Effective coverage is a measure of health system performance that combines three aspects of health care service delivery into a single measure: need, use, and quality. In this technical note, the concept of effective coverage is explained, methodological issues are discussed and the implications...

This paper presents some of the background research that contributed to the discussions within the Inter-American Development Bank's policy and strategy regarding indigenous health issues. The paper's conceptual approach and good practice research helped focus the discussion on the importance of...

The paper analyzes a new Honduran conditional cash transfer experiment (Bono 10,000) in which 150 poor villages (of 300) were treated. The transfers were much larger in size than an earlier experiment (Galiani & McEwan, 2013), but yielded smaller full-sample effects on school enrollment, child...

This paper joins in the debate on the size of the middle class in Latin America, providing an analysis of its structure and characteristics. Using several measurements, it finds that 40-60 percent of Latin American households are middle class, a share which has consolidated over the past decade....

This technical note presents a comparative analysis of Latin America's fragmented health systems. It provides a detailed account of health system fragmentation along six dimensions (organizations, risk pooling, eligibility, benefits, premium/contributions, payments) and the effects of historical...

This study develops a composite measure of primary care experience, using the Commonwealth Fund's 2010 International Health Policy Survey (IHP), applied on eleven high income OECD countries, and based on user self-report. The multidimensional measure is composed of answers regarding specific...

This study collects and systematizes detailed, updated and comparable information about the design, management, funding and quality of child development services in Latin America and the Caribbean. It focuses on two types of programs serving children from 0 to 3 years of age and their families:...

Efficiency and equity are priorities in the social policies of both industrial and developing countries. This study examines how different value judgments lead to different concepts of efficiency and equity and demonstrates that conceptual clarity can improve social services delivery.