The Fiscal Institutions of Tomorrow, the first publication in the series Institutions for People, addresses issues of public management that are key to economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean. It presents the challenges that the countries in the region face to strengthen fiscal...

La tributación en América Latina y el Caribe es considerada en gran parte como un medio de generar ingresos para mantener el gobierno en funcionamiento. En los últimos años, se ha avanzado hacia un aumento de los ingresos totales, pero la mayoría de los países de la región aún sigue a la...

Birth registration is not only a fundamental human right, but also a requirement for obtaining additional documents, proving legal identity, and accessing a number of government benefits. Yet, little is known about the effects of birth under-registration on access to health care. Using data from...

Birth registration is essential to guarantee a child's right to an identity. Without proper documentation of their identity, children have limited access to health, education and social assistance, laying the foundation for lifelong exclusion. Geographic distance to registration facilities is...

Gains from government crime-reducing programs are not always visible to the average citizen. The media overexpose crime events, but the absence of crime rarely makes the news, increasing the risk that citizen may have inaccurate perceptions of security. Through a survey experiment carried out in...

This working paper studies the effect of remittances from the United States on crime rates in Mexico. The topic is examined using municipal-level data on the percent of household receiving remittances and homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Remittances are found to be associated with a decrease...

The drivers of educational attainment have been the subject of much research both in the developed and the developing world. Yet, nothing is known about the effect of birth registration on schooling outcomes. Birth registration is not only a fundamental human right but also a requirement to...

Crime has tangible economic costs. It also has less understood and likely sizable intangible costs. In particular, widespread crime has the potential to weaken trust between citizens and institutions, undermine government reform efforts, and become an obstacle to development. Yet, the impact of...

Este sumário executivo apresenta a tributação como instrumento de desenvolvimento e não apenas uma simples fonte de receita. Aborda também algumas das áreas problemáticas nos sistemas tributários, tais como evasão, