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Using an individual-level experiment with male and female caregivers of young children in El Salvador, we evaluate the impact of a free digital stress management and positive parenting intervention. We nd that, for males, the intervention increased stress and anxiety and lowered caregiver-child interactions. The effect on males is concentrated among the poorer and those residing with a partner. In contrast, womens mental health was not impacted. Yet, their use of physical violence toward children decreased by 18 percent. Our results align with theories linking economic deprivation and family structure to caregivers cognitive overload and mental health.

Parenting practices are crucial for the development of children’s brains and social skills. However, parenting styles may be far from ideal, particularly those of caregivers with high stress levels. Using an individual-level experiment with male and female caregivers of young children in El Salvador, this paper evaluates the impact of a free digital stress management and positive parenting intervention. The results indicate that, for males, the intervention increased stress and anxiety and lowered caregiver-child interactions. The effect on males was concentrated among the poorer and those residing with a partner. In contrast, women’s mental health was not impacted. Yet, their use of physical violence toward children decreased by 18 percent. These results align with theories linking economic deprivation and family structure to caregivers’ cognitive overload and mental health.

Many studies have estimated high rates of return for preprimary education provided to children between the ages of 3 and 6, yet coverage is not universal in high-income countries and is very low in low- and middle-income countries. This study uses a novel dataset of impact estimates from 55 (quasi-) experimental studies conducted around the world and meta-regression methods to investigate whether this preprimary investment is suboptimal. Average effect sizes suggest strong demand for preprimary services when offered and significant improvements in children’s cognitive (0.15 sd) and executive functions, social-emotional learning, and behavior (0.12 sd) during the preprimary period, with no significant differences between high and low & middle income countries. Estimates from a more limited set of longitudinal studies indicate persistence of advantages of 0.07 sd in each type of skills beyond the preprimary period, suggesting that investments in preprimary education can make primary instruction more effective. In studies that report separate effects for populations that vary in socio-economic status, disadvantaged children benefit significantly more on average from preprimary interventions. Lastly, benefit-to-cost ratios estimated for a subset of studies conducted in low- and middle-income countries range from 1.7 to 103.5. Taken together, these results imply high returns and room for improvements in efficiency from reallocating the marginal dollar in existing budgets toward preprimary education.

This paper explores the relationship between the practices, inputs, and other characteristics of short-cycle higher education programs (SCPs) and their students’ academic and labor market outcomes. A novel survey was designed and conducted to collect program-level information on quality determinants and program average outcomes for five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Quality determinants are grouped into the following categories: curriculum and training, infrastructure faculty, private sector engagement and job search assistance, costs and funding, and other practices related to student admission and institutional governance. In addition, individual-level data on SCP graduates was collected for Ecuador and matched to program survey data. Estimates from pooled survey data for the five countries indicate that specific quality determinants are positively associated with academic and labor market outcomes. Moreover, determinants account for about one-third of the explained variation in academic outcomes and formal employment. In contrast, estimates for Ecuador indicate that labor market outcomes are mostly associated with student and peer characteristics rather than program quality determinants. These findings can inform the design and replication of high-quality SCPs as well as their oversight and regulation.

Higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has expanded dramatically in the new millennium, yet enrollment in short-cycle programs (SCPs) is still relatively low. Shorter and more practical than bachelor’s programs, SCPs can form skilled human capital fast. The economic crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated underlying trends, such as automation, the use of electronic platforms, and the need for lifelong learning. Addressing these demands requires the urgent upskilling and reskilling of the population—a task for which SCPs are uniquely suited. The Fast Track to New Skills: Short-Cycle Higher Education Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean explores the labor market outcomes and returns of SCPs, examines their providers, and identifies the practices adopted by the best programs. Relying on unique data that includes a novel survey of SCP directors in five LAC countries, it finds that while SCPs generate, on average, good labor market outcomes, they vary greatly in quality. SCP providers respond quickly and flexibly to local economy needs; and specific practices related to faculty, job search assistance, and interaction with prospective employers are distinctive of the best programs. Drawing on these findings, The Fast Track to New Skills discusses how to create an environment where good programs are offered and students have the interest and means to attend them. It draws attention to a higher education sector that has been typically overlooked, both in research and policy. The Fast Track to New Skills will be of interest to policy makers, researchers, and the public at large.

Can repatriation inflows impact firm behavior in origin countries? This paper examines this question in the context of repatriation inflows from the United States and Mexico to El Salvador. The paper combines a rich longitudinal data set covering all formal firms in El Salvador with individual-level data on all registered repatriations from 2010 to 2017. The empirical strategy combines variation in the municipality of birth of individuals repatriated over 1995-2002—before a significant change in deportation policies—with annual variation in aggregate inflows of repatriations to El Salvador. The findings show that repatriations have large negative effects on the average wages of formal workers. This is mainly driven by formal firms in sectors that face more intense competition from the informal sector, which deportees are more likely to join. Repatriation inflows also reduce total employment among formal firms in those sectors. Given that most deportees spend less than a month abroad, these findings suggest that the experience of being detained and deported can have strong negative effects not only on the deportees, but also on their receiving communities.

A large body of literature demonstrates that different cognitive components related to executive function (EF), such as short-term memory, working memory, and response inhibition, are linked to early academic skills in preschool children. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on the unique contributions of these components to distinctive early numeracy and literacy skills in preschool children. Moreover, most studies have not considered the covariance between these early academic skills in preschool-aged children. The present study examined whether there are differential contributions of visual–spatial and verbal short-term memory, working memory, and response inhibition to specific early numeracy and literacy skills in preschool-aged children, taking into account the covariance among these outcomes. Several seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) analyses were conducted with 419 Chilean preschool-aged children (M = 53.9 months; SD = 4.22). The results show that both response inhibition and verbal short-term memory uniquely predicted all academic outcomes; working memory predicted all early academic skills (with the exception of verbal counting); and visual–spatial short-term memory predicted all numeracy skills and receptive vocabulary. When comparing the marginal effects of the EFs on the outcomes, response inhibition more strongly predicted applied problems than did working memory. Both visual–spatial short-term memory and response inhibition had a greater effect on explaining applied problems, compared to early decoding skills. Implications for teachers and interventions are discussed.

This paper studies the effect of maternal depression on early childhood cognition in Peru, where rates of depression are around 50%. By using an instrumental variables approach, this study exploits variation in the exogeneity of the exposure to shocks during early life to instrument for maternal depression. The empirical strategy exploits a novel longitudinal data&mdash, the Young Lives survey&mdash, that includes information on cognitive outcomes of children and variation in their mothers&rsquo, mental health status between rounds of data collection. Results suggest that maternal depression is detrimental to a child&rsquo, s vocabulary at age 5, but effects fade out by age 8. Effects do not vary by maternal education but are significant only for children living in disadvantaged households. Estimations indicate that the presence of a partner worsens the effect of maternal depression on vocabulary development, results that are driven mainly by households with heavy-drinking partners. Our findings make a strong case for recognizing maternal mental health problems as disorders of public health significance and guide maternal and infant health policies in Peru.