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,...

Neglected Infectious Diseases (NIDs) remain one the most underfunded disease categories in global health despite their far-reaching impact and the availability of affordable treatments. The Inter-American Development Bank, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases/Sabin Vaccine...

We identify whether remittances facilitate consumption smoothing during health shocks in Jamaica. In addition, we investigate whether remittances are subject to moral hazard by receivers, how the informal insurance provided by remittances interacts with formal health insurance, and whether there...

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...

Although cervical cancer is considered one of the most preventable types of cancer, mortality rates in many developing countries are extremely high. This paper exploits the randomized research design of a large welfare program "PROGRESA" to study the existence of spillover effects in cervical...

This paper explores the impact that a water supply and sewerage (W&S) expansion had on child mortality in Quito, Ecuador. Studies have typically estimated the effects of this type of interventions comparing outcome indicators - at the aggregate level - of areas with the facilities and areas that...

Climate-sensitive health problems kill millions every year and undermine the physical and psychological well-being of millions more. To identify the climate impacts on dengue risk in Brazil, a comparative case study is used based on the synthetic controls approach. The South and Northeast...