Francisco Perez-Arce

The Effect of Education on Time Preferences

I examine whether education increases patience by analyzing a case study of a public college in Mexico City where admission decisions are determined through a lottery. Applicants who were successful in the draw were more likely to be studying in the following years. I surveyed the applicants to this college almost two years after the admission decision was made and measured their time preferences with a series of hypothetical inter-temporal choice questions. I find that individuals who acquired more education due to the admission lottery were, on average, more patient, which suggests there may be a causal effect of education on time preferences.

The Impact of Labor Market Regulation on Employment in Low‐Income Countries: A Meta‐Analysis

Controversy over labor market policy often centers on achieving a balance between preventing worker exploitation, and avoiding loss of productivity or employment through excessive regulation. Although the literature documenting the impact of labor market regulation on employment is extensive, there is a dearth of evidence on the impact of such policies in low-income countries (LICs). Since it is easier for workers, especially women, to slip into the informal sector in LICs, regulations are likely to have stronger impacts on formal employment in these countries (but lower impacts on unemployment). We systematically reviewed available research from countries that are, or were until recently, LICs. Most studies document that more stringent labor regulations are associated with lower formal sector employment and higher informal sector employment. We also conducted a metaregression analysis of the impact of minimum wages on formal and informal employment. After controlling for publication bias, higher minimum wages are associated with lower formal employment and a higher share of informal workers.

Race and Gender Effects on Employer Interest in Job Applicants: New Evidence from a Resume Field Experiment

ABSTRACT We sent nearly 9000 fictitious resumes to advertisements for job openings in seven major cities in the United States across six occupational categories. We randomly assigned names to the resumes that convey race and gender but for which a strong socio-economic connotation is not implicated. We find little evidence of systematic employer preferences for applicants from particular race and gender groups.

Costs of Extending the Noncontributory Pension Program for Elderly: The Mexican Case

ABSTRACT Population aging coupled with high poverty rates among older persons and a lack of access to social-security benefits or traditional support systems have led governments in low and middle-income countries to introduce non-contributory pension programs for the elderly. This article reviews a non-contributory pension program introduced in Mexico in 2007 that has since expanded greatly. We use a variety of sources to estimate current and future costs of this program.

Soft versus Hard Commitments A Test on Savings Behaviors

Many Americans save too little, leaving them vulnerable to unexpected financial shocks. Finding ways to help Americans develop emergency savings funds could greatly improve welfare. A wealth of previous literature has demonstrated the central roles played by patience and self-control in achieving sufficient savings. When people lack patience or self-control, welldesigned interventions may help improve financial stability. Increasingly, interventions intended to improve savings behavior have taken the form of externally restricted accounts such as ‘commitment accounts’ that include hefty fees for early withdrawal or that disallow withdrawals altogether for a pre-specified time. Yet, such hard commitment accounts may not appeal to impatient individuals, those who do not anticipate their own self-control problems, or to the poor for whom restrictions on scarce funds can be particularly painful. We test a new ‘soft’ commitment account that asks borrowers to think about their savings goals, how it would feel to achieve them, and make a pledge to work towards these goals (potentially increasing one’s intrinsic motivation), yet has no external restrictions on savings behavior. In a six-month randomized savings experiment we find that such soft commitments can significantly increase amounts saved on day one relative to either a hard commitment account (with external restrictions on withdrawals) or a traditional savings account. Additionally, the soft commitments significantly increased final savings balances relative to no form of commitment and were particularly effective for impatient individuals. However, despite the inherent illiquidity, the hard commitment account proved most effective in building savings balances amongst our participants at the end of six months. 1 Corresponding Author, email: jluoto@rand.org. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Roybal Center for Financial Decisionmaking. All errors are our own.

A Cost-Benefit Framework for Analyzing the Economic and Fiscal Impacts of State-Level Immigration Policies

This report uses a cost-benefit framework to classify the potential impacts of specific state-level immigration policies, identifying the potential domains of impact and how different stakeholders in the public and private sectors would be affected; assembles empirical evidence of the expected impacts; and assesses the rigor and relevance of existing studies of the fiscal and economic impacts of specific state-level immigration policy actions.

What is the Impact of Labour Market Regulation on Employment in LICs? How Does it Vary by Gender?

There is an extensive empirical literature examining the impacts of various labour market regulations on employment outcomes. However, much of this evidence focuses on developed or middle-income countries, resulting in a comparative dearth of literature that analyzes the impact of such policies in low-income countries (LICs). In addition, there are few studies that examine the impacts of such regulations by gender. This systematic review aims to synthesize the literature by focusing on the impact of labour market regulation on employment in LICs and how it varies by gender.

A meta-regression analysis on the association between income inequality and intergenerational transmission of income

Our aim is to provide an overview of associations between income inequality and intergenerational mobility in the United States, Canada, and eight European countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). We analyze whether this correlation is observed across and within countries over time. Developed countries have been experiencing increases in inequality in recent decades, mostly due to a steep concentration of income at the top of the distribution. We investigate Great Gatsby curves and perform meta-regression analyses based upon several papers on this topic. Results suggest that countries with high levels of inequality tend to have lower levels of mobility. Intergenerational income elasticities have stronger associations with the Gini coefficient, compared to associations with the top one percent income share. Once models are controlled for methodological variables, country indicators, and paper indicators, correlations of mobility with the Gini coefficient lose significance, but not with the top one percent income share. This result is an indication that recent increases in inequality at the top of the distribution (captured by the top one percent income share) might be negatively affecting mobility on a greater magnitude, compared to variations across the income distribution (captured by the Gini coefficient).

Consumption Smoothing and Frequency of Benefit Payments of Cash Transfer Programs

We analyze two noncontributory Mexican pension programs for the elderly. Both paid similar amounts, but one paid monthly while the other paid every two months. The Life Cycle Hypothesis suggests frequency of benefits payments should not affect consumption smoothing, but we find the monthly program was more effective in smoothing food expenditure. It also increased doctor visits and reduced the incidence of hunger spells. Under the bimonthly program, expenditures on food significantly decline between paychecks but ownership of durable goods increased. This suggests the importance of payment frequency in social programs.

The Impact of Cutting Education Expenditures: The Case of Mexico in the 1980s

This paper studies the impact of expenditures on the returns to schooling within a context of dramatic reductions in public spending. The author matches data on expenditures and pupil-teacher ratios from Mexico in the 1980s with individual earnings in 2007/2008 and find that the returns to education among individuals that went to poorly funded schools are lower than among those that went to better funded ones. He determines that within-state changes in educational expenditures and pupil-teacher ratios predict changes in the returns to education.