Terminations of health plans are common in managed care systems around the world. This paper examines how to reassign consumers to incumbent insurers after such terminations. We propose an equilibrium model of competition in which insurers can respond to the reassignment rules through their provider networks. The setting is Colombia where the largest health insurer was terminated by the government in December 2015 and where insurers compete mainly on provider network breadth.

Jueves 14 de agosto | 12:30 p.m.
Por confirmar
Presenta: Heather Sarsons

Martes 20 de mayo | 12:30 p.m.
Por confirmar
Presenta: Claudio Ferraz

This study examines the relationship between land inequality and tax collection. Contrary to traditional models that emphasize the redistributive role of taxation, we focus on its role in providing public goods that help develop markets, increasing productivity--i.e. enforcement of property rights, coordination, roads, electricity, etc.

We estimate the labor and health effects of the menopause transition for U.S. women. Using data from the NLSYW and the SWAN and applying an event study methodology which exploits the individual-level variation in the time of menopause, we find that women undergoing this transition have a lower probability of employment of almost 20 percentage points, and a higher probability of working part-time if they remain employed. We do not find significant impacts on their monthly earnings or hourly wage.

This paper examines the impact of Internet expansion on banking competition and credit access in rural Colombia. Using a staggered rollout of the National Fiber Optic Program from 2013 to 2016, we analyze the effects of broadband availability on public and private bank lending. We find that Internet connectivity reduced loan disbursements from the state-run Banco Agrario de Colombia (BAC) while increasing private bank lending, particularly for small enterprises. The shift was initially driven by reduced information frictions and later reinforced by new private bank entry.

Jueves 15 de mayo | 12:30 p.m.
Por confirmar
Presenta: Nava Ashraf

In this paper we propose a theory to investigate the importance of investment-specific technical change (ISTC) in shaping the short run response of macroeconomic aggregates to energy price shocks. In absence of ISTC, aggregate energy efficiency in an economy (i.e, the amount of energy use per unit of capital) responds to changes in energy prices.

Adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices that can reduce land degradation and buffer households vis-a-vis intensifying weather fluctuations is notably low in sub-Saharan Africa, and one underexplored constraint in a context of thin labor markets and restrictive gender norms is the ability to optimally allocate labor within a spousal unit.  This randomized trial in rural Ethiopia explores the salience of this constraint in the context of a bundled intervention providing training and inputs to encourage uptake of fruit trees intercropped with home gardens, and fertilized with compost.

A pesar de que los cierres de las escuelas son frecuentes y afectan de manera importante los resultados educativos de los niños, la evidencia respecto a cómo proteger el logro educativo de los niños en esos contextos es aún escasa. Este artículo explora el impacto de entregar alimentación escolar para consumo en casa como una alternativa para proteger el logro educativo de los niños cuando las escuelas están cerradas.