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Given the rates of transmission of COVID-19, relying only on manual contact tracing might be infeasible to control the epidemic without sustained costly lockdowns or rapid vaccination efforts. In the first study of its kind in Latin America, we find through a phone survey of a nationally representative sample of ten countries that an opt-out regime (automatic installation) increases self-reported intention to accept a contact tracing app with exposure notification by 22 percentage points compared to an opt-in regime (voluntary installation). This effect is triple the size and of opposite sign of the effect found in Europe and the United States, potentially due to lower concerns regarding privacy and lower levels of interpersonal trust. We see that an opt-out regime is more effective in increasing willingness to accept for those who do not trust the government or do not use their smartphones for financial transactions. The local severity of the pandemic does not affect our results, but feeling personally at risk increases intent to accept such apps in general. These results can shed light on the use of default options not only for contact tracing apps but in public health overall in the context of a pandemic in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Procrastination and lack of attention may often hinder the implementation of preemptive actions necessary to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 like washing hands, covering nose and mouth with a mask, and keeping social distance. It is in such "easy" tasks that people (mistakenly) believe that they are better than others. In this paper we test for overconfidence bias in COVID-19 preventive behaviors in Latin America.Methods: Using a phone survey in nationally representative samples from 10 Latin American countries where randomly, half of the sample in each country was asked about self-reported compliance to COVID-19 guidelines, and half about preventive behavior of fellow citizens compared to them; we tested: if the proportion of individuals claiming that others comply with a certain measure "Always more frequent than me" is higher than those stating that they "Never" or "Sometimes" comply with the same measure (i.e. people believe they are better at doing something than what they actually are).Results: Over 90% of Latin-Americans claim to always wear a mask and sanitize their hands and more than 80% state to always keep social distance. We also find evidence of overconfidence in every behavior - except for keeping distance in public transportation. Moreover, the magnitude of such overconfidence is higher for behaviors such as wearing masks in public or washing hands than for those regarding keeping the 2-m distance.Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to measure overconfidence in COVID-19 preventive behaviors in Latin America. Results show that more effort is needed to encourage people to comply with the regulation when it does not only depend on them: a better organization of closed stores and public transportation are, for instance, crucial to allow social distancing. It also suggests that a reinforcement of basic measures is essential, as individuals report to be performing them more frequently than when they have to think about such behaviors compared to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• After a year of closed schools in Mexico, youth aged 12 to 18 are spending overall 30 percent less time on their studies than pre pandemic. • Reduction of 14 percentage points in the probability of studying during previous week, potentially a predictor of more permanent dropout. • Effects of the pandemic on reducing time on studies are seen nationwide and occur for girls, boys, and youth in more urban and less urban areas. • General decrease in the probability of working outside the home with the pandemic but some small increases in work inside the home. • This is concerning as evidence shows the longer the time out of school the larger the reduction on learning. Studying how the pandemic affects the education and work of adolescents is a critical question with long lasting implications for well-being of the next generation, particularly in the developing world. The Covid-19 pandemic by mid-March 2020 had led to the closing of most educational institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the region has been one of the worst hit by the pandemic (Sanmarchi et al., 2021). This paper uses the Mexican National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE) to provide evidence on the pandemic's effects on school and work of youth. We measure changes in the time use of adolescents comparing patterns just before the pandemic (January to March 2020) with those at the beginning of the following school year (September 2020), controlling for pre pandemic trends and potential seasonality. Our study finds a sharp reduction in the probability of being engaged in studies during the previous week for youth age 12 to 18 during the pandemic, as well as a reduction of about 30 percent in total hours spent on studies for those who report spending at least one hour on studies in the previous week. Time in work in general shows fewer changes than in time dedicated to studies, with some reductions in the probability of working outside the home for older youth, and a small increase in the number of hours dedicated to work inside the household. Our results overall are suggestive of an important decrease in youth who are engaged with school, who may be at particular risk for abandoning school permanently. It also suggests that even for those who remain engaged, there is a reduction on time spent studying likely to lead to a decrease in learning. Policies to combat potential dropout and negative effects on learning of the pandemic are urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]