Nicolas Fajardo-Acosta

In this document, I present an analysis of the expansion of the national preschool education in Peru, trying to exploit the exogenous variation generated by the policy after the 2004’s Education Reform. Consequently, using a family-fixed effects design that allows for heterogeneity, I seek to identify the effect through the variation in siblings’ exposure to the rollout of preschools across Peru. In theory, such an empirical strategy allows me to overcome selection concerns, as well as to account for external validity issues. Unfortunately, I find that the estimation framework, although appropriate in its theoretical concerns, cannot be used in this particular setting due to an important lack of power. I analyze the possible explanations and suggest new avenues to try to recover the Average Treatment Effect [ATE] for this particular example.

Regarding employment opportunities, ethnicity differences are among the most discussed questions of labor economists. Using data from the 1984-2018 German Socio-Economic Panel, we apply non-structural analysis to examine the occupational status gaps between native Germans and immigrants. In this paper, we develop two different occupational classification methods based on the skill-cell approach: the first classification relies on the ISCO-08 job skills level, whereas the second approach bases on the level of language proficiency as a job requirement. However, due to the inherent limitations of our modeling method, which fails to capture the heterogeneity of the assimilation process, we could not find large differences existing between native-born Germans and both the first- and the second-generation of immigrants after controlling for one’s education, experience, and other socio-demographic characteristics

We study international tourist arrivals to Colombia. We identify the travelers’ geographical origin and divide them into two subgroups: Colombians living abroad and foreigners. We find that the inflows of international tourists: i) are concentrated in 20 emitting countries, ii) are composed mostly of Colombians living abroad, iii) accelerated in the last 5 years due to the remarkable increase in foreigners’ arrivals, and iv) explain the evolution of international travel receipts. We estimate gravity equations using panel data models for the period 2001-2017, finding that arrivals depend positively on the size of the economy of emitting countries, the volume of trade, the Colombian population living abroad and the infrastructure in hotels and accommodation establishments, and negatively on the distance to Colombia and on the perception of internal security. In addition, we find that the determinants of arrivals are different for Colombians living abroad and foreigners.

This document reviews the role of public policies promoting microcredit in Colombia, using the case of “Banca de las Oportunidades” [B.O.]. For that purpose, we link social innovation and microcredit together while putting special attention to their conceptualization and purported goals. A critical revision, including both orthodox and alternative perspectives, allows us to analyze the problem comprehensively. Additionally, besides a historical review of the policies promoting microcredit in Colombia, we examine whether microcredit has abided to its original objective: As a tool for fighting poverty. Later, we present a brief qualitative analysis of those policies and comment on the microcredit policy introduced by the national government. Finally, after evaluating the impementation of B.O. and defining “microcredit” as a “social innovation”; we suggest that the government, far from enhancing the environment for social innovation, is financing the status quo of poverty.