Over the last several years, the Government of Togo has made important advances in the area of social protection. Although Togo has had limited social insurance and social assistance programs, the economic shock and natural disasters starting in 2008 brought the need for better mechanisms of...

This report lays out a strategy for Ukraine to make the transition to a market economy in the social sectors, taking into account the widespread system of benefits and the high spending on education and health inherited from the former Soviet Union. A central part of this strategy is the need to...

The issue of the retirement age is fundamentally linked to policies on social protection. It is an issue that inevitably causes debate and has proponents, men and women, who argue on both sides. During preparation of the gender equality law in Vietnam, several options were presented for changing...

This report, Argentina facing the challenge of ageing and social security, is structured in five parts that follow the introduction and summary of main findings. Part I presents a conceptual framework for decision makers charged with crafting policies for old age income security, and describes...

Social security is the single most important fiscal issue facing the Brazilian government today. This report summarizes the state, and potential policy implications, of the Brazilian Social security system. It also discusses policy recommendations for: social security and pensions, the national...

"Since the early 1990s, several states in India have introduced financial incentive programs to discourage son preference among parents and encourage investment in daughters' education and health. This study evaluates one such program in the state of Haryana, Apni Beti Apna Dhan (Our Daughter,...

"The authors compare the two merger control systems currently employed worldwide: a mandatory system based on merger size threshold and a voluntary system with ex-post monitoring and fines. The voluntary system possesses two informational advantages: (i) the enforcement agency employs more...