Youth unemployment in Latin America is exceptionally high, as much as 50% among the poor. Vocational training may be the best chance to help unemployed young people at the bottom of the income distribution. This paper evaluates the impact of a randomized training program for disadvantaged youth...

This paper evaluates the impact of a randomized training program for disadvantaged youth introduced in Colombia in 2005. This randomized trial offers a unique opportunity to examine the impact of training in developing countries. We use originally collected data on individuals randomly offered...

This paper evaluates the impact of a randomized training program for disadvantaged youth introduced in Colombia in 2005. This randomized trial offers a unique opportunity to examine the impact of training in a middle income country. We use originally collected data on individuals randomly...

We study the socio-economic gradient of child development on a representative sample of low- and middle-income children aged 6-42 months in Bogota, using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, a high quality test based on direct observation of the child's abilities. We find a statistically...

This discussion paper was presented in the seminar "First Meeting of the Social Policy Monitoring Network: Conditional Cash-Transfer Programs". In this paper the authors use an economic model to analyze data from a major randomized social experiment, namely PROGRESA in Mexico, and to evaluate...

Previous empirical literature has found a sharp decline in consumption during the first years of retirement implying that individuals do not save enough for their retirement. This phenomenon has been called the retirement consumption puzzle. In contrast to some of the previous studies, the...

Presents information about opportunity cost of attendance to school, touching on issues of the proper dimensioning of cash subsidies, the adequacy of the conditionality and operational issues associated with conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs. It then analyzes the challenge of increasing...

In this paper, we use an economic model to analyse data from a major randomized social experiment, namely PROGRESA in Mexico, and to evaluate its impact on school participation. We show the usefulness of using experimental data to estimate a structural economic model as well as the importance of...

Presents information about opportunity cost of attendance to school, touching on issues of the proper dimensioning of cash subsidies, the adequacy of the conditionality and operational issues associated with conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs. It then analyzes the challenge of increasing...

Using the infrastructure of a national welfare program we implemented the integrated early child development intervention on a large scale and showed its potential for improving children’s cognitive development. We found no effect of supplementation on developmental or health outcomes....