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Becoming a Teacher: Experimental Evidence from an Information Intervention
Get PDFEducation systems seeking to improve outcomes must attract, develop, and retain highly effective teachers. A critical challenge is making the teaching profession appealing to talented youth. This paper presents evidence from an experiment in Peru, where we provided high school seniors with information about recent reforms to the teaching career. Wefi nd positive effects on both the extensive and intensive margins: treated students were more likely to enroll in higher education and to choose an education major. These results suggest that career incentives and information can shape not only the current teaching workforce but also future cohorts
Effects of Land Administration: Evaluation of Ecuador\u27s Rural Land Administration Program, SigTierras
Get PDFThis paper evaluates the impact of a rural land administration program in Ecuador, SigTierras. Using a doubly robust estimation, which combines a difference-in-differences design with inverse propensity weighting, we estimate the causal effect of the program on beneficiary households with land tenure issues. We find that SigTierras had no effect on improving the perception of land tenure security, reducing land conflicts, or increasing the use of land inputs such as pesticides and fertilizers. SigTierras did significantly increase agricultural wages and annual household income of beneficiary landowners. These results suggest that land administration programs must incorporate specific mechanisms to ensure parcels can effectively be regularized and lower the burden and private cost of required legal formalization procedures. It is further crucial to understand the sociocultural context in which such policies are implemented. Where informal tenure provides sufficient tenure security, providing lower cost solutions, such as digital cadaster maps of the parcel, may be sufficient to incentivize landowners to complement farm production with off farm income generating activities
Research Insights: Can After-School Programs, as a Source of Socio-Emotional Learning, Help to Improve Adolescents Behaviors and Academic Outcomes?
Get PDFAfter-school programs (ASP) with psychology-based curricula improved students behavior at school by 23 percentage points compared to extracurricular-only programs in violent neighborhoods of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The impact on improved behavior was largest for the highest-risk students. Programs with a mindfulness curriculum were more effective than those focused on character development, reducing dropout and improving fluid intelligence
Research Insights: Is Business Dynamism Declining?
Get PDFRecent research shows a global decline in business dynamism, characterized by lower firm entry rates and slower job reallocation, particularly in advanced economies. The global decline in business dynamism is widespread across sectors, including the sectors that have been relatively more dynamic such as those intensive in information and communication technology. Demographic trends, such as the slowdown in working-age population growth, have the potential to explain the slowdown in business dynamism, as entry rates are closely linked to population growth rates. However, variation in population growth rates appears to account for only part of the decline in business dynamism
Inter-American Development Bank Quarterly Business Review: Second Quarter 2024
No full textThe 2024 second quarter edition of the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) provides management with a status of the Bank\u27s performance. The QBR reports on outputs, lending program priorities and organizational indicators on a quarterly basis to allow management to monitor progress in achieving corporate results. This periodic monitoring supports evidence-based decision making and allows for timely identification of deviations from targets and enables effective implementation of measures to address them. Also, the QBR provides an overview of the IDB\u27s performance on sovereign-guaranteed outputs and lending program priorities. It identifies trend deviations from IDB portfolio targets to support Bank management efforts to identify and implement corrective measures. This edition compiles data for the second quarter of 2024
Agricultural Productivity in the Latin America and Caribbean Region (1961-2021)
Get PDFAgricultural productivity has been a critical driver of economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) over the past six decades. However, while agricultural output is still rising, recent trends suggest a decline in agricultural productivity and an increasing reliance on input use, which could have harmful effects on the environment and natural resources. This study aims to analyze the historical trends of agricultural productivity in LAC while assessing the heterogeneous dynamics among subregions and countries, using a unique dataset compiled by the USDA, combined with FAO and ILO data for the period from 1961 to 2021. Agricultural productivity is essential for addressing LAC\u27s interconnected challenges of poverty, food insecurity, and climate change. Hence, understanding its drivers is key to designing comprehensive policies to improve efficiency and ensure long-term sustainable development across the region
Latin America and the Caribbean Standardized Public Debt Database: Data as of December 2023
No full textThis database compiles currrent standardized statistics on sovereign debt issuances for the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region and contains biannual data starting in 2006 through December 2023. Sovereign debt data is classified by legislation, creditor, currency, and maturity, among other areas, for 26 LAC countries. The availability of valid, comparable, and standardized public debt data is essential for the implementation of sound policies. As such, at the core of the LAC Debt Group initiative is the development of a standardized sovereign debt database to help debt managers, policymakers, and other actors of financial markets analyze the evolution and composition of public debt in the region and conduct cross-country comparisons. The data are provided by LAC public debt offices in response to a questionnaire specifically designed to allow comparability of data. The questionnaire, whose response is non-compulsory, is intended to compile current standardized statistics for objective and homogeneous definitions of public debt
The Diffusion of Artificial Intelligence in an Emerging Economy: Evidence at the Firm Level in Colombia
Get PDFArtificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize industries throughout the world, offering new opportunities for innovation and efficiency. As with other new technologies, its diffusion is expected to be uneven among different countries, sectors, and firms. Studying this phenomenon is difficult in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) because information regarding AI adoption in the region is minimal. This study addresses this gap by offering the first exhaustive characterization of AI adoption among Colombian manufacturing firms. We constructed a panel dataset of 12,765 industrial firms for 2019 and 2020 by pooling three national statistical surveys. This reveals that 6 percent of manufacturing firms have adopted some form of AI, representing around 50 percent of the adoption rate in the U.S. manufacturing sector. The results show that adoption is heterogeneous among sub-sectors and regions. Similar to that observed in other high-income countries, the largest firms are much more likely to adopt AI. Younger firms are especially active in developing AI technologies. The findings also highlight the key role of complementary assets, such as managerial and innovation capacities, in deciding whether to adopt AI. This study yields novel results regarding technological development in the Colombian manufacturing sector and provides a basis for policy interventions to promote the adoption of AI
2024 Latin American and Caribbean Macroeconomic Report: Ready for Take-Off? Building on Macroeconomic Stability for Growth
No full textLatin America and the Caribbean overcame significant economic challenges in 2023 and exceeded growth expectations thanks to the strong macroeconomic fundamentals it laid in recent years. The region was able to cut inflation through large interest rate hikes and unwind steep spending increases it had undertaken due to COVID-19a marked departure from previous crises where expansionary measures proved stubborn to reverse. To build on this success, countries now face additional challenges: lowering interest rates without triggering significant capital outflows, exchange rate depreciation, and an increase in inflation; reducing fiscal imbalances due to higher global interest rates in a politically charged context; and the daunting task of implementing far-reaching reforms to tackle low productivity and set the course for long-term growth. As countries chart their path forward, they can capitalize on their rich natural endowments-from renewable energy sources to minerals and food-to grow their economies on the road toward net-zero emissions. The 2024 Latin America and Caribbean Macroeconomic Report analyzes the opportunities and challenges facing the region as it embarks on this journey
Inter-American Development Bank Annual Report 2023: The Year in Review
No full textThe Annual Report contains a review of the Bank\u27s operations in 2023 (loans, guarantees and grants). The second volume contains the full set of the financial statements of the Bank\u27s resources