代写ECN 310 Latin American Economic Development Problem Set 4 Spring 2024

ECN 310

Latin American Economic Development

Problem Set 4

Spring 2024

Please write your answers on a separate page. Make sure to list the question number for each answer.

Education

1. True or False and explain. The Mexican program Progresa/Oportunidades provides money to poor mothers with school-aged children with no strings attached (unconditionally).

2. True or False and explain. The Mexican program Progresa/Oportunidades was designed in a way that made the program easy to evaluate.

3. Susan Parker and Petra Todd provide an excellent review of the research on the Progresa/Oportunidades program in their paper “Conditional Cash Transfers: The Case of Progresa/Oportunidades.” Section 5.3 describes the literature on household income, consumption, investment, and savings. Pick two of your favorite studies discussed in this section, briefly describe each study and the findings, and briefly describe why you think each study is important.

4. As part of his paper “The (Perceived) Returns to Education and the Demand for Schooling,” Robert Jensen provided information on how much workers earned with different levels of education to eighth grade boys in the Dominican Republic. What effect did this information have on the students’ perceptions about the returns to schooling and what effect did it have on their schooling? And in one sentence describe why you think the information impacted schooling in this way.

5. List two factors that influence how long an individual stays in school (and thus their eventual amount of schooling).

6. Suppose country leaders want to increase schooling in their country and want your advice. Based on what we’ve seen in class, provide two recommendations for programs/interventions/policies that might help.

Institutions, Corruption, and Governance

7. Define corruption in your own words.

8. In their paper “Do Government Audits Reduce Corruption? Estimating the Impacts of Exposing Corrupt Politicians,” Avis, Ferraz, and Finan show that when Brazilian municipalities are audited by a central corruption agency, corruption levels are lower in the subsequent years. List two reasons why a past audit may lead to less corruption.

9. True or False and explain. Electoral rules that enhance political accountability (i.e., politicians act on behalf of the people and people have the ability to reward or sanction the politician) can constrain corruption.

10. Property rights are a key aspect of institutional quality. Provide one example of how improved property rights might lead to improved efficiency and/or better economic outcomes. Note: This can be an example we saw in class but can also be another relevant example.

Crime, Violence, and Conflict

11. True or False and explain. Latin America is the most violent region in the world.

12. List two ways violence/conflict might have negative economic consequences using insights from the Solow Model. Note: You do not need to provide the math or graphs (though that might help) but do need to explain clearly which variables/parameters are affected and how this impacts income per capita in the short and long-run.

13. Suppose oil prices increase which increases tax revenue for local governments and allows these governments to provide more resources to law enforcement to crack down on criminals and other violent groups. This then leads to a decrease in violence. Which of the economic theories of conflict would this story be consistent with?

14. In their paper “Commodity Price Shocks and Civil Conflict: Evidence from Colombia,” Dube and Vargas find that a decrease in the international price of coffee increased conflict in the coffee producing-regions of Colombia while an increase in the international price of oil also increased conflict in the oil-producing regions of Colombia. Why might a price increase lead to more conflict for some commodities and a price decrease lead to more conflict for other commodities? You should incorporate the economic theories of conflict in your answer.

15. There are two major approaches to limiting drug production and the violence associated with it: 1.) Target and prosecute the cartels and traffickers and 2.) Raise the opportunity cost of growing drug crops in rural areas/working for cartels. Based on what we’ve talked about in class and read, which of the two approaches do you favor if any? Briefly explain why.