This paper compares gender wage gaps for Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s using the non-parametric matching methodology introduced by Ñopo (2008), which allows an analysis not only of average gaps but also their distributions. While a simple...

Scholars have often argued that crime deters growth, but the empirical literature assessing such effect is scarce. By exploiting cross-municipality income and crime data for Mexico-a country that experienced a high increase in crime rates over the past decade-this study circumvents two of the...

The relationship between income inequality and crime has attracted the interest of many researchers, but little convincing evidence exists on the causal effect of inequality on crime in developing countries. This paper estimates this effect in a unique context: Mexico's Drug War. The analysis...

Although it is widely known that the self-reported turnout rates obtained from public opinion surveys tend to substantially over-estimate the actual turnout rates, scholars sharply disagree on what causes this bias. Some blame misreporting due to social desirability, others attribute it to...

Since most social science research relies upon multiple data sources, merging data sets is an essential part of researchers' workflow. Unfortunately, a unique identifier that unambiguously links records is often unavailable and data sets may contain missing and inaccurate information. These...

The relationship between income inequality and crime has attracted the interest of many researchers, but little convincing evidence exists on the causal effect of inequality on crime in developing countries. This paper estimates this effect in a unique context: Mexico's Drug War. The analysis...