Browsing by Subject "Impact evaluation"

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    Three Essays on Public Policy and Development
    (2022-12) Santamaria, Julieth
    This dissertation studies the effects of three policy decisions on citizen outcomes. Chapter 1 analyzes the effect of open-door immigration policies on local labor markets. Using the sharp and unprecedented surge of Venezuelan refugees into Colombia, I study the impact on wages and employment in a context where work permits were granted at scale. To identify which labor markets immigrants are entering, I overcome limitations in official records and generate novel evidence of refugee settlement patterns by tracking the geographical distribution of Internet search terms that Venezuelans but not Colombians use. While official records suggest migrants are concentrated in a few cities, the Internet search index shows migrants are located across the country. Using this index, high-frequency labor market data, and a difference-in-differences design, I find precise null effects on employment and wages in the formal and informal sectors. A machine learning approach that compares counterfactual cities with locations most impacted by immigration yields similar results. All in all, the results suggest that open-door policies do not harm labor markets in the host community. Chapter 2 examines the influence of gender inequality on poverty among Syrian refugees in Jordan between 2013, the year many refugees fled the Syrian conflict and 2018. In 2013, Syrian refugees in Jordan faced numerous constraints due to their poverty, including limited access to labor market opportunities and loss of assets. However, since then, many policies aiming to boost their inclusion into the host community and their access to jobs and services have been introduced. Two waves of Home-Visit surveys, collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), are analyzed to track the evolution of poverty among Syrian refugees in Jordan. To compare changes in poverty between female and male-headed households, we use relative comparisons of deciles in the expenditure distribution, and quantile regressions. We find that spending distribution has shifted over time, negatively affecting female-headed households. In 2013, female-headed households below the median had lower expenditure than male-headed households. In 2018, this pattern occurs in all deciles. Relative comparisons also shed light on the changes overtime of poverty patterns. We find small differences between poverty rates of female and male-headed households using both the standard poverty measure and one that adjust for possible economies of scale. Regardless of the poverty measure, the poverty gender gap has increased over time with female-headed households experiencing poverty more intensely. Female single caregivers remain at the most risk of falling into poverty when compared with other types of households and over time. Our approach can help policymakers design more effective programs of assistance that respond to gender-based differences in vulnerability to poverty and find durable solutions for displaced populations. Finally, Chapter 3 analyzes the unintended effects of policy-making in the education sector. Choosing the best candidates for a job is not an easy task. Some employers have implemented pre-employment testing as a filtering system to ensure that only qualified candidates are hired. However, this mechanism can also discourage high-qualified workers from applying and harm productivity. This paper assesses the impact of implementing a pre-employment test for teacher candidates aspiring to be employed in Colombian public schools on students' test scores. A national standardized test was used as a requirement to be hired and promoted. Candidates were evaluated on verbal and numerical reasoning as well as on subject-area topics and pedagogy theory. Using a difference-in-differences model that uses school-level and time variation on the share of teachers hired through the pre-employment test process, I evaluate changes on students' tests scores one and eight years after the reform. I find that conditioning hires on teachers' test scores did not affect student outcomes one year or eight after the pre-employment test was put in place. Some models show negative but non-significant and very close to zero effects that begin to appear in years 6 and 7 after the first teachers are hired. I also find a small worsening in the test scores of girls relative to boys, partially explained by the relative decrease in the hiring of female teachers. The latter is possibly associated with a worse test performance of female candidates. The results do not necessarily indicate that pre-employment tests do not work, but they do suggest that policy makers should be careful when implementing these types of reforms because poor test design can prevent the hiring of good candidates.