In this paper, we investigate the role of young adult mortality on child labor and educational decisions. We show that, in the absence of appropriate insurance mechanisms, the level of child labor is inefficient. It may be too high if parents are not very altruistic and anticipate positive...

In this paper, we investigate the role of young adult mortality on child labour and educational decisions. We argue that mortality risks are a major source of risks in returns to education in developing countries. We show that, in the absence of appropriate insurance mechanisms, the level of...

This paper examines possible effects of college admission policy on general equilibrium outcomes at the high school stage. Specifically, we investigate whether a policy that bases college admission on relative performance at high school could modify in the aggregate the degree of segregation in...

We investigate the relative merits of unconditional cash transfers (UCT), conditional cash transfers (CCT), and improvements in education quality on efficiency and welfare. In our setting some parents under-invest in their children's education because capital market imperfections prevent them...

In this paper, we test the hypothesis that private school enrollment is the households' response to the low quality of public schools. In order to deal with the simultaneity issue, we explore variations in public school funding caused by the FUNDEF reform that occurred in Brazil in 1998. Using...

We develop a theoretical model to analyze how the lack of full enrollment affects the quality of public education chosen by majority voting. In our model, the households choose whether to enrol their child at school or not. Poor households do not send their children to school because there is an...

Can European economics become “the most dynamic and competitive in the world”? Using readily accessible data, the paper documents the following aspects: (i) today, the US outperform Europe by a factor of the order of 3, with no clear trend; the Lisbon goal is not in sight; (ii) Europe is not...

We investigate the relative merits of unconditional cash transfers (UCT), conditional cash transfers (CCT), and the effects of improvements in education quality on efficiency and welfare. In our setting, some parents underinvest in their children's education because capital market imperfections...