• Rule–based civil service: evidence from a nationwide teacher reform in Mexico 

      Bedoya, Juan; de Hoyos, Rafael; Estrada, Ricardo (CAF; Caracas, 2023-07)
      This paper studies the effect of a civil service reform on the skills profile of new teachers in Mexico. The reform mandated the use of rule-based recruitment over discretionary hiring. Our results show that the reform ...
    • Self-Selection into Corruption: Evidence from the Lab 

      Brassiolo, Pablo; Estrada, Ricardo; Fajardo, Gustavo; Vargas, Juan (CAF; Caracas, 2020-04-22)
      We study whether the existence of opportunities to extract rents in a job affects the type of individuals who are attracted to it. We design a laboratory experiment in which individuals choose between two contracts, each ...
    • Skills and selection into teaching: Evidence from Latin America 

      Estrada, Ricardo; Lombardi, María (CAF; Caracas, 2020-08-12)
      This paper documents a novel stylized fact: many teachers in Latin America have very low levels of cognitive skills. This skills deficit is the result of both low levels of competencies among the population and a gap between ...
    • The effect of high dismissal protection on bureaucratic turnover and productivity 

      Estrada, Ricardo; Lombardi, María (CAF; Caracas, 2022-06-22)
      This paper studies the impact of high dismissal protection on bureaucratic turnover and productivity in the context of public school teachers in Chile. We take advantage of a law that required education administrators ...
    • The Effect of the Increasing Demand for Elite Schools on Stratification 

      Estrada, Ricardo (CAF; Buenos Aires, 2017-05-31)
      I use detailed applications data to document a case in which, contrary to prevailing concerns, increasing school stratification by ability co-existed with stable stratification by family income: Mexico City public high ...
    • What a difference a full day makes: Evidence from new schools in Fortaleza 

      Estrada, Ricardo; Hatrick, Agustina; Llambi, Cecilia (CAF; Caracas, 2022-03-18)
      Although longer school days are in increasing supply, a lack of consensus about their effectiveness persists. Motivated by this gap, this paper studies the effect of enrolling in a new set of full-time secondary schools ...