Juan Manuel Campanario
Working Papers and Works in Progress
Air Quality and Infant Health: Closing La Oroya’s Metallurgical Complex
Abstract: La Oroya, Peru has suffered from poor air quality since the early 1920s. In 2009, the company responsible unexpectedly closed. Using a difference in differences approach, I show infant health worsened during the closure likely due to the shutdown’s impact on local government tax revenue and a subsequent reduction in government budgets. Birth weights fell by an average of 60 grams, a .14σ decline relative to infants born upwind the complex, and women reported 5% more miscarriages and stillbirths. I find evidence that those least likely to be financially impacted experience greater declines.
The Influence of Colonial Institutions during Economic Booms and Distributional Policies (with Jorge Agüero)
Abstract: Many studies have documented long-lasting negative effects of colonial institutions. Yet, little is known about whether there are current policies reducing those impacts. We focus on the mita, a forced labor system implemented in 1573 and abolished in 1812 in Peru. Prior work has shown large penalties for living with the area at the beginning of the 21st century. We find that in the last two decades, characterized by an economic boom, the negative effects of the mita have worsen. However, the creation of cash transfer programs targeting the poorest households nationwide, has eliminated the mita’s effects among the ultra-poor.
Access to Credit: The Case of Mid-Sized Mining in Peru
Abstract This paper presents new data on the Peru’s mining sector between 1939 and 1990. Digitized firm-level data between 1939 and 1964 as well as bank bibliographies spanning between 1942 and 1991 are used to estimate the effect of long-run consequences of pollution, document production changes under the 1950 Mining Code, and identify explanations for yearly and geographic variation in loan requests.