Maria Laura Alzua

Impact of Technical Barriers to Trade on Argentine Exports and Labor Markets

While tariff and quota barriers in agricultural, food and manufactured products have been declining due to the proliferation of multilateral trade agreements, there is increasing debate regarding the impact of product and process standards and technical regulations, since they may have become a subtler form of protection. One of the possible effects of increasing standards in developing countries is that it may affect the size of the exporting sector, with adverse effects on labor markets. We test such effect for the case of Argentina using firm level data for the manufacturing sector. We find evidence of a reduction in export shares due to an increase in standard stringency. Moreover, there is an increase in the skill ratio for exporting firms. The overall effect of standard stringency on average wages of exporting firms is negative, supporting the idea that lower net producer prices, due to a higher cost of standard compliance, are passed on to workers.

Community-Level Sanitation Coverage More Strongly Associated with Child Growth and Household Drinking Water Quality than Access to a Private Toilet in Rural Mali

Sanitation access can provide positive externalities; for example, safe disposal of feces by one household prevents disease transmission to households nearby. However, little empirical evidence exists to characterize the potential health benefits from sanitation externalities. This study investigated the effect of community sanitation coverage versus individual household sanitation access on child health and drinking water quality. Using a census of 121 villages in rural Mali, we analyzed the association of community latrine coverage (defined by a 200 m radius surrounding a household) and individual household latrine ownership with child growth and household stored water quality. Child height-for-age had a significant and positive linear relationship with community latrine coverage, while child weight-for-age and household water quality had nonlinear relationships that leveled off above 60% coverage (p < 0.01; generalized additive models). Child growth and water quality were not associated with individual household latrine ownership. The relationship between community latrine coverage and child height was strongest among households without a latrine; for these households, each 10% increase in latrine coverage was associated with a 0.031 (p-value = 0.040) increase in height-for-age z-score. In this study, the level of sanitation access of surrounding households was more important than private latrine access for protecting water quality and child health.

Long Run Effects of Youth Training Programs: Experimental Evidence from Argentina

We study the effect of a job training program for low income youth in Cordoba, Argentina. The program included life-skills and vocational training, as well as internships with private sector employers. Participants were allocated by means of a public lottery. We rely on administrative data on formal employment, employment spells and earnings, to establish the effects of the program in the short term (18 months), but also – exceptionally for programs of this type in Latin America and in developing countries in general – in the medium term (33 months) and in the long term (48 months). The results indicate sizable gains of about 8 percentage points in formal employment in the short term (about 32% higher than the control group), although these effects dissipate in the medium and in the long term. Contrary to previous results for similar programs in the region, the effects are substantially larger for men, although they also seem to fade in the long run. Program participants also exhibit earnings about 40% higher than those in the control group, and an analysis of bounds indicates that these gains result from both higher employment levels and higher wages. The detailed administrative records also allow us to shed some light on the possible mechanisms underlying these effects. A dynamic analysis of employment transitions indicates that the program operated through an increase in the persistence of employment rather than from more frequent entries into employment. The earnings effect and the higher persistence of employment suggest that the program was successful in increasing the human capital of participants, although the transient nature of these results may also reflect better matches from a program-induced increase in informal contacts or formal intermediation.

Effects of Argentina's Social Security Reform on Labor Markets and Poverty

In 1994, Argentina introduced Pension Reform and Unemployment Benefits as a major reform component to its social security system. This papers analyzes the effects of introducing new individual accounts in the pension system -which was under effect between 1994 and 2008- over wages, employment and poverty. While the macroeconomic effects of a change in the pension system is an issue that is relatively well addressed by the literature, its microeconomic effects are often neglected in the analysis. We use a CGE model to evaluate the effects of the reform on labor market and poverty. Our result indicate that if private pension funds are allocated to physical investment, labor demand and wages increase and poverty goes down. However, these effects fade out if funds of private accounts are used to buy government debt.

Youth Training Programs Beyond Employment. Experimental Evidence from Argentina

Youth training programs and their evaluations are ubiquitous, yet there is relatively little evidence on the mechanisms through which they operate and their effect on outcomes beyond the labor market. This is the motivation of our study of entra21 , a job training program for low income youth in Cordoba, Argentina. The program included life-skills and vocational training, as well as internships with private sector employers. Participants were allocated by means of a public lottery. We rely on detailed monthly administrative records for program participants, from which we construct a panel dataset including formal employment status, employment spells, earnings and welfare participation. These administrative records allow us to establish the effects of the program in the short term (18 months), but also – exceptionally for programs of this type in Latin America – in the medium term (36 months). The results indicate sizable gains of about 8 percentage points in formal employment in the short term (about 32% higher than the control group), although these effects tend to dissipate in the medium term. Contrary to what has been found for similar programs in the region, the effects of entra21 are substantially stronger for men, for whom the effects persist in the medium run. A dynamic analysis of employment transitions indicates that the program operates through an increase in the persistence of formal employment rather than from more frequent entries into employment. Program participants also exhibit earnings up to 50% higher than those in the control group, and an analysis of bounds indicates that these gains result from both higher employment levels and higher wages. The higher persistence and higher earnings suggest that the program was successful in increasing the human capital of participants rather than (or in addition to) providing contacts or formal intermediation. With respect to results beyond employment, women selected for the program exhibit lower levels of welfare dependency – younger participants (aged 18 to 24) are less likely to receive child-related public cash transfers over the whole period of analysis. Finally, we present original evidence on the relationship between formal employment and consumer credit use. Program participants exhibit a higher probability of having requested consumer credit, and a higher probability of holding bank debts in good standing. These results indicate that training and internship programs directed at disadvantaged youth can provide other indirect benefits that are not usually accounted for in existing evaluations.

Educational Reform and Labor Market Outcomes: the Case of Argentina’s Ley Federal de Educación

In the nineties Argentina implemented a large education reform (Ley Federal de Educación – LFE) that mainly implied the extension of compulsory education in two additional years. The timing in the implementation substantially varied across provinces, providing a source of identification for unraveling the causal effect of the reform. The estimations from difference-in-difference models suggest that the LFE had an overall positive although mild impact on education and labor outcomes. The impact on the income-deprived youths was small for education outcomes and null for labor outcomes.

A Community Based Program Promotes Sanitation

Basic sanitation facilities are still lacking in large parts of the developing world, engendering serious environmental health risks. Interventions commonly deliver in-kind or cash subsidies to promote private toilet ownership. In this paper, we assess an intervention that provides information and behavioral incentives to encourage villagers in rural Mali to build and use basic latrines. Using an experimental research design and carefully measured indicators of use, we find a sizeable impact from this intervention: latrine ownership and use almost doubled in intervention villages, and open defecation (OD) was reduced by half. Our results partially attribute these effects to increased knowledge about cheap and locally available sanitation solutions. They are also associated with shifts in social norms governing sanitation. Taken together, our findings, unlike previous evidence from other contexts, suggest that a progressive approach that starts with ending OD and targets whole communities at a time can help meet the United Nations’ 2015 Sustainable Development Goal of ending OD.