Healthcare services are more widespread in Latin America and the Caribbean today than 50 years ago, yet this availability is not necessarily reflected in popular perceptions. This study documents the expansion of healthcare services in the region in terms of medically-trained professionals,...

This is the first study that uniformly analyzes health perceptions in all of Latin America and tests in a systematic way their relation to economic conditions at the country, income group and individual levels. The study uses three types of health self-assessment questions: i) health...

Recent literature on Latin American countries shows that private expenses as a share of the total expenditures in health tend to be higher the lower the nation's level of economic development. This paper considers a discrete choice model of product differentiation, where consumer choice is based...

This study is designed to help practitioners prepare and evaluate institutional reforms for education and health programs. It provides an analytic framework for use by public officials and researchers, with case studies that illustrate a wide range of actual practice, and a set of lessons...

This paper attempts to identify the climatic effect on birth outcomes in Brazil and, thus, to predict the potential impact of climate change. Panel data models indicate that excess and lack of rainfall have the most important harmful effects on newborns' health; temperature stresses and low...

This paper contains a partial evaluation of Chile's AUGE (Universal Care with Explicit Guarantees - Atención Universal con Garantías Explícitas) health reform. The evaluation was carried out by examining secondary data on access to care, program coverage, hospitalization rates, and medical...

This presentation gives an overiew of the SIAS Program from 1997-2001, including: 1) Rationale; 2) Objectives; 3) Design; 4) Performance; 5) Issues and Problems; 6) Political Economy of Change. An appraisal of the health situation Guatemala is also given. This presentation was presented at the...

Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, countries are in the midst of debates about their health systems. Frequently, the characteristics of reforms in one country are used to promote or criticize particular proposals in another. Despite the great importance and potential from learning from...

This paper analyzes the relationship between reproductive empowerment and individual mental well-being by exploiting a unique set of questions from the 2003 Bolivian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). It analyzes whether women who lack reproductive empowerment, measured here by undesired...

The IDB has supported the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean in their efforts to improve their pharmaceutical systems. The objectives of this paper are twofold. First, it intends to present a brief description of the characteristics of the pharmaceutical sector in the region and...