Recent research links the inequality across countries and regions to colonial institutions. This paper argues that trade shocks could alter the development path of a country or subnational units, in spite of its colonial institutions. This hypothesis is analyzed using state-level data for...

El presente trabajo explora las causas de la deforestación y la pérdida de biodiversidad en Guatemala. El documento se divide en cuatro partes. En la primera, se presenta una generalización sobre la deforestación en Guatemala entre 1950-2000. Así mismo se explora la relación entre...

This paper examines the equilibrium effects of alternative financial aid policies intended to promote college participation. We build an overlapping generations life cycle model with education, labor supply, and consumption/saving decisions. Cognitive and non-cognitive skills of children depend...

This paper considers how optimal education and tax policy depends on the risk properties of human capital. It is demonstrated that a key feature of human capital investments is whether they increase or decrease wage risk. In a benchmark model it is shown that this feature alone determines...

This paper analyzes educational choices and political support for subsidies to higher education in the presence of a time-consistency problem in income redistribution. There may be political support for so generous subsidization that it motivates the median voter to obtain higher education. As a...

Using a model of O-ring production function, the paper demonstrates how certain communities can get caught in a low-literacy trap in which each individual finds it not worthwhile investing in higher skills because others are not high-skilled. The model sheds light on educational policy. It is...

This paper empirically analyzes the impact of aid on education for about 100 countries over the period 1970-2005. We estimate a system of equations to test whether and to what extent the impact of sector-specific aid on educational attainment depends on (i) the extent to which aid adds to...

Es wird untersucht, auf welche Weise die Länder Litauen, Polen und Ungarn ihre Bildungssysteme vor dem Hintergrund der politischen und ökonomischen Transformation reformiert haben. Hierbei wird auf die unterschiedlichen Ausgangssituationen und Ziele eingegangen und untersucht, ob die gesetzten...