A growing body of research argues that early adverse experiences have lasting effects not only on later health outcomes, but also on human capital accumulation. This paper investigates the persistent effect of negative shocks early in life on children's health and cognitive outcomes, and...

Using data for all 2,454 municipalities of Mexico for the period 1980-2010, this paper analyzes the relationship between exposure to extreme temperatures and precipitation and death, as well as the relationship between severe weather and agricultural income and crop production in the country. It...

This paper investigates the international spillovers of housing demand shocks on real economic activity. The global economy is modelled using a Global VAR, with a novel house price data set for both advanced and emerging economies. The impulse responses to an identified US housing demand shock...

This paper surveys housing finance in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama. The development of a secondary mortgage-backed securities market in Costa Rica is very limited despite a broad legal framework, while in El Salvador it is nonexistent and in Panama has not grown due to high liquidity. In...

This paper analyzes a large database provided by INFONAVIT, Mexico's principal mortgage issuer, which contains information on borrowers' repayment behavior. It finds that borrowers who received subsidies do not show higher default rates than borrowers who received no financial assistance....

Housing for most Peruvians is improving but is still grossly inadequate. Nonetheless, public housing finance policies mainly involve programs that subsidize middle-income families and banks that lend to them. Research summarized in this paper indicates that financing will not be the main...

In Guatemala there are substantial and growing imbalances in the housing market; at the same time, financial markets remain shallow and underdeveloped. The analytical framework applied in this paper starts by identifying the types of market failures responsible for the underdevelopment of the...

This document surveys the Uruguayan housing market, first describing the main housing programs and policies, then comparing their design with households' characteristics and needs. The document additionally measures Uruguay's housing deficit, using the basis deficit as well as quantitative and...

Previous studies indicate that Colombian farmers make production decisions based on informal sources of information, such as family and neighbors or tradition. In this paper we randomize recipients of price and weather information using text messages (SMS technology). We find that relative to...