP), we discussed a topic that is clearly not trivial for Impact Evaluations. How can we implement a random assignment of beneficiaries when the possibility of doing so at a desk or an office with computer-programmed … [Read more...] about “Running raffles”: random assignment in the field
Incentives in education
Participants and researchers interested on education held a session to discuss evidence on incentive schemes in education at the International workshop on Surveys and Impact Evaluation (#Taller_EEIPP) workshop taking place in Santiago. A fundamental question in education is how to introduce incentives for teachers to improve student outcomes. The teacher is the … [Read more...] about Incentives in education