Person:
Del Carpio, Ximena Vanessa
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Migration,
Skills,
Labor market,
Impact of social policies,
Labor regulations,
Minimum wage,
Education,
Health,
Gender
Degrees
External Links
Departments
Europe and Central Asia
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Ximena Vanessa Del Carpio is the World Bank Program Leader in Turkey, Europe and Central Asia region. Under the leadership of the Country Director, she leads the program on Human Development Sectors (including Education, Health, Labor Markets, Social Inclusion, Jobs, Youth and Gender) as well as the Refugee Agenda. Prior to this, Del Carpio was a Senior Economist in the Social Protection and Labor global practice in Europe and Central Asia, and East Asia and Pacific. She also worked in the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group and the Human Development Network where she focused on evaluating the impact of various economic development programs in countries throughout Latin America and Africa. Before joining the World Bank, Del Carpio worked at the RAND Corporation and at the Minority Business Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Del Carpio is originally from Peru, has a PhD in Political Economics from the University of Southern California and holds a dual MBA and Public Policy.
Publication Search Results
1 - 4 of 4
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Publication
Does Child Labor Always Decrease with Income? An Evaluation in the Context of a Development Program in Nicaragua
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-08)This paper investigates the relationship of household income with child labor. The analysis uses a rich dataset obtained in the context of a conditional cash transfer program in a poor region of Nicaragua in 2005 and 2006. The program has a strong productive emphasis and seeks to diversify the work portfolio of beneficiaries while imposing conditionalities on the household. The author develops a simple model that relates child labor to household income, preferences, and production technology. It turns out that child labor does not always decrease with income; the relationship is complex and exhibits an inverted-U shape. Applying the data to the model confirms that the relationship is concave when all children (8-15 years of age) are included in the sample. Expanding the analysis by stratifying the sample by age and gender shows that the relationship holds only for older children, both genders. The author investigates the effect of the conditional cash transfer program on child labor. The results show that the program has a decreasing effect on total hours of work for the full sample of children. Disentangling labor into two types - physically demanding labor and non-physical labor - reveals that the program has opposite effects on each type; it decreases physically demanding labor while increasing participation in non-physical (more intellectually oriented) tasks for children. -
Publication
Are Irrigation Rehabilitation Projects Good for Poor Farmers in Peru?
( 2009-12-09)This paper analyzes changes in agricultural production and economic welfare of farmers in rural Peru resulting from a large irrigation infrastructure rehabilitation project. The analysis uses a ten-year district panel and a spatial regression discontinuity approach to measure the causal effect of the intervention. While general impacts are modest, the analysis shows that the project is progressive--poor farmers consistently benefit more than non-poor farmers. Farmers living in districts with a rehabilitated irrigation site experience positive labor dynamics, in terms of income and agricultural jobs. Poor farmers increase their total income by more than $220 per year compared with the control group, while rich farmers do not experience such an income gain. The results also show crop specialization patterns in the economic status of farm households; poorer farm households increase their production of staple crops, such as beans and potatoes, while non-poor beneficiary farmers cultivate more industrial crops. Findings from this evaluation have important implications for pro-poor policy design in the agricultural sector. -
Publication
Implications of Minimum Wage Increases on Labor Market Dynamics: Lessons for Emerging Economies
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-04)This paper offers evidence on the relationship between the minimum wage and unemployment and informal employment, and identifies some of the lessons learned on the potential effects of increasing the minimum wage. Most of the evidence suggests that sizable increases in the minimum wage are likely to exacerbate unemployment and the prevalence of informal employment, which could have negative consequences for labor productivity and businesses as a result of reduced investment in employee training and loss of productive workers. This outcome occurs when businesses adopt the main channels available for absorbing increased labor costs. The majority of the empirical evidence suggests that the effects of minimum wage increases on unemployment and the demand for labor are unclear. The outcome depends in large part on the specific characteristics of the labor markets and the degree of compliance with the minimum wage law. Most of those affected by minimum wage increases are less qualified workers. In Latin American and Asia, differences in the effects of minimum wage increases depend largely on the size and type of firms. In countries with high levels of informal employment, minimum wage increases can increase informal employment, since the formal workers who lose their jobs are absorbed by the informal sector of the economy. In general, businesses have five mechanisms for absorbing the added labor costs. Given the characteristics of the labor market in emerging economies, it is likely that businesses faced with increased labor costs will resort to less than optimal channels, which will tend to affect their productivity and the labor market in general. -
Publication
The Impacts of COVID-19 on Informal Labor Markets: Evidence from Peru
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05)This paper provides new evidence on the impacts of the COVID-19 economic crisis on a labor market with a high prevalence of informality. The analysis uses a rich longitudinal household survey for Peru that contains a host of individual and job outcomes before and during the first months of the lockdown in 2020. The findings show that workers who had jobs in non-essential and informal sectors were significantly more likely to become unemployed. In contrast to developed countries, having a job amenable to working from home is not correlated with job loss when controlling for informal status. This is consistent with the high level of labor market segmentation observed in Peru, where high-skilled occupations are disproportionately concentrated in the formal sector, which was also better targeted by policies aimed at supporting firms and job protection during the crisis. In addition, the findings show that women were more likely to lose their jobs because female-dominated sectors are more intensive in face-to-face interactions and thereby more affected by social distancing measures. Increased childcare responsibilities also help explain the worse impacts on women in rural areas. Finally, workers who depended on public transportation before the crisis were more likely to lose their jobs during the early months of the pandemic.