This paper investigates labour supply of married women in Mexico City. A static neoclassical structural mode is used. We assume that each woman chooses her labour supply and corresponding income so that her utility is maximized, conditional upon her husband ?s labour supply and earnings. We use...

This paper estimates the impact of two productive development programs (PDPs) in Costa Rica: PROPYME and CR Provee. The first seeks to increase the capacity of small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) to innovate, and the second aims to increase backward linkages between Costa Rican SMEs and...

The election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva marked Brazil's resumption of big government intervention in the economy, particularly through investment in a variety of infrastructure projects, as evidenced by the launch of the Growth Acceleration Program in 2007. Historically, such infrastructural...

This paper examines the impact on TFP of North-South trade-related technology diffusion in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). North-South R&D flows are constructed based on industry-specific R&D in the North, North-South trade patterns, and input-output relations in the South. The main...

Very little is known about the effectiveness of SME policies, and a careful look at the structure, mechanisms and incentives provided by these policies suggest caution in their implementation and, most importantly, the need to carefully and closely monitor their results. This paper relies on the...

This working paper studies the effect of remittances from the United States on crime rates in Mexico. The topic is examined using municipal-level data on the percent of household receiving remittances and homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Remittances are found to be associated with a decrease...

This paper estimates the impact of the 2010 Haiti earthquake on the household decision about children's time allocation. Using original data and objective geological measures, we exploit the fact that the earthquake might affect the decision about children's time through its magnitude and...

This paper studies the effects of teenage motherhood on later educational and labor market achievement of the mothers. We construct a pseudo panel from the Brazilian Household Surveys (the 1992–2004 PNADs) and from the Health Ministry data (DATASUS 1981–1992) by state of birth and cohort. We...

The unemployment and labor force participation gender gaps narrowed in Mexico after the 2008 global economic crisis, when female labor force participation increased. This paper aims to understand female labor force participation growth and identify its main determinants. For that purpose, the...

This study examines whether Jamaica's free public healthcare policy affected health status and labor supply of adult individuals. It compares outcomes of adults without health insurance versus their insured counterparts, before and after policy implementation. The study finds that the policy...