Why do people save? A strand of the literature has emphasized the role of ‘precautionary' motives; i.e., private agents save in order to mitigate unexpected future income shocks. An implication is that in countries faced with more macroeconomic volatility and risk, private saving should be...

This paper describes how future pension benefits affect labor supply in economies that have an informal sector. From the perspective of the worker, a formal-sector job offers long-run gains, as it increases his likelihood of gaining pension benefits in the future. If workers take those gains...

In this paper, I estimate the effect of future pension benefits on pre-retirement labor supply for a representative sample of Chilean workers. Using non-linear patterns in pension benefit formulas and a reform that changed non-contributory pensions, I estimate the effect of pension accrual and...

We estimate the possible effects on poverty and income distribution of the crisis unleashed by Covid-19 on a group of Latin America and Caribbean countries, representing 80% of the total population in the region: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and...

Are there gender differences in the willingness to pay (WTP) for safer jobs? Using a laboratory experiment, we elicit participants’ WTP for an early (perceived ‘safer’) on-site shift. We find that women forego larger earnings in order to secure an early shift more than men do, with a...

Spanish Abstract: Las economías emergentes se caracterizan por una alta prevalencia de informalidad, empleo en pequeñas empresas y trabajos no aptos para trabajar desde casa. Estas características influyen en cómo la crisis del COVID-19 afecta a la economía. Desarrollamos un marco...

Emerging economies are characterized by an extremely high prevalence of informality, small-firm employment and jobs not fit for working from home. These features factor into how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the economy. We develop a framework that, based on accounting identities and actual...