In this paper the Brazilian Favela-Bairro neighborhood improvememnt program is assessed regarding its impact on the quality of life of slum residents. Census and administrative data are used to assess impacts on services, income, health, and violence. There are three fundamental conclusions that...

This paper assesses the welfare impacts of local investments projects in rural areas of Guatemala. Using census track data from two rounds of the Guatemalan population census, we find, as expected, that local investment in schools significantly boost enrollment and normal progression in school,...

The paper investigates the relationship between government interventions to promote investments in innovation and firms-financed R&D. Merging a unique panel data set on Argentinean firms in the 1990s with a data base on different types of public support received through FONTAR program, we...

This paper evaluates Progressive Housing Program; a public housing program that facilitates the purchase of a new home. The evaluation finds that the program’s package (savings requirement, voucher and mortgage) design is inappropriate if the program is targeted to the poor. In fact the...

This study is an unprecedented effort in Brazil to evaluate the effectiveness of public incentive programs to develop technological capacity of firms. There are currently no empirical evaluations that have explored the impacts of this type of program on the performance of the Brazilian...

This paper analyzes the role of National Research Funds in promoting scientific production in emerging economies. The investigation focuses on the impact of the Chilean National Science and Technology Research Fund (FONDECYT). The analysis uses data drawn from international sources of...

In this paper we evaluate the impact of the provision of agricultural extension services to grape producers in Mendoza, Argentina, on yield and grape quality. Using fixed effects and matching techniques, we show that despite non-significant average treatment effects on yield, the program has...

In this paper, we analyzed the effectiveness of the Component 1 of the Livestock Pilot Project (LPP-1) in fostering the efficiency of the Uruguayan livestock producers. We found that the LPP-1 had an overall positive impact on the adoption of managerial practices, but it had not significant...

The Mexican Government initiated two innovative programs cash transfer schemes in the last decade: PROGRESA, which is a national anti-poverty scheme directed at chronic rural poverty, and PROCAMPO, a scheme designed to compensate farmers for the negative price effects of NAFTA. The analysis of...

This paper summarizes the findings of an impact evaluation of the Mexican training programs PROBECAT_SICAT for the period 1999-2004. The paper has five additional sections. Section 2 provides an account of the Mexican public policy towards the unemployed and a description of the institutional...