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Chapter 4 - Text Messages as Social Policy Instrument: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial with Internal Refugees in Colombia
- Edited by Alberto Chong, Mónica Yáñez-Pagans
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- Book:
- Information Technologies and Economic Development in Latin America
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 30 April 2020
- Print publication:
- 29 February 2020, pp 59-76
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Summary
Introduction
Like other Latin American countries, Colombia witnessed the rise of guerrilla movements in the 1960s and 1970s. However, unlike the rest of the region, armed opposition is still active to date and it is largely represented by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (hereafter FARC from its acronym in Spanish). In addition to the guerillas the conflict features another illegal armed group since the early 1980s— the paramilitary forces. These rightwing militias were originally formed by local elites, landowners and drug lords to counteract guerrilla extortion and ransom tactics of the guerrillas. The Colombian conflict has been especially harmful for the civilian population. Both guerrillas and paramilitaries have specialized in victimizing civilians which includes the forced displacement of a large share of the population (Vargas, 2016). In fact, violence-driven internal migration has become the most dramatic social consequence of the conflict, affecting up to 90 percent of the country's municipalities. Many municipalities that receive internally displaced people (IDP) lack the capacity to handle the inflow of refugees. Moreover, 98 percent of displaced households live below the poverty line and face unemployment rates much higher than the rest of the population (Ibanez and Moya, 2010). IDP are among the most vulnerable populations in Colombia. For this reason, the United Nations classified this situation as “the biggest humanitarian crisis in Western Hemisphere” (UN, 2004).
According to Acción Social, Colombia's governmental agency in charge of social policy and humanitarian aid, by the end of 2009 approximately 3.5 million people had been forcibly displaced from their homes. This represents almost 9 percent of the nation's total population and roughly 8 percent of all IDP worldwide. According to statistics from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, 2009), Colombia is one of the countries with the highest numbers of IDP worldwide, together with Iraq and Sudan.
Land disputes are the main driver of forced displacement: up to 4 million acres of land have been abandoned by the original owners. Colombia has today the most unequal land distribution of Latin America (Ibanez, 2009). The illegal expropriation of large amounts of acreage is also attributed to the need for arable land for the cultivation of coca, the main element used in the production of cocaine. Estimates show that Colombia exports approximately 70 percent of the world's supply (Mejia and Restrepo, 2010).
Chapter 8 - The Labor Market Return to ICT Skills: A Field Experiment
- Edited by Alberto Chong, Mónica Yáñez-Pagans
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- Book:
- Information Technologies and Economic Development in Latin America
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 30 April 2020
- Print publication:
- 29 February 2020, pp 141-160
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Summary
Introduction
The labor market is characterized by search costs, mismatches and asymmetric information. In this context, the use of PCs and the Internet promise to improve and make more efficient worker-firm communications (Autor, 2001; Pissarides, 2000). Internet job search, which involves navigating the web, online job searching, filling forms, writing Word documents and attaching them to an e-mail, is indeed already commonplace. Still, no research examines how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) skills of workers might play a role in their likelihood of employment. This chapter concentrates on the question of whether people with High ICT skills are more likely to be successful in this new ‘‘wired’’ labor market or not. Specifically, we design an experiment to study whether people with high knowledge of ICT skills (i.e., a line in their resume self-reporting an advanced level of knowledge of various software) are more likely to be contacted after submitting a resume, in the context of two middle-income Latin-American cities.
Our experimental design follows the empirical strategy utilized in the seminal works of Riach and Rich (2002), and Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) to address the issue of not observing the full set of relevant variables determining individual's labor market productivity. The former study gives an overview of this type of field experiments, while the latter investigates potential discrimination of non-whites (against whites). Since then a host of other studies have been done each focusing on a dimension of discrimination: gender (Booth and Leigh, 2010), immigrants (Carlsson and Rooth, 2007), homosexuality (Ahmed et al., 2011) and beauty (Lopez Boo, Rossi and Urzua, 2010). The common element in these studies is that fake applications are send to real vacancies. These fake applications— within a group— are similar in all except one characteristic, which is the one being randomized. This is the characteristic that defines whether or not there is discrimination. The studies find that males, immigrants, homosexuals and plain looking applicants receive fewer callbacks than females, natives, heterosexuals and good-looking applicants. This is evidence that employers discriminate in the first step of the hiring process since all the characteristics associated with productivity are the same by design.
Case 14 - Progressive difficulty producing speech
- Edited by Serge Gauthier, McGill University, Montréal, Pedro Rosa-Neto, McGill University, Montréal
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- Book:
- Case Studies in Dementia
- Published online:
- 16 May 2011
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- 21 April 2011, pp 98-104
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Summary
This chapter describes hemiparesis followed by dementia using the case of a 73-year-old woman who presented to the emergency room with mild left hemiparesis since awakening the day before. Computed tomography (CT) scan showed a known old right parieto-temporal infarct and a right caudate nucleus lacune. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) done within 3 days of presentation show the same ischemic lesions without diffusion restriction, with mild leukoaraiosis and atrophy for age. Neuropsychological tests showed severe executive functions deficits, moderate to severe memory deficits, and mild visuoconstructive and ideomotor apraxia. The initial diagnostic impression was mixed dementia, although a purely vascular dementia could not be ruled out. Repeated mini-mental state examination (MMSE) showed decline over time, despite temporary improvement after initiation of a cholinesterase inhibitor, galantamine (Reminyl ER), 3 months after presentation. Blood pressure remained high during initial follow-up, requiring several anti-hypertensive medication adjustments.
Case 12 - Progressive difficulty with naming and object identification
- Edited by Serge Gauthier, McGill University, Montréal, Pedro Rosa-Neto, McGill University, Montréal
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- Book:
- Case Studies in Dementia
- Published online:
- 16 May 2011
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- 21 April 2011, pp 82-89
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This chapter describes right-sided numbness using the case of an 82-year-old woman who had a former history of hypertension, type 2 diabetes treated with oral hypoglycemic agents, rheumatoid arthritis, dysthymic disorder, and left dorsal herpes zoster with residual postherpetic neuralgia. The physical examination showed a conscious patient with moderate motor aphasia, right homonymous hemianopsia, and balanced faciobrachiocrural hemiparesis in association with hemihypoesthesia of the right hemibody. The brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan showed acute cerebral ischemia in the territory of the left middle cerebral artery. A diagnosis of cerebral infarction of cardioembolic origin was made. A final tentative diagnosis of vascular cognitive impairment that fulfilled criteria of multi-infarct dementia was established. Living performance after stroke was severely impaired and home assistance for daily living activities was needed. Treatment for the cognitive impairment includes speech therapy and physical rehabilitation.
Contributors
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- By Dag Aarsland, Adrià Arboix, Carlos Bazán, James T. Becker, Sylvie Belleville, Kevin M. Biglan, Sandra E. Black, Mariana Blanco, Rémi W. Bouchard, Bruce J. Brew, David J. Burn, Leonardo Caixeta, Richard Camicioli, Paulo Caramelli, Neil Cashman, Nicholas W. S. Davies, Yan Deschaintre, Rachel S. Doody, Bruno Dubois, Uwe Ehrt, Stephane Epelbaum, Ryan V. V. Evans, Joseph M. Ferrara, Bruno Franchi, Morris Freedman, Anders Gade, Serge Gauthier, Marta Grau-Olivares, Matthew E. Growdon, Will Guest, Marie Christie Guiot, Shahul Hameed, Mirna Lie Hosogi-Senaha, Ging-Yuek Robin Hsiung, Masamichi Ikawa, Rajive Jassal, Vesna Jelic, Peter Johannsen, Edward S. Johnson, Mary M. Kenan, Bert-Jan Kerklaan, Benjamin Lam, Gabriel C. Léger, Gabriel Leonard, Emilie Lepage, Irene Litvan, Oscar L. Lopez, Ian R. A. Mackenzie, Mario Masellis, Fodi Massoud, Paige Moorhouse, John C. Morris, Taim Muayqil, Yannick Nadeau, Inger Nennesmo, Jørgen E. Nielsen, Ricardo Nitrini, Sven-Eric Pålhagen, Robert Perry, Gerald Pfeffer, Machiel Pleizier, Steffen Plickert, Gil D. Rabinovici, Philippe H. Robert, Lothar Resch, Gustavo C. Román, Maxime Ros, Pedro Rosa-Neto, Aiman Sanosi, Philip Scheltens, Christian Schmidt, Eric Schmidt, Jean-Paul Soucy, Jette Stokholm, David Summers, Rawan Tarawneh, Louis Verret, Huali Wang, Bengt Winblad, Makoto Yoneda, Xin Yu, Inga Zerr
- Edited by Serge Gauthier, McGill University, Montréal, Pedro Rosa-Neto, McGill University, Montréal
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- Book:
- Case Studies in Dementia
- Published online:
- 16 May 2011
- Print publication:
- 21 April 2011, pp viii-xiv
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