Jérémie Gignoux

Learning About Opportunity: Spillovers of Elite School Admissions in Peru

Ce chapitre traite de deux enjeux majeurs auxquels sont confrontés les ménages ruraux en zone tropicale : préserver les ressources naturelles et assurer la sécurité alimentaire. Relever ces deux défis simultanément requiert de développer des systèmes de production efficaces, capables à la fois de garantir la sécurité alimentaire des agriculteurs et d’assurer une gestion durable des ressources naturelles. Pour ce faire, il convient de s’interroger sur les liens directs et indirects entre la sécurité alimentaire des ménages et la biodiversité à l’échelle de l’exploitation agricole et à celle du paysage.

We study how the admission of a student to an elite secondary school changes the schooling outcomes of younger cohorts in the student’s school of origin. The context of the rapid establishment and expansion of a nationwide system of highly selective and free-of-charge secondary schools in Peru allows us to investigate information diffusion with low financial barriers. Using a sharp regression discontinuity design, our analysis shows that the admission of an older schoolmate increases the number of younger students who apply (by 16%) and are admitted (47%) to this elite school system. The effect is concentrated among students whose parents have low education levels. Moreover, admissions of older schoolmates to a selective school gives younger students the opportunity to learn about elite schools, but does not seem to encourage them to improve their learning achievement or provide an advantage in preparing the admission assessments. Our findings show that selective schools can have effects that go beyond their own students and indicate that schoolmates can be an effective channel for increasing the demand from high-achieving, low-income students for high-quality education.

We examine the effects of a subsidy program in Haiti that provided smallholders subsidies for inputs (rice seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, and specific labor tasks) using a randomized control trial. The program led to lower input use and lower yields in the year subsidies were received, and the decline in input use and yields persisted through the following year. Using data from a complementary information intervention in which randomly selected farmers were provided clarification regarding their future receipt of vouchers, we find evidence suggesting that incorrect expectations of future transfers partially explain the disappointing outcomes. In addition, instead of increasing input use, the subsidies seem to have led farmers to pay off their loans and take fewer new ones. In complex post-emergency environments such as the one in which this program took place, input subsidies may need to be avoided, as they require considerable information to optimally design and careful coordination by many actors to achieve the expected gains.

This chapter deals with two major issues rural households face in tropical areas: preserving natural resources and guaranteeing food security. Tackling these two challenges simultaneously may require developing profitable production systems that can both guarantee food security for farmers, while also ensuring sustainable management of natural resources.

We examine the effects of a subsidy program in Haiti which provided smallholders subsidies for modern inputs (rice seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and specific labor tasks) through a randomized control trial. The program led to lower input use and lower yields in the year subsidies were received, and the decline in input use and yields persisted through the following year. Using data from a complementary information intervention in which randomly selected farmers were provided clarifications regarding their status in the program, we find evidence suggesting that incorrect expectations of future transfers help explain the disappointing outcomes. In addition, instead of increasing input use, subsidies seem to have led farmers to pay off their loans and take fewer new ones. In a complex postemergency environment as the one in which this program took place, input subsidies may need to be avoided, as they require considerable information to optimally design and careful coordination by many actors to achieve the expected gains.

This series was shot on November 7-12, 2019 during a visit I made at Tadulako university in Palu. Palu city suffered destructions from the large earthquake, of magnitude 7.5, which struck North Sulawesi on September 28, 2018. Tadulako University, the only public university of Central Sulawesi, suffered major destructions. Many of the buildings on the university campus were completely destroyed, while others were inaccessible due to security concerns. The photographs capture these destructions. (The buildings remaining utilized had been inspected and declared accessible.) I was invited by professor Aiyen Tjoa, from the faculty of Agriculture, and professors from the faculty of Economics for giving two seminars. I also gave a lecture to students of the faculty of teacher training. Together with Marta Menendez (University Paris-Dauphine), I previously conducted quantitative research on the long-term effects of earthquakes on household welfare in Indonesia (see article in Journal of Development Economics, vol.118, January 2016) and am continuing this line of research.

This series was shot on November 7-12, 2019 during a visit I made at Tadulako university in Palu. Palu city suffered destructions from the large earthquake, of magnitude 7.5, which struck North Sulawesi on September 28, 2018. Tadulako University, the only public university of Central Sulawesi, suffered major destructions. Many of the buildings on the university campus were completely destroyed, while others were inaccessible due to security concerns. The photographs capture these destructions. (The buildings remaining utilized had been inspected and declared accessible.) I was invited by professor Aiyen Tjoa, from the faculty of Agriculture, and professors from the faculty of Economics for giving two seminars. I also gave a lecture to students of the faculty of teacher training. Together with Marta Menendez (University Paris-Dauphine), I previously conducted quantitative research on the long-term effects of earthquakes on household welfare in Indonesia (see article in Journal of Development Economics, vol.118, January 2016) and am continuing this line of research.

This series was shot on November 9-10, 2019 during visits of rice cultivation areas of Central Sulawesi province, south of Palu city. These visits were organized with the support of professor Aiyen Tjoa, who invited me for giving seminars at the university of Palu. The photographs show rice farmers, their fields and some cultivation techniques. I have conducted research on the technology diffusion and the intensification of rice production in the context of Haiti together with colleagues at the Paris School of Economics.