The distributional incidence of the Chilean water subsidy scheme is revisited by analyzing its evolution from 1998 to 2015. This is one of the only means-tested water subsidies in a developing country and is frequently used as an example in policy discussions and recommendations. Many changes have been introduced in the program since its inception and at least three different targeting instruments have been used to identify needy households in the last 20 years. We find that the incidence of the subsidy is progressive but moderate, with a Gini coefficient of close to 0.3. It has also remained stable between 1998 and 2015. The errors of inclusion and exclusion have also remained stubbornly high. These incidence results are surprising given the efforts made in the Chilean welfare system to target social benefits. Possible explanations for these results are given and compared to other developing country experiences.
We study wealth disparities in the formation of anthropometrics, cognitive skills and socio-emotional skills. We use a sample of preschool and early school children in Chile. We extend the previous literature by using longitudinal data, which allow us to study the dynamics of child growth and skills formation. Also, we include information on mother's and father's schooling attainment and mother's cognitive ability. We find that there are no significant anthropometric differences favoring the better-off at birth (and indeed length differences at birth to the disadvantage of the better-off), but during the first 30 months of life wealth disparities in heightfor-age z scores (HAZ) favoring the better-off emerge. Moreover, we find wealth disparities in cognitive skills favoring the better-off emerge early in life and continue after children turn 6 years of age. We find no concurrent wealth disparities for and socio-emotional skills. Thus, even though the wealth disparities in birth outcomes if anything favor the poor, significant disparities favoring the rich emerge in the early post-natal period. Mother's education and cognitive ability also are significantly associated with disparities in skill formation.
AbstractWe study wealth disparities in the formation of anthropometrics, cognitive
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