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The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of elderly health in the context of Mexico as a developing country and the relationship between health indicators and earnings in the labor market. The authors analyze the determinants of elderly health in Mexico, considering a number of different measures of health status, and use these indicators to evaluate the impact of health on the income of working elderly individuals. The results find that health measures have a strong negative effect on wages for male elderly workers. The lowest point estimations demonstrate that poor health lowers hourly earnings by 58 percent. These are sizable effects, particularly within the context of a developing country, which does not have a universal social security system. Poor health may also prevent others from working, and thereby contribute to high poverty rates among the elderly.

Social exclusion is closely linked with many economic problems in Latin America, as it prevents people from reaching their full productive potential -in turn constraining growth and revenues- and makes them more likely to incur public health and social service costs. Who's In and Who's Out explores various forms of social exclusion, including residential segregation in Bolivian cities, exclusion from health care in Brazil, barriers to legal status of Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica, geographic isolation in El Salvador, and educational inequality among the indigenous in Mexico. The book describes how the exclusion process is exacerbated by self-perpetuating networks of association, prohibitive prices for certain services, and misperceptions between the societal mainstream and excluded groups.

Non-PR, IFPRI1, FCND, Using data that enables us to distinguish between the different components of program participation (i.e., knowledge, application, and acceptance), we investigate the determinants of household behavior and program implementation in a social safety-net program that combines administrative and self-selection targeting methods. High undercoverage of eligible households primarily reflects lack of knowledge and binding budget constraints in poor areas. High leakage to ineligible households reflects the combination of their high levels of knowledge, application, and acceptance. Lowering undercoverage will require greater program awareness among the poor living in nonpoor areas and this is likely to come at the expense of substantial leakage to the nonpoor unless improvements are made to the verification process. Our results also suggest that in the presence of a budget constraint, the administrative selection process gives priority to the poorest households and those with children.

PR, GRP28; Theme 8; IFPRI3; ISI, FCND

Non-PR, IFPRI1, FCND, The authors use individual observations from a panel of families during the period of the peso crisis in Mexico to investigate whether and how labor market shocks, as proxied by changes in the gender- and age-specific unemployment rates in the metropolitan area of the household, affect the intertemporal time allocation of adult members and children. Their findings suggest that significant added-worker effects are in operation, especially for adult females of poorer households and in some cases children. The same shocks also increase significantly the probability that children do not continue school in the next year. The paper also presents evidence suggesting differential treatment based on the sex of children within families.

Non-PR, IFPRI1, FCND, This paper is concerned with the issue of the most cost-effective way of improving access to education for poor households in developing countries. We consider two alternatives: (1) extensive expansion of the school system (i.e., bringing education to the poor) and (2) subsidizing investment in education by the poor (i.e., bringing the poor to the education system). To this end, we evaluate the Programa Nacional de Educación, Salud y Alimentación (PROGRESA), a large poverty alleviation program recently introduced in Mexico that subsidizes education. Using double-difference regression estimators on data collected before and after the program for randomly selected control and treatment households, we estimate the relative impacts of the demand- and supply-side program components. Combining these estimates with cost information, we find that the demand-side subsidies are substantially more cost-effective than supply-side expansions.

Non-PR, IFPRI1, FCND, In this paper we investigate whether a conditional cash transfer program such as the Programa Nacional de Educación, Salud y Alimentación (PROGRESA) can simultaneously combat the problems of low school attendance and child work. PROGRESA is a new program of the Mexican government aimed at alleviating extreme poverty in rural areas. It combats the different causes of poverty by providing cash benefits that are targeted directly to households on the condition of children attending school and visiting health clinics on a regular basis. Some of the questions addressed are as follows: Does the program reduce child labor? Does it increase participation in school activities? Does the latter occur at the expense of children's leisure time? And how do the effects of the program vary by age group and gender? Our empirical analysis relies on data from a quasi-experimental design used to evaluate the impact of the program involving a sample of communities that receive PROGRESA benefits (treatment) and comparable communities that receive benefits at a later time (control). We estimate the effect of “treatment on the treated” using both double-difference and cross sectional difference estimators. Our estimates show significant increases in the school attendance of boys and girls that are accompanied by significant reductions in the participation of boys and girls in work activities. We also find that the program has a lower impact on the incidence of work for girls relative to boys.

