Person:
Avitabile, Ciro
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Nutrition,
Cash transfers,
Economics of Education,
Health Economics
Degrees
External Links
Departments
Latin America and the Caribbean Education Global Practice
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Ciro Avitabile is a senior economist in the Latin America and the Caribbean Education Global Practice, where he works on supporting investments for human capital development based in Lima, Peru. Before joining the World Bank, he was an economist at the Inter-American Development Bank.
Publication Search Results
1 - 9 of 9
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Publication
High School Track Choice and Financial Constraints: Evidence from Urban Mexico
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-09)Parents and students from different socioeconomic backgrounds value differently school characteristics, but the reasons behind this preference heterogeneity are not well understood. In the context of the centralized school assignment system in Mexico City, this study analyzes how a large household income shock affects choices over high school tracks exploiting the discontinuity in the assignment of the welfare program Oportunidades. The income shock significantly increases the probability of choosing the vocational track vis-a-vis the other more academic-oriented tracks. The findings suggest that the transfer relaxes the financial constraints that prevent relatively low-ability students from choosing the schooling option with higher labor market returns. -
Publication
The Heterogeneous Effect of Information on Student Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Mexico
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-09)A randomized control trial was conducted to study whether providing 10th grade students with information about the returns to upper secondary and tertiary education, and a source of financial aid for tertiary education, can contribute to improve student performance. The study finds that the intervention had no effects on the probability of taking a 12th grade national standardized exam three years after, a proxy for on-time high school completion, but a positive and significant impact on learning outcomes and self-reported measures of effort. The effects are larger for girls and students from households with a relatively high income. These findings are consistent with a simple model where time discount determines the increase in effort and only students with adequate initial conditions are able to translate increased effort into better outcomes. -
Publication
Domestic Government Spending on Human Capital: A Cross-Country Analysis of Recent Trends
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-10)Using a new data set comprised of publicly available information, this paper provides cross-country evidence on domestic government spending for human capital in recent years. Creating a measure of social spending that covers the three sectors of health, education, and social protection has proven to be a challenging task. Only for health spending is there high data coverage over time and across countries. Education and, especially, social protection display large gaps. Increases in social sector spending have generally been slow and unsteady. Although education spending in low-income countries has seen a stable and steady increase, spending on health has been remarkably flat. Human capital outcomes are only weakly correlated with spending in the three sectors. Finally, this paper discusses future research required to provide guidance on how much and what type of investment is needed to achieve high levels of human capital. -
Publication
Addressing High School Dropouts with a Scalable Intervention: The Case of PODER
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-12)Working with the Mexican Ministry of Education, this study piloted a scalable program to reduce high school dropout rates by focusing on socio-emotional skill development and mathematics tutoring. The intervention was evaluated through a randomized field experiment with more than 5,000 youths at 20 upper secondary schools in Mexico City. An intention-to-treat analysis finds some evidence that exposure to the Opportunities and Development to Avoid Risks Program increases socio-emotional skills, but no evidence that it improves math outcomes or future attendance. Likely explanations for these 0 results include low take-up and other process factors, which are document qualitatively, as well as heterogeneous treatment effects. In particular, an inverse-probability-weighted matching model is suggestive of an effect whereby some students participate actively in the program and drop out of school less often, while other students choose not to participate when given the option and actually drop out more as a result. -
Publication
At a Crossroads: Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-05-02)Higher education (HE) has expanded dramatically in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) since 2000. While access became more equitable, quality concerns remain. This volume studies the expansion, as well as HE quality, variety and equity in LAC. It investigates the expansion’s demand and supply drivers, and outlines policy implications. -
Publication
The Quality of Health and Education Systems Across Africa: Evidence from a Decade of Service Delivery Indicators Surveys
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-11-18)Have teachers mastered the subject matter they are teaching? Can doctors accurately diagnose and treat critical health conditions? Are schools and health facilities sufficiently stocked with needed equipment and supplies? Are they sufficiently supported and staffed to optimize learning and health care outcomes? For the past decade, the World Bank’s Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) surveys have collected nationally representative data in countries across Africa to answer these questions. The surveys aim to measure the quality of services where they meet citizens: in schools and health facilities. The Quality of Health and Education Systems Across Africa: Evidence from a Decade of Service Delivery Indicators Surveys identifies areas of achievement and constraint in service delivery, shedding light on how service delivery may foster or stunt human capital accumulation. SDI surveys show that schools and health clinics across Africa are still falling short in some critical areas. The delivery of primary care services is very heterogenous between and within countries. Many health facilities lack the basic necessities to provide proper care, such as essential medicines, basic diagnostic equipment, and adequate water and sanitation. Moreover, health care providers’ ability to diagnose and treat common health conditions correctly is low and distributed unevenly. Health personnel’s absence from health facilities remains a concern across the surveyed countries. Learning is low, and, not unlike health care, levels of student learning vary significantly across countries: less than half of grade 4 students can recite a simple sentence or perform basic mathematical operations. This deficient learning is correlated with teachers’ low levels of content knowledge and sub-par pedagogy skills. Some schools are also missing crucial inputs, such as blackboards or private and gendered toilets, and struggle with high pupil-teacher ratios. Despite these challenges, success stories in both sectors illustrate the quality of service delivery that could be achieved and showcase the dedication of teachers and medical staff across Africa. By studying data from thousands of facilities, considering the local context, and drawing insights from the literature, this book offers important insights for how countries can strengthen health and education systems and build back better in the wake of the massive disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. -
Publication
Mexico: Can Mobile Tutors Improve Learning in Remote Schools?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-01)Achieving inclusive and quality education for all is a global priority, and policymakers are still grappling with the best ways to ensure the poorest and most marginalized children are in school and learning. About 120 million children, many from rural areas, are still out of school, despite a recent global push for universal access to education. Even when they stay in school, children from poor, rural areas often show the lowest gains in learning. Recruiting and retaining teachers to work in remote areas is a major challenge, and many low and middle-income countries rely on members of the community to teach local schools. -
Publication
Enhancing Human Capital in Children: A Case Study on Scaling
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05)This paper provides new insights on the science of scaling. The authors study an educational mentoring program with a home visit component implemented at scale in Mexico, under different modalities (original and enhanced training for mentors) and different situations (field experiment and policy implementation). While the program was ineffective when implemented by the government in its original modality, the enhanced modality boosts children’s outcomes, both in the field experiment and during the government implementation. Higher-quality home visits encourage parent/child and parent/community interactions, which in turn are found to promote the scalability of the program. The work provides new knowledge on the socially determined nature of scaling educational programs. -
Publication
The Medium Term Impacts of Cash and In-kind Food Transfers on Learning
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-12)This paper studies the medium-term impact of early-life welfare transfers on children's learning. It studies children who were exposed to the randomized controlled trial of the Mexico's Food Support Program (the Programa de Apoyo Alimentario, PAL), in which households were assigned to receive cash, in-kind food transfers, or nothing (a control). The children are matched with administrative data on primary school standardized tests, which were taken four to 10 years after the experiment began. The findings show that in-kind transfers did not impact test scores, while cash transfers led to a significant and meaningful decrease in test scores. An analysis of the mechanisms driving these results reveals that both transfers led to an increase in child labor, which is likely detrimental to learning. In-kind food transfers, however, induced a greater consumption of several key micronutrients that are vital for brain development, which likely attenuated the negative impacts of child labor on learning.