Uruguay's Government is currently analyzing several reform strategies for the social sectors. These include a health reform, the introduction of a new poverty alleviation program, possible changes in pensions and unemployment insurance, and also a tax reform, that impacts the income transfer...

This technical report analyzes the potential effects of the pensions and income protection systems on labor supply decisions and through this channel the coverage and cost of the programs. The report addresses five policy questions: (i) how is the pension system influencing decisions regarding...

This note describes the methodology used for estimating trends in poverty rates for Iraq using the 2012 Iraq household socio-economic survey and the 2014 continuous household survey; and presents the finding. The 2014 survey was designed to provide comparable and more frequent estimates of...

"It is acknowledged that the lack of any systematic link between growth and income inequality does not necessarily mean that economic growth is not accompanied by major changes in the underlying income distribution. The author uses a method devised to decompose the redistributive effect of a tax...

"The actual distribution of world income across countries is extremely unequal, much higher than the within country inequality faced by most countries. The question studied in this paper is: How do international policies on aid, trade, and factor movements affect the international distribution...

"Unintentional implicit subsidies (hidden costs) to public utilities can be considered an illegitimate claim on public resources. This paper examines the role and sources of hidden costs in the energy and water sectors in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. It reviews available data and...

"Four West African nations have demanded that the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Agenda include a Cotton Initiative that involves two issues: cutting cotton subsidies and tariffs, and assisting farm productivity growth in Africa. The authors provide estimates of the potential...