Browsing by Autor "Emily Conover"

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Cash and Ballots: Conditional Transfers, Political Participation, and Voting Behavior
(University of Chicago Press, 2018) Emily Conover; Román Andrés Zárate; Adriana Camacho; Javier E. Báez
We estimate the effect of participation in a large antipoverty program in Colombia on turnout and electoral choice. Using variation in the proportion of beneficiaries across voting booths within a polling station and eligibility as an instrument for take-up, we find that in the 2010 presidential elections, enrolled women were more likely to vote and support the incumbent party candidate. Results for men are smaller and not always significant. Voters respond to targeted transfers, and women, as the direct recipients of the transfers, respond more strongly. Potential mechanisms explaining the results are civic engagement and gratitude toward the incumbent party.
Conditional Cash Transfers, Political Participation, and Voting Behavior
(2012) Javier E. Báez; Adriana Camacho; Emily Conover; Román Andrés Zárate
This paper estimates the effect of enrollment in a large scale anti-poverty program in Colombia, Familias en Accion, on intent to vote, turnout and electoral choice. For identification the analysis uses discontinuities in program eligibility and variation in program enrollment across voting booths. It finds that Familias en Accion had a positive effect on political participation in the 2010 presidential elections by increasing the probability that program beneficiaries registered to vote and cast a ballot, particularly among women. Regarding voter's choice, the authors find that program participants expressed a stronger preference for the official party that implemented and expanded the program. Overall, the findings show that voters respond to targeted transfers and that these transfers can foster support for incumbents, thus making the case for designing political and legislative mechanisms, as the laws recently passed by the Colombian government, that avoid successful anti-poverty schemes from being captured by political patronage.
Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in Colombia
(2024) Adriana Camacho; Emily Conover; Dean Scrimgeour
Following Hsieh and Klenow (2009) this paper studies productivity dispersion in Colombian industrial establishments using the Colombian Annual Manufacturing Survey (AMS) from 1982 to 1998. We consider how much a hypothetical removal of firm-level distortions would increase manufacturing productivity in Colombia and compare it with the United States. We find that such a reallocation would increase manufacturing Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in Colombia around 15% more than in the United States in our baseline calibration. We find that distortions have been increasing over time. Productivity gains are larger if we use Colombia’s higher estimated elasticity of output with respect to capital. Furthermore we show that TFP is positively correlated with exporting status, age, size, and location in the Oriental region and the capital of the country.   JEL Classification Codes: O47; D24
The Impact of Receiving Price and Climate Information in the Agricultural Sector
(2011) Emily Conover; Adriana Camacho
Previous studies indicate that Colombian farmers make production decisions based on informal sources of information, such as family and neighbors or tradition. In this paper the authors randomize recipients of price and weather information using text messages (SMS technology). The authors find that relative to those farmers who did not receive SMS information, the farmers who did were more likely to provide market price information, had a narrower dispersion in the expected price of their crops, and had a significant reduction in crop loss. Farmers also report that text messages provide useful information, especially in regards to sale prices. The results do not find, however, a significant difference between the treated and untreated farmers in the actual sale price, nor changes in farmers' revenues or household expenditures.