We provide evidence showing that the degree of diversi cation of import sources of nely disaggregated commodities rises monotonically along the growth path. This result is robust to different measures of import diversi cation and the inclusion of a large set of additional control variables. In addition, we show the process of rising import diversi cation takes place as countries gradually increase their spending shares in imports originating from relatively distant exporters.

International audienceBy focussing on human capital investment, the Mexican Oportunidades program will influence the economic choices of the rural poor. To understand how beneficiaries may alter their behaviour as a result of this intervention, this paper uses administrative data to analyse the economic activities of the rural poor. Results indicate that investments in education are likely to shift recipients from agricultural wage employment towards non-farm wage employment. The magnitude of this impact will be influenced by household assets and by the location of the household. The results suggest the need for policies that complement the government's focus on human capital investment

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What works to reduce child labor in agriculture? In this paper, we evaluate two randomized livelihood intervention programs, aimed to reduce child labor, particularly in its most exploitative forms, in rural areas of Peru and the Philippines. In the first randomized experiment, we evaluate a livelihood intervention provided to farmers in Peru that use the labor of their children on their family farms, accompanied by an education intervention aimed to improve the quality of schools and an awareness-raising intervention. In the second randomized experiment, we evaluate the incremental effect of the livelihood intervention implemented within a similar program in the Philippines, focused on the sugarcane agricultural sector. We find that when livelihood interventions were provided alone, they did not manage to improve economic conditions, and hence generally failed to reduce child labor rates in rural areas. However, when the livelihood intervention was combined with measures to improve the quality of education in Peru, we see a reduction in hazardous child labor and child labor overall. Awareness-raising interventions, aimed at changing the perceptions of parents through community interaction, appear to have also had an effect in the reduction of child labor, and these effects were reinforced by education interventions. Results indicate that a comprehensive approach including livelihood support with education and awareness-raising components is a more effective way to reduce child labor and hazardous labor for children in the agricultural sector.

We evaluate how the impact of a mentoring programme in French disadvantaged high schools varies with the intensity of the programme. Given that, in general, the only significant effect was observed by full attendance to all meetings, we argue that the treatment dose matters. Thus, while the original evaluation programme was designed as a randomized experiment to balance control and treated individuals (those who were offered the mentoring scheme, with different degree of programme participation), we motivate the use of continuous and multi-valued treatment effects models to estimate the dose response function. The programme shows that information about prospective labour market opportunities feeds back positively into academic performance. However, it has a negative effect on job self-esteem, suggesting that acquiring information on job market prospects updates students' priors on their skills and possibilities and that the students might be updating rationally.