Person:
Sanchez, Carolina
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Labor economics,
Poverty and distributional analysis,
Gender,
Public policy,
Inequality and Shared Prosperity,
Jobs and Development
Degrees
Departments
Poverty and Equity Global Practice
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Carolina Sánchez-Páramo, a Spanish national, is currently the Senior Director of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice (GP) at the World Bank. Prior to this assignment, she was the Poverty and Equity GP Practice Manager in the Europe and Central Asia region. Carolina has worked on operations, policy advice and analytical activities in Eastern Europe, Latin America and South Asia, and was part of the core team working on the WDR2012, “Gender Equality and Development”. Her main areas of interest and expertise include labor economics, poverty and distributional analysis, gender equality and welfare impacts of public policy. She has led reports on poverty and equity, labor markets and economic growth in several countries, as well as social sector operations. She has published articles in refereed journals and edited books on the topics described above. Carolina has a PhD in Economics from Harvard University.
Publication Search Results
1 - 3 of 3
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Publication
Regional Study on Targeting Systems and Practices : Draft Policy Note
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-06-28)This policy note aims to take stock of regional experiences in the area of targeting, both in the context of government systems and the World Bank's operational work, in South Asia. The main objectives are to review targeting systems and practices in the context of government programs; to critically review the role for and impact of targeting in the WB's operational work; and to extract lessons that can be used to deepen the relevance and impact of the WB's operational work in South Asia. The evidence presented in this note will serve as a resource for those interested in and/or planning some work on targeting related work in the region. In this sense, by presenting information on both country systems and performance of WB-led work, the note targets both practitioners and managers. The analysis focuses first on the architecture of targeting systems in South Asia, and on the determinants of targeting effectiveness, including the choice and design of the targeting tool, implementation and monitoring of the targeting tool, and the design, implementation and monitoring of the targeted program. The note concludes that international evidence a large fraction of the observed differences in targeting effectiveness across systems and programs, can be attributed to factors related to implementation and monitoring. This implies that investments aimed at correcting resource, capacity and logistic limitations in government systems could go a long way in improving targeting outcomes in the region. -
Publication
The Impact of Recall Periods on Reported Morbidity and Health Seeking Behavior
( 2011-08-01)Between 2000 and 2002, the authors followed 1621 individuals in Delhi, India using a combination of weekly and monthly-recall health questionnaires. In 2008, they augmented these data with another 8 weeks of surveys during which households were experimentally allocated to surveys with different recall periods in the second half of the survey. This paper shows that the length of the recall period had a large impact on reported morbidity, doctor visits, time spent sick, whether at least one day of work/school was lost due to sickness, and the reported use of self-medication. The effects are more pronounced among the poor than the rich. In one example, differential recall effects across income groups reverse the sign of the gradient between doctor visits and per-capita expenditures such that the poor use health care providers more than the rich in the weekly recall surveys but less in monthly recall surveys. The authors hypothesize that illnesses -- especially among the poor -- are no longer perceived as "extraordinary events" but have become part of "normal" life. They discuss the implications of these results for health survey methodology, and the economic interpretation of sickness in poor populations. -
Publication
Short but not Sweet : New Evidence on Short Duration Morbidities from India
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-02)India spends 6 percent of its GDP on health-three times the amount spent by Indonesia and twice that of China-and spending on non-chronic morbidities is three times that of chronic illnesses. It is normally assumed that the high spending on non-chronic illnesses reflects the prevalence of morbidities with high case-fatality or case-disability ratios. But there is little data that can be used to separate out spending by type of illness. The authors address this issue with a unique dataset where 1,621 individuals in Delhi were observed for 16 weeks through detailed weekly interviews on morbidity and health-seeking behavior. The authors' findings are surprising and contrary to the normal view of health spending. They define a new class of illnesses as "short duration morbidities" if they are classified as non-chronic in the international classification of disease and are medically expected to last less than two weeks. The authors show that short duration morbidities are important in terms of prevalence, practitioner visits, and household health expenditure: Individuals report a short duration morbidity in one out of every five weeks. Moreover, one out of every three weeks reported with a short duration morbidity results in a doctor visit, and each week sick with such a morbidity increases health expenditure by 25 percent. Further, the absolute spending on short duration morbidities is similar across poor and rich income households. The authors discuss the implications of these findings in understanding household health behavior in an urban context, with special emphasis on the role of information in health-seeking behavior.