We exploit the randomized evaluation of a remedying education intervention that improved the reading skills of low-performing third grade students in Colombia, to study whether providing educational support to low-achieving students affects the academic performance of their higher-achieving...

We use matched employer-employee data together with data on the ownership networks of Chilean firms to document a novel relationship between inequality in labor income and ownership structures. Exploiting transitions of firms in and out of networks, we show that network affiliation is associated...

This paper studies the effect of fiscal rules on debt affordability in a large set of developed and emerging market economies, using a panel data model which allows the inclusion of weakly exogenous regressors, and which deals appropriately with cross-sectional dependence. The results show a...

This paper studies volatility spillovers in credit default swaps (CDS) between the corporate sectors and Latin American countries. Daily data from October 14, 2006, to August 23, 2021, are employed. Spillovers are computed both for the raw data and for filtered series which factor out the effect...

To study the causal impact of oil royalties on human capital, we exploit quasi-experimental variation arising from a law in Ecuador that transfers resources to municipalities regardless of their oil-producing status. We find that royalties increase the likelihood of students completing primary...

An issue that affects the effectiveness of water pricing policies is consumers' misperception, which implies that households decide their water consumption based on poor/inaccurate information about the marginal price. We use household survey data on bill and quality perception in Brazil to...

By 2017, one-quarter of people born in El Salvador were estimated to be living in the U.S. We show that extreme temperatures have negatively affected agricultural production and increased international migration from El Salvador. We find that labor markets act as a transmission mechanism of the...

The effect of market competition on firm innovation remains controversial, especially in the context of developing countries. This paper presents new empirical evidence about the causal impact of competition on firm innovation for Chilean and Colombian manufacturing firms. Using...

We study how policies that facilitate firm digital adoption shape the labor market and economic recovery from COVID-19 in a search and matching framework with firm entry and exit where salaried firms can adopt digital technologies and the labor market and firm structure embodies key features of...

Two databases are constructed on GHG emissions associated with Argentina's international trade between 2000 and 2017, emissions derived from the production of exported goods and those associated with the international transport of exports and imports. Food, beverages, and tobacco, and...