PR, IFPRI3, FCND

Non-PR, IFPRI1; PROGRESA, FCND, This report analyzes the impact of PROGRESA on work and time allocation of its beneficiaries. In PROGRESA, the majority of benefits are linked to children’s school attendance. The fact that benefits are conditioned to children’s school attendance implies that the price of schooling is reduced. This would tend to imply, for children, an increase in school and a reduction in the participation of time spent in other activities, assuming that school and work are substitutes. With respect to adults, one might expect that a program with monetary transfers would reduce the labor supply of adults by reducing the economic need to work (through the income effect). Nevertheless, if children are now unable to perform certain work activities, other household members may substitute for their work. A final issue is the point that compliance with the obligations of PROGRESA may be time consuming especially for women. This may have the additional effect of either reducing the time available of women to dedicate to other work activities or of reducing their leisure time. The report has two main sections based on progressively broader definition of what constitutes work. In the first, we define work activities we estimate the impact of PROGRESA on work activities of men, women and children using before and after program implementation data (including the November 1997 census (ENCASEH), and the November 1998, June 1999 and November 1999 rounds of the evaluation survey (ENCEL). In the second, we use a special time use module carried out as part of the June 1999 evaluation survey (ENCEL) to look at the impact of PROGRESA on leisure time, as well as time allocated to different work activities, and school in the case of children. The time use module allows us to use a broader definition of work which include domestic and farm activities. The module also allows us some insights as to whether the time obligations of complying with the requirements of PROGRESA are important for female benefic

Non-PR, IFPRI1; PROGRESA, FCND, El presente documento analiza el impacto de Progresa sobre el trabajo y la distribución del tiempo de los beneficiarios. En Progresa, la mayoría de los beneficios están relacionados con la asistencia regular de los niños a la escuela. El hecho de que los beneficios estén condicionados a la asistencia regular de los niños a la escuela implica que el precio de la enseñanza se reduce. Esto tendería a implicar que, para los niños, un incremento en la asistencia a la escuela y una reducción en el tiempo que invierten en participar en otras actividades, asumiendo, que la escuela y el trabajo son sustitutos. Con respecto a los adultos, se podría esperar que un programa que otorga apoyos monetarios, reduciría la oferta de trabajo de los adultos reduciendo la necesidad económica de trabajar (a través del efecto ingreso). No obstante, si los niños ya no pueden realizar ciertas actividades laborales, otros miembros del hogar deben sustituir su trabajo. Un aspecto final, se refiere a que cumplir con las responsabilidades de Progresa puede consumir tiempo, especialmente en el caso de las mujeres. Esto puede tener dos posibles efectos adicionales el tiempo del que las mujeres disponen para otras actividades, o bien, la reducción de su tiempo libre. El documento tiene dos secciones principales. En la primera, se estima el impacto de Progresa en la participación de hombres, mujeres y niños en la fuerza laboral, utilizando información recabada antes y después de la implementación del Programa (incluyendo la ENCASEH97, ENCEL98N, ENCEL99M, y la ENCEL99N). En la segunda, se utilizó la encuesta de uso del tiempo aplicada como parte de la ENCEL99M para observar el impacto de Progresa en el tiempo libre, así como en la distribución del tiempo en diversas actividades laborales y en asistencia a la escuela en el caso de los niños. La encuesta de uso del tiempo, permitió utilizar una definición de trabajo más amplia, la cual incluye, actividades agrícolas y domésticas. Esta encuesta, también