http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/20888/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31741/ 2012-03-06T00:00:00Z The importance of ever-earlier interventions to help children reach their physical and cognitive potential is increasingly being recognized. In part, as a result of this, in developing countries, antenatal care is becoming an important element of strategies to prevent child stunting in utero and later. Notwithstanding their policy relevance and substantial expansion, empirical evidence on the role of antenatal care (ANC) programs in combating stunting is scarce. This study analyzes the role of ANC programs in determining the level and distribution of child stunting in three Andean countries - Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru - where since the 1990s, expanding access to such care has been an explicit policy intervention to tackle child malnutrition. We find that the use of such services is associated with a reduction in the level of malnutrition and at the same time access to such services is relatively equally distributed. While this is a positive sign, it also suggests that further expansion of ANC programs is unlikely to play a large role in reducing inequalities in malnutrition. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32703/ 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z This article examines the impact of Argentina's Plan Jefes, an unemployment assistance program, on the probability of transiting to employment between the period May 2002 and May 2003. While the program does seem to have had positive effects and the existing work highlights the role of the Plan in terms of providing a safety net, this article complements the literature by focusing on the effect of the Plan on influencing the probability of finding a job in the wider labor market. While Argentina has a variety of passive and active labor market interventions to protect unemployed workers, at the moment, the two main programs are a passive unemployment insurance (UI) program and Plan Jefes, an unemployment assistance (UA) program. The UI system was introduced in 1991 and provides monthly income support to unemployed workers previously engaged in the formal sector. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32702/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z ABSTRACT: We examine the effects of trade liberalization on child work in Indonesia, identifying geographical differences in the effects of trade policy through district level exposure to reduction in import tariff barriers, from 1993 to 2002. The results suggest that increased exposure to trade liberalization is associated with a decrease in child work among the 10–15 year olds. The effects of tariff reductions are strongest for children from low-skill backgrounds, older siblings, and in rural areas. Favorable income effects for the poor, induced by trade liberalization, are likely to be the dominating effects underlying these results. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18706/ 2009-12-01T00:00:00Z We examine the marginal effects of decentralized public health spending by incorporating estimates of behavioural responses to changes in public health spending through benefit incidence analysis. The analysis is based on a panel dataset of 207 Indonesian districts over a 4-year period from 2001 to 2004. We show that district-level public health spending is largely driven by central government transfers, with an elasticity of public health spending with respect to district revenues of around 0.9. We find a positive effect of public health spending on utilization of outpatient care in the public sector for the poorest two quartiles. We find no evidence that public expenditures crowd oututilization of private services or household health spending. Our analysis suggests that increased public health spending improves targeting to the poor, as behavioural changes in public health care utilization are pro-poor. Nonetheless, most of the benefits of the additional spending accrued to existing users of services, as initial utilization shares outweigh the behavioural responses. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17453/ 2009-08-01T00:00:00Z We examine the effects of trade liberalization on child work in Indonesia. Our estimation strategy identifies geographical differences in the effects of trade policy through district level exposure to reduction in import tariff barriers. We use a balanced panel of 261 districts, based on four rounds (1993 to 2002) of the Indonesian annual national household survey (Susenas), and relate workforce participation of children aged 10-15 to geographic variation in relative tariff exposure. Our main findings show that increased exposure to trade liberalization is associated with a decrease in child work among the 10 to 15 year olds. The effects of tariff reductions are strongest for children from low skill backgrounds and in rural areas. Favorable income effects for the poor, induced by trade liberalization, are likely to be the dominating effects underlying these results. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17438/ 2009-06-01T00:00:00Z Over the last decade Ecuador has experienced a strong increase in financial transfers from migrated workers. This paper investigates how remittances via trans-national networks affect human capital investments through relaxing resource constraints and facilitate households in consumption smoothing by reducing vulnerability to economic shocks. Our results show that remittances in- crease school enrollment and decrease incidence of child work, especially for girls and in rural areas. Furthermore, we find that aggregate shocks are associated with increased work activities, while remittances are used to finance education when households are faced with these shocks. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18735/ 2008-04-01T00:00:00Z Over the last decade Ecuador has experienced a strong increase in financial transfers from migrated workers. This paper investigates how remittances via trans-national networks affect human capital investments through relaxing resource constraints and facilitate households in consumption smoothing by reducing vulnerability to economic shocks. Our results show that remittances increase school enrolment and decrease incidence of child work, especially for girls and in rural areas. Furthermore, we find that aggregate shocks are associated with increased work activities, while remittances are used to finance education when households are faced with these shocks. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18747/ 2007-10-01T00:00:00Z In 2001-02, Argentina experienced a wrenching economic crisis. Plan Jefes, implemented in May 2002, was Argentina’s institutional response to the increases in unemployment and poverty triggered by the crisis. The program provided a social safety net and appears to have successfully protected families against indigence. Despite this success, the continued existence of the program, which provides benefits to eligible unemployed individuals for an unlimited duration, may have unappealing long-term consequences. Reliance on the plan may reduce the incentive to search for work and in the long-run may damage individual employability and perpetuate poverty. Motivated by these concerns, this paper examines the effect of participating in Plan Jefes on the probability of exiting from unemployment. Regardless of the data set, the specification, the empirical approach and the control group, the evidence assembled in this paper shows that for the period under analysis individuals enrolled in the Plan are at least 20 percentage points less likely to transit to employment as compared to individuals who are not on the Plan. The negative effect of the program tends to be larger for females and as a consequence, over time, the program becomes increasingly feminized. Prima facie, the estimates suggest that programs such as Plan Jefes need to re-consider the balance between providing a social safety net and dulling work incentives.