Browsing by Author "Gallego, Francisco A."

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Changing Pedagogy to Improve Skills in Preschools: Experimental Evidence from Peru
    (OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2021) Gallego, Francisco A.; Naslund Hadley, Emma; Alfonso, Mariana
    Changing pedagogical practices is a promising, cost-effective avenue for improving education in developing countries, especially when done without changing current inputs such as teachers and instruction time. This article presents the results of a randomized evaluation of a program that aimed at changing the pedagogical approach used to teach the existing national mathematics curriculum. The program provides tools to regular preschool teachers to use an inquiry- and problem-based learning approach to tailor instruction to preschoolers in Peru. The results show an improvement of overall mathematics outcomes, which persist for some content areas even one year after the program ended. In contrast to results from previous research that suggest mathematics programs are biased along gender and socioeconomic lines, there is no evidence of differential effects by gender, language spoken at home, or proxies for socioeconomic status. Results also imply persistent stronger impacts on students whose teachers have university degrees.
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    Christian Missionaries and Education in Former African Colonies: How Competition Mattered
    (OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2010) Gallego, Francisco A.; Woodberry, Robert
    Using regional data for about 180 African provinces, we find that measures of Protestant missionary activity in the past are more correlated with schooling variables today than similar measures of Catholic missionary activity, as previous papers have suggested. However, we find that this effect is mainly driven by differences in Catholic areas (i.e., areas in which Catholic missionaries were protected from competition from Protestant missionaries in the past). This is not surprising because most former Catholic colonies had a number of restrictions to the operation of Protestant missionaries that benefited Catholic missionaries. Therefore, our results are consistent with an economic rationale in which different rules created differences in competitive pressures faced by Catholic and Protestant missionaries.
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    GOOD, BAD, AND UGLY COLONIAL ACTIVITIES: DO THEY MATTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?
    (2012) Bruhn, Miriam; Gallego, Francisco A.
    Levels of development vary widely within countries in the Americas. We argue that part of this variation has its roots in the colonial era, when colonizers engaged in different economic activities in different regions of a country. We present evidence consistent with the view that "bad" activities (those that depended heavily on labor exploitation) led to lower economic development today than "good" activities (those that did not rely on labor exploitation). Our results also suggest that differences in political representation (but not in income inequality or human capital) could be the intermediating factor between colonial activities and current development.
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    Railroads, specialization, and population growth: evidence from the first globalization
    (2021) Forero, Andres; Gallego, Francisco A.; Gonzalez, Felipe; Tapia, Matias
    We explore how railroads affected population growth during the first globalization (1865-1920) in Chile. We look at areas with a strong comparative advantage in agriculture using novel data that document 60 years of railroad construction. Using instrumental variables, we present four main findings. First, railroads increased both urban and rural population growth. Second, the impact was stronger in areas with more potential for agricultural expansion. Third, railroads increased specialization in agriculture when combined with a high level of the real exchange rate. And fourth, railroads had little effect on human capital and fertility. These results suggest that the effects of transportation technologies depend on existing macroeconomic conditions.