Theme 1: “Happy Faces” and Kid Power
Project 1: Iron Deficiency, Anemia and School Performance

The project aims to measure the effect of iron pills and access to Information and Communication Technologies on educational outcomes of children in high-altitude, rural area of Peru. Through a randomized design, the study varies both the encouragement and the intensity of treatments in order to tease out the mechanisms that would bring out the highest uptake of iron supplements.

The results demonstrate that low-cost outreach efforts increasing children’s access to information is a highly effective way to encourage them to take iron supplements. This in turn increases previously anemic students’ performance and future aspirations.

• Chong, A.; Cohen, I.; Field, E.; Nakasone, E.; and Torero, M., 2016. “Are There Nutrient-based Poverty Traps? Evidence on Iron Deficiency and Schooling Attainment in Peru,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 8(4): 222-255

• Blog: “Kid Power: Spurring Positive Change through Children,” March 2019.

Country: Peru
Funding: IADB

Theme 1: “Happy Faces” and Kid Power
Project 2: The Power of Kids and Agricultural Extension

The same “Happy Face” experiment tests transmission of knowledge from children to parents and subsequent behavior change among adults. The topic is on agricultural extension. At a rural high school in the northern highlands of Peru, students are shown simple agricultural extension videos over an eight-month period, learning about low-cost solutions to common problems affecting farming of potatoes, corn, chicken or guinea pigs. The results shows that the information provided to the students increases their parents’ knowledge of the low-cost agricultural solutions. The transmission of knowledge from children to parents could potentially have myriad applications in countless other countries.

• Nakasone, Eduardo & Torero, Maximo, 2016. “Agricultural Extension through Information Technologies in Schools: Do the Cobbler’s Parents Go Barefoot?” 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 236114, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

• “Connectivity as Human Right,” the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Foundation for Worldwide Cooperation, Vatican City, October 17, 2017.

Country: Peru
Funding: IADB

Theme 2: The Effects of Iodine Deficiency
Project 1: Iodine Deficiency and School Attainment in Tanzania

Iodine deficiency is associated with cognitive development impairments — a fact that has important consequences for regions like Central Africa, where iodine concentrations in soil and water are low. In this project, we measure the patterns between iodine deficiency and learning disability rates, taking into account variations introduced by iodine supplementation campaigns in Tanzania. Treated children attain an estimated 0.35-0.56 years of additional schooling relative to siblings and older and younger peers. Additionally, the effect appears to be substantially larger for girls.

• Field, Erica; Robles, Omar; and Torero, Maximo, 2009. “Iodine Deficiency and School Attainment in Tanzania,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Vol. 1, No. 4 (October 2009), pp. 140-169.

Country: Tanzania
Funding: National Institute of Health

Theme 2: The Effects of Iodine Deficiency
Project 2: Iodine Deficiency and Gender Attitude (field work in progress)

Building on the research effort that studied the effects of iodine deficiency on educational outcomes, this project explores the relationship between Tanzania’s iodine supplementation campaigns and gender attitudes.

Country: Tanzania
Funding: National Institute of Health

Theme 3: Discrimination
Project: Social Exclusion: Who is In, Who is Out and Why Does It Matter?

Social exclusion is prevalent in Peru; at the same time, it’s very subtle. Sociological and anthropological evidence point to several mechanisms through which ethnic discrimination affects the lives of a large part of the population. However, precise measurements that could accurately indicate the potentially excluded groups are almost nonexistent. The same applies to any approximation of the magnitude of the effects of exclusion.

This project is based on the idea that social exclusion may have an effect over accumulation or access to public or private assets, like education and credit. Additionally, exclusion will affect the returns to some of those assets in the labor market, with crucial implications over poverty. In this project, we use a dataset that merges the large LSMS 2000 with an additional module. This module provides a set of questions that explores self-reported instances of discrimination, empirical approximations of ethnicity — like race, mother tongue of both parents, language spoken at home and at school — and education and the origin of the previous generation.

• Castillo, Marco; Petrie, Ragan; Torero, Maximo; and Vesterlund, Lise, 2013. “Gender Differences in Bargaining Outcomes: A Field Experiment on Discrimination,” Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 35-48.

• Moreno, Martín; Ñopo, Hugo; Saavedra, Jaime; and Torero, Máximo, 2012. “Detecting Gender and Racial Discrimination in Hiring Through Monitoring Intermediation Services: The Case of Selected Occupations in Metropolitan Lima, Peru,” World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 315-328.

• Torero, Máximo; Castillo, Marco; and Petrie, Ragan, 2008. “Ethnic and Social Barriers to Cooperation: Experiments Studying the Extent and Nature of Discrimination in Urban Peru,” Research Department Publications 3246, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.

• Nopoo, Hugo; Saavedra, Jaime Saavedra; and Torero, Maximo, 2007. “Ethnicity and Earnings in a Mixed-Race Labor Market,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55, pages 709-734.

Country: Peru
Funding: GDN Award, IADB