Norbert Schady
Inter-American Development Bank, Social Sector, Department Member
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ABSTRACT The impact of macroeconomic crises on the investments made by parents in the human capital of their children is a question of considerable policy importance. Analysis of the effects of the profound 1988--92 macroeconomic crisis... more
ABSTRACT The impact of macroeconomic crises on the investments made by parents in the human capital of their children is a question of considerable policy importance. Analysis of the effects of the profound 1988--92 macroeconomic crisis in Peru on the schooling and employment decisions of school-age children in urban areas finds no effect on attendance rates but a significant decline in the fraction of children who are both employed and attend school. It also finds significantly higher mean educational attainment for children exposed to the crisis than for those who were not. These findings may be related: Children who are not employed have more time available and may therefore put more effort into school. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.
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ABSTRACT Despite progress in recent decades, a substantial fraction of children in developing countries attain little schooling, and many adults lack skills that are valued in the labor market. We evaluate the medium-term effects of a... more
ABSTRACT Despite progress in recent decades, a substantial fraction of children in developing countries attain little schooling, and many adults lack skills that are valued in the labor market. We evaluate the medium-term effects of a program that provided scholarships for three years to poor children upon graduation from elementary school in Cambodia, a low-income country. To do this we use a sharp regression discontinuity design. We show that scholarships have substantial effects on school attainment. By the time children would have been in grade 11 had they remained in school, two years after they stopped being eligible for scholarships, those who were offered scholarships have attained 0.6 more grades of completed schooling. Nevertheless, we find no evidence that scholarships had significant effects on test scores, employment, earnings, or the probability of getting married or having a child in adolescence.
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The diffusion of cost-effective life saving technologies has reduced infant mortality in much of the developing world. Income gains may also play a direct, protective role in ensuring child survival, although the empirical findings to... more
The diffusion of cost-effective life saving technologies has reduced infant mortality in much of the developing world. Income gains may also play a direct, protective role in ensuring child survival, although the empirical findings to date on this issue have been mixed. This ...
Research Interests: Cognitive development, Depression, Child Development, Migration, Radio, and 14 moreAttention, Housing, Human Resources, Applied Economics, Developing Country, World, Iodine, Latin American, Life Expectancy, Infant Mortality, Cognitive Ability, Socio Economic Status, Health Indicators, and Age Groups
... Subsequent directors were recruited from the private sector (Arturo Woodman, Alejandro Afuso) and from other branches of government (Manuel Es-tela, Manuel Vara Ochoa), which helped dispel some of the initial concerns. ...
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... The shifts in Brazil's trading environment are mirrored in the increased import penetration rate (imports as a percentage of output plus net imports) and export exposure (exports as a percentage of output).12 From 1987 to... more
... The shifts in Brazil's trading environment are mirrored in the increased import penetration rate (imports as a percentage of output plus net imports) and export exposure (exports as a percentage of output).12 From 1987 to 1998 average import penetration increased from 5.7 ...
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The human consequences of the recent global financial crisis for the developing world are presumed to be severe, but few studies have quantified them. This letter estimates the human cost of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis in one... more
The human consequences of the recent global financial crisis for the developing world are presumed to be severe, but few studies have quantified them. This letter estimates the human cost of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis in one critical dimension-infant mortality-for countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis pools birth-level data, as reported in female adult retrospective birth histories from all Demographic and Health Surveys collected in sub-Saharan Africa. This results in a data set of 639,000 births to 264,000 women in 30 countries. We use regression models with flexible controls for temporal trends to assess an infant's likelihood of death as a function of fluctuations in national income. We then calculate the expected number of excess deaths by combining these estimates with growth shortfalls as a result of the crisis. The results suggest 28,000-50,000 excess infant deaths in sub-Saharan Africa in the crisis-affected year of 2009. Notably, most of these additional deaths were concentrated among girls. Policies that protect the income of poor households and that maintain critical health services during times of economic contraction may reduce the expected increase in mortality. Interventions targeted at female infants and young girls can be particularly beneficial.
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Research Interests: Poverty, Mental Health, Health Care, Child Development, Child Welfare, and 21 moreChild Care, Adolescent Health, Ecuador, Social Class, Applied Economics, Social Welfare, Latin America, Child Behavior, Humans, Child, Standard Deviation, World, Health monitoring, Cash Transfers, Learning Disorders, Government Programs, Social Behavior Disorders, Conditional cash transfer programs, Control Group, Treatment Effect, and Socioeconomic Factors
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... Justin Lin Senior Vice President and Chief Economist The World Bank Joy Phumaphi ... Contributing members of the report were Francisco HG Ferreira, Margaret Grosh, Niall Keleher ... Maria Isabel Beltran, Nazmul Chaudhury, David Coady,... more
... Justin Lin Senior Vice President and Chief Economist The World Bank Joy Phumaphi ... Contributing members of the report were Francisco HG Ferreira, Margaret Grosh, Niall Keleher ... Maria Isabel Beltran, Nazmul Chaudhury, David Coady, Dante Contreras, Rafael Cortez, Aline ...
The US subprime crisis, and the likelihood that the attendant downturn will spread from developed to developing countries has left policy-makers and academics concerned about the ―human‖ costs of the crisis for poor countries. These human... more
The US subprime crisis, and the likelihood that the attendant downturn will spread from developed to developing countries has left policy-makers and academics concerned about the ―human‖ costs of the crisis for poor countries. These human costs could in principle take a variety of forms—lower income and consumption levels, higher unemployment, lower investments in education by families, and worse health
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The Impact Evaluation Series has been established in recognition of the importance of impact evaluation studies for World Bank operations and for development in general. The series serves as a vehicle for the dissemination of findings of... more
The Impact Evaluation Series has been established in recognition of the importance of impact evaluation studies for World Bank operations and for development in general. The series serves as a vehicle for the dissemination of findings of those studies. Papers in this series are ...
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I estimated the association between parents' education, mothers' vocabulary, and early child cognitive development in a sample of poor children in rural Ecuador. I used... more
I estimated the association between parents' education, mothers' vocabulary, and early child cognitive development in a sample of poor children in rural Ecuador. I used regression analysis to estimate the association between parents' education, mothers' vocabulary, and the vocabulary, memory, and visual integration skills of children at early ages, controlling for possible confounders. The study is based on a longitudinal cohort of children in rural Ecuador (n = 2118). The schooling and vocabulary levels of mothers were strong predictors of the cognitive development of young children. Household wealth and child's height, weight, and hemoglobin levels explained only a modest fraction of the observed associations. The vocabulary levels of mothers and children were more strongly correlated among older children in the sample, suggesting that the effects of a richer maternal vocabulary are cumulative. Differences in children's cognitive outcomes start very early, which has important implications for the intergenerational transmission of poverty and inequality. Programs that seek to increase early stimulation for disadvantaged children, perhaps through parenting programs or high-quality center-based care, hold promise.