Three essays on development and labor economics

Romero, Maria Noelia

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120398 Copy

Description

Title

Three essays on development and labor economics

Author(s)

Romero, Maria Noelia

Issue Date

2023-04-21

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Thornton, Rebecca

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Thornton, Rebecca

Committee Member(s)

• Lubotsky, Darren
• Arends Kuenning, Mary Paula
• Bartik, Alexander W.

Department of Study

Economics

Discipline

Economics

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• demography
• migration
• literacy
• language
• marriage

Abstract

This dissertation contains three chapters studying population changes in developing countries. The demographic change might happen with migration flows, colonization, and social norm changes. These changes are relevant for a policymaker to understand the characteristics of the vulnerable population and how to improve the target and benefits for them. The goal of this dissertation is to understand short- and long-run changes of skills from the labor supply side in developing countries. In the first chapter, I investigate the unprecedented immigration inflow from Venezuela to Peru between 2016 and 2018 and its local labor market response in the short run within the neighborhoods of Lima and Callao. In my second paper, I exploit the Bible's translation to different languages over time to estimate the long-lasting effect of Bible translations on literacy in Uganda. Literacy is a key factor related to productivity, wage differentials across ethnic groups, and development. In my third paper, I document the trends in child marriage and its relationship with children's well-being and socioeconomic outcomes. Overall, my work aims to understand the role of human capital formation behind the labor supply and how the labor market responds to population shocks in developing countries. In my first chapter, "The Venezuela Diaspora: Evidence from the Peruvian Labor Market," I examine the impact of immigration on local labor market outcomes using data from Peru. First, I ask whether the recent Venezuelan immigration affects Peruvian employment and wages at the neighborhood level. The Peruvian labor market's main features are that (1) it has a large informal sector with only 28% of workers covered by employer health insurance and that (2) there is a relatively low-skilled workforce, two-thirds of whom have obtained a high school degree or less. By December 2018, Peru had received more than 630,000 Venezuelan immigrants, most of whom arrived between 2017 and 2018, and approximately 85% of the immigrants settled in Lima and Callao provinces, the largest metropolitan area in Peru. This immigrant influx represented an 8.3% increase in the 2017 population in Lima and Callao. I exploit the Peruvian Labor Force Survey and a novel Venezuelan Survey for immigrants that live in Peru (ENPOVE), which I use to document the immigration inflow characteristics. I show that this type of immigration from Venezuelan is characterized by high-skilled workers in the informal sector and medium to high-income households. Second, I explore how the labor market responds to the immigration shock by the type of skilled Peruvian workers within the formal and informal sectors. The results suggest that a sharp inflow of Venezuelan-born immigrants positively affects the probability of Peruvian employment and negatively affects their wages. More specifically, high-immigration neighborhoods have, on average, two percentage points higher employment and 2% less weekly wages than low-immigration areas after 2017. These effects on Peruvian labor market outcomes are driven by the formal sector and primarily affect low-skilled Peruvians. The results imply that the immigration shock does not crowd out Peruvian-born employment, not even the less skilled workers who are usually also constrained by the minimum wage policy. The results are consistent with high imperfect substitution between the Peruvian and Venezuelan workers in the informal sector. Overall, I suggest that the Lima-Callao metropolitan area absorbed the 7.5% labor supply increase between 2017 and 2018. In my second paper, entitled "Long-Lasting Effects of Bible Translations on Literacy: Evidence from Sub-Sahara Africa," I measure how exposure to mother-tongue Bible translations during primary school affects adult literacy in Africa. Using data on the geographic locations of Christian missions, the year of a Bible translation by language, and precolonial characteristics of ethnic groups, I examine the effect of a translation on the ability to read as an adult. I first compare literacy among ethnic groups within ten kilometers of a Christian mission, across languages with and without early (pre-1970) Bible translations. I find a positive relationship between earlier translations and literacy and show the relationship is likely driven by unobservables associated with selection into earlier translation. To estimate causal effects without the positive selection associated with non-random choices of earlier translations, I calculate the effects of Bible translation exposure within language groups that had a later (post-1970) translation. For these later Bible translations, I compare individuals who would have been exposed during primary school with those born earlier than the translation. I show event study plots and find that being born ten to fifteen years after one's mother tongue was translated into the Bible increases the likelihood of being literate by 11 percentage points. Finally, I provide the first causal evidence between the Bible and literacy and discuss the likely channels of these effects. In my third paper, entitled "Five Decades of Early Marriage in the Developing World," I document five decades of early marriage among women and men in 24 developing countries. Using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys, I examine trends in early marriage and its relationship with well-being, domestic violence, women's roles in the household, and views on women's status. I find that rates of early marriage among women decreased from 40% to 30% on average and rates among men remained constant between 2% and 10%. Boys and girls who marry before 18 have less education and a lower age at first birth. Girls who marry before 18 have less influence on household spending and decision-making and are more likely to view domestic and sexual violence as justified. Boys who marry before 18 are more likely to justify perpetuating domestic violence. Both men and women who marry early are poorer, but there are no significant differences in working status by age of marriage.

Graduation Semester

2023-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Maria Romero

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