Erik Canton

Vested interests, population ageing and technology adoption

Abstract Technologies that are used differ vastly across and within countries. It is commonly observed that technologies that would improve productivity are not adopted. This paper explains the failure to adopt new technologies through costs of adoption for people of different age. We set out an overlapping generations model with majority voting that predicts a relationship between the age composition of an economy and economic growth. We also consider the effects of more intense competition on technology adoption.

Student Support and Academic Performance: Experiences at Private Universities in Mexico

Financial aid to students in tertiary education can contribute to human capital accumulation through two channels: increased enrollment and improved student performance. We pay particular attention to the latter channel, and study its quantitative importance in the context of a student support program from the Sociedad de Fomento a la Educación Superior (Society for the Promotion of Higher Education) (SOFES) implemented at private universities in Mexico. Administrative data provided by SOFES are analyzed using a regression‐discontinuity design. The advantage of the regression‐discontinuity method is that it represents a natural experiment with randomly assigned treatment so that selection issues are minimized. The empirical results suggest that this financial aid package (loans and scholarships) contributes to better academic performance.