Conditional cash transfer programmes can have long-term benefits by reducing crime, lowering adolescent fertility and increasing school attendance as well as formal employment.
Conditional cash transfers (CCT) programmes have become a key policy in developing countries for supporting households in poverty and improving their long-run prospects. These programmes have been popular since the 1990s and seek both to mitigate the effects of poverty, and to incentivise households to make choices that improve their future opportunities.
Interventions that only provide material resources to preschools may fail to achieve any benefits, and have unintended negative consequences, if teachers have insufficient training.
In our recent work with the government of Colombia (Andrew et al. 2022), we use a randomized field experiment to compare two approaches to improving the quality of public preschools attended by relatively disadvantaged children. The first, designed by the Colombian government and rolled out nationwide, provided targeted preschools with significant additional funds, earmarked primarily for hiring teaching assistants (TAs). The second, designed and funded by a nongovernmental foundation, complements the first by additionally providing professional development (PD) training for the existing preschool teachers. We find that provision of funds alone had no positive impacts on child development, despite high compliance with the hiring directive. However, we show that the addition of the PD training, at moderate extra cost, did have significant positive impacts on child development.
por Heidy Monterrosa
Entre más alto sea el nivel educativo de una persona, mayor es el cupo que una entidad financiera le otorga en una tarjeta de crédito. Esta es una de las conclusiones a las que llegaron los investigadores Luis E. Arango y Lina Cardona-Sosa, quienes publicaron el artículo ‘Tarjetas de crédito en personas de ingresos medios y bajos en Colombia: ¿qué determina su uso?’ en Borradores de Economía del Banco de la República.
Numerous governments in low- and middle-income countries, such as Brazil and Mexico, have adopted conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs as a social safety net, but most recipients of these transfers have little or no experience with formal financial products. Researchers collaborated with Fundación Capital and the Government of Colombia to conduct a randomized evaluation of LISTA, a tablet-based financial education program designed for participants in Colombia's government CCT program, to study its impact on financial knowledge and behavior. LISTA had significant positive impacts on participants’ financial knowledge, attitudes, practices, and performance. Many of these impacts persisted after two years, while some waned over time. The long-term impact on participation in the formal financial system was limited, suggesting that financial education alone may not be sufficient to increase formal financial inclusion.
As in many other developing countries, children under the age of five in rural Ghana often fail to reach their developmental potential. Researchers partnered with the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the organization Lively Minds to evaluate the impact of a low-cost, play-based learning program on early childhood cognitive development. Preliminary results suggest that the Lively Minds program is an effective and potentially scalable way to improve children’s’ cognitive and socio-emotional development, health, and school readiness.
por EDUARDO LORA
En el país hay 4,3 millones de niños menores de cinco años de edad. Cuatro de cada cinco viven en alguna de las 20 áreas metropolitanas y ciudades más grandes del país. Para que las madres de estos niños puedan trabajar necesitan que alguien los cuide en la misma vivienda o en algún lugar cercano. Idealmente, ese lugar debería estar a menos de 500 metros de la vivienda, de forma que pueda accederse fácilmente a pie. Con la densidad típica de las ciudades colombianas, eso requeriría que hubiera unas 12.000 guarderías en las 20 áreas y ciudades más importantes del país.
Can Single-Sex Education Make Women Less Risk-Averse? Research indicates that women are generally more risk-averse than men, and this risk-aversion is often cited as a partial explanation for the shortage of women in high-level corporate positions. A new essay by Alison Booth, Lina Cardona Sosa, and Patrick Nolen suggests that single-sex education may change women’s risk preferences.
Alison Booth, Patrick Nolen, Lina Cardona Sosa, 20 February 2012
Some blame women’s under-representation in high-level jobs on differences between the sexes in risk aversion and competition. But are these differences in behaviour hardwired or learned? This column describes a study that tackles this thorny question with a controlled experiment in single-sex and mixed classrooms in a British university. Women are found to become far less nervous about uncertainty over time with the men out of the room.
Patrick Nolen, Lina Cardona Sosa, Alison Booth | Centre for Economic Policy Research
12 December 2011
Single‐sex classes within coeducational environments are likely to modify students' risk‐taking attitudes in economically important ways. To test this, we designed a controlled experiment using first year college students who made choices over real‐stakes lotteries at two distinct dates. Students were randomly assigned to classes of three types: all female, all male, and coeducational. They were not allowed to change group subsequently. We found that women are less likely to make risky choices than men at both dates. However, after eight weeks in a single‐sex environment, women were significantly more likely to choose the lottery than their counterparts in coeducational groups. These results are robust to the inclusion of controls for IQ and for personality type, as well as to a number of sensitivity tests. Our findings suggest that observed gender differences in behaviour under uncertainty found in previous studies might partly reflect social learning rather than inherent gender traits.
Girls do significantly better in single-sex classes, research claimed today. The academics who compiled the research said that girls who showed less confidence in the classroom may also be less competitive in the job market. The research was carried out on around 800 economics and business studies students at the University of Essex. The research was designed to build upon the findings of earlier experiments with school-age pupils which showed girls were more willing to take risks and to be competitive when placed in single-sex groups
By James Marston
They have carried out a major new study which showed the female students achieved significantly higher than average marks – and a major part of that improvement was linked to attendance, with girls much more likely to turn up for classes. However, the study revealed that while single-sex classes for girls led to better exam scores, there was no significant effect on their course work marks. The study involved monitoring first-year students at the university who were divided into three groups for introductory courses in economics – some all-girls, some all-boys and some mixed. And while there was no effect on the exam scores of the boys’ groups and the mixed groups, the girls’ groups saw a 7.5% boost in their average marks. On average, girls in single-sex groups attended 71% of the compulsory classes, while girls in mixed groups attended just 63%.
Girls do significantly better in single-sex classes, research claimed today. The academics who compiled the research said that girls who showed less confidence in the classroom may also be less competitive in the job market. The research was carried out on around 800 economics and business studies students at the University of Essex. The research was designed to build upon the findings of earlier experiments with school-age pupils which showed girls were more willing to take risks and to be competitive when placed in single-sex groups.
Los departamentos de investigación económica del sector financiero y los comisionistas de bolsa ganan mayor relevancia. Quiénes son, qué hacen y cuáles son los más reconocidos.