Title: Essays on poverty dynamics and social policy
Description: This dissertation provides a framework for the measurement of poverty dynamics, followed by evaluations of two specific interventions that deal with the dynamic dimension of poverty over different time horizons. The first essay (with Daniel Hojman) introduces a family of multiperiod poverty measures derived from commonly-used static poverty measures. These measure of intertemporal deprivation trade-off poverty stocks and flows, and are consistent with loss aversion. We characterize the partial ranking over income dynamics induced by our measures and use it in two empirical applications using longitudinal household level data. We first compare two decades of income dynamics in the United States and find that income dynamics of 1990's post-welfare reform dominates the income dynamics of the 1980's pre-welfare reform. Next, we compare the contemporary income dynamics of three industrialized countries and conclude that Great Britain dominates Germany and United States during the 1990s, and Germany dominates the United States if poverty stocks are given more importance than poverty flows. The second essay studies the impact of publicly-provided housing units on student achievement in the context of low-income households of Chile. It differs from previous studies evaluating externalities of promoting homeownership by using a regression discontinuity approach in which the underlying assumptions required for a proper identification can be tested. Data taken three to six years after the provision of housing units show evidence of a significant impact of the treatment on the level of education, and most of the effect is concentrated in the population under 25 years old.

Among the mechanisms that could explain this phenomenon, I find that three channels are triggered by the treatment: there is an income transfer equivalent to the market value of the housing unit, the housing conditions of the beneficiaries are improved, and the probability of being homeowner is 20% higher. I also find that neighborhood characteristics are similar for both treated and non-treated households. The third essay (with Dina Pomeranz) evaluates a randomized experiment aimed to promote precautionary savings and overcome self-control problems in the context of informal or self employed workers. Previous studies have analyzed mechanisms such as defaults and direct deposits from wages and have found them to be effective. However, these mechanisms cannot be applied to those working in the informal sector or to independent entrepreneurs. This paper analyzes a peer-based commitment device through accountability in a peer group as a mechanism aimed at motivating savings in a formal savings account by low-income micro-entrepreneurs in Chile. We find that the peer-based commitment device strongly increases the number of deposits and significantly increases the average balance in the savings account, and this effect is particularly strong for those who believe that they are better than their peers at following through with their goals. These findings indicate that peer groups may be an important mechanism to help people overcome self-control problems, particularly in areas where formal commitment devices are not available, and that individuals benefit most from joining commitment groups where members are slightly less apt than themselves at reaching the shared objective, which is consistent with non-linear peer effects models.
Subjects: Poverty