This working paper empirically documents the size of (2) in the rural sector and investigates its consequences for rural development (agricultural growth, patterns of growth and rural poverty) for ten Latin American countries over 1985-2000. The paper provides econometric evidence suggesting...

This report presents the results of case studies on nontraditional agricultural exports in Petrolina-Juazeiro (northeastern Brazil), Ecuador, and Guatemala, analyzing the role of public policy in developing these products and the effects of nontraditional agriculture on the rural poor. The...

This paper evaluates the impacts of increasing female representation in Bolivian municipal councils on public policy choices and welfare outcomes. By combining detailed administrative panel data on municipal expenditures and revenues together with electoral data, an innovative regression...

Although Japan is much richer than Latin America and income distribution in Japan generally is much more equitable than in Latin America, the Japanese gender gap is one of the worst in the world, much worse than that of many Latin American countries. Using various data, I have tried in the...

According to conventional wisdom, health and education are important factors for economic and social development: they improve productivity and income distribution, and the poor gain the most. Nonetheless, in many regions of the world not all members of society receive these services equally. To...

This paper studies the effect of mandated employer-provided child care on the wages of women hired in large firms in Chile. We use a unique employer-employee database from the country's unemployment insurance (UI) system containing monthly information for all individuals that started a new...

This study asks a simple question that has significant implications for gender equality. After decades of increasing female participation in the labor market, advances in the labor legislation and persistent gender wage gaps, what are the effects of motherhood on labor force participation and...

The Jurisprudence of Equality project (JEP) trains judges and other judicial actors on the applicability of international women's rights law in domestic courts, thus enhancing their ability to treat cases of violence against women and ensuring greater protection for women's rights in the region....

The IDB Gender Mainstreaming Action Plan: March 2003-June 2005, seeks to reactivate efforts and generate new energy around the advances achieved to date since the approval of the IDB's Women in Development Policy in 1987. The Plan builds on accumulated experience indicating that promoting gender...

The starting point for this document was the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) technical cooperation project Gender and Municipal Development (NI-T1002), which was financed by the Bank's Capacity Building Fund for Local Institutions in Central America (CABILICA) and implemented in...