As part of the Brown Bag Lunch series, the International Economics Department at the Graduate Institute is pleased to invite you to a public talk given by Anna B. Kis and Dante Sanchez, Ph.D. candidates in International Economics.

Anna and Dante will present their research work entitled 

Exposure to Violence and its Influence on Household Decisions about Child Labor and Education. Evidence from Mexico's Wars on Drugs .

Abstract: Since 2007, Mexico saw a striking increase in criminal violence related to Drug Traffic Organizations (DTO), especially in the violent homicide rate. We explore whether - besides changing household's perceptions of (in)security - a higher level of exposure to violence also influences their decisions on child labor and education. As the incentives for children to stay in school and/or join the labor market change, higher crime can have a strong and long-lasting effect. We connect a household labor force survey (ENOE) with crime data to examine whether increased exposure to violence has an effect on school dropout rates and/or the probability of work for children aged 12 to 17. To counteract the clear endogeneity problem between high crime and household decisions, we use an instrumental variable strategy, where municipality-level homicide rates are replaced by the interaction of Colombian drug seizures and the municipality's distance from the US border, both highly correlated with violent homicide rates.