Investment in human capital is an important tool for reducing poverty. However, the poor may lack the capacity to aspire, which often results in underinvestment in their children's education. This paper studies the effect of a social program on the educational aspirations poor parents have for...

Investment in human capital is an important tool for reducing poverty. However, the poor may lack the capacity to aspire, which often results in underinvestment in their children’s education. This paper studies the effect of a social program on the educational aspirations of the poor, and...

This paper presents empirical evidence that allows us to understand how does the welfare level of beneficiary households of the conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades evolve, both in the short and in the medium term. Understanding this evolution is relevant in order to design efficient...

When beneficiary households of the Oportunidades program are surveyed again, it can occur that: (i) they keep their eligibility, (ii) they keep their eligibility with a lower cash transfer, or (iii) they are not eligible anymore. We use administrative records of the program to show what factors...

The schooling repayment hypothesis for private transfers predicts a positive relationship between the amount of parental investment in childrens education and the amount that adult children transfer to their parents. This paper provides evidence on the repayment motive using data from the...

This paper presents empirical evidence that allows us to understand how does the welfare level of beneficiary households of the conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades evolve, both in the short and in the medium term. Understanding this evolution is relevant in order to design efficient...

The rise of childhood obesity in less developed countries is often overlooked. We study the impact of body weight report cards in Mexico. The report cards increased parental knowledge and shifted parental attitudes about children's weight. We observe no meaningful changes in parental behaviors...

This paper introduces endogenous fertility into a model of occupational choice, and studies its steady states. Three main results are obtained. First, despite the presence of both income and substitution eects in fertility choice, general equilibrium eects operating via endogenous wages in...

Theories based on partial equilibrium reasoning alone cannot explain the widespread negative cross-sectional correlation between parental wages and fertility, without restrictive assumptions on preferences and childcare costs. We argue that incorporating a dynamic general equilibrium analysis of...