Essays in Development Economics

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three essays in development economics. The first essay uses a panel of Brazilian colleges for the period 2002-2015 to estimate the impact of the Universidade para Todos (ProUni) need-based scholarship program on enrollment, dropout rate and academic performance of college students, based on a fixed effects approach. The results indicate that, overall, ProUni has had no statistically significant impact on either enrollment or dropping out. Yet, the program does seem to improve academic performance across all analyzed groups of majors, although this result is statistically significant for only one of the three groups. The second essay investigates the effects of the Bolsa Familia conditional cash transfer program on labor force participation and weekly hours worked using a fixed effects approach applied to a larger and more recent census tract-level panel data set based on the PNAD surveys from 2001 to 2009. The results show that, in general, participation in Bolsa Familia increases labor supply on the extensive margin, but also marginally reduces labor supply on the intensive margin. It has a positive impact on both employment and unemployment rates. The results also suggest an increase in informal employment at the expense of formal sector employment. The third essay contributes to the literature by using a panel of Brazilian municipalities, covering the period 1999-2014, in conjunction with administrative data on participation in Bolsa Familia, to estimate the impact of that program on upper secondary school (grades 10 to 12) educational outcomes such as enrollment, promotion, dropout and repetition rates. The overall results indicate that the program increases enrollment and, after the expansion that included teenagers age 16 and 17, it reduces dropping out. It also slightly increases promotion, which is offset by an increase in the repetition rate, although neither of these estimates is statistically significant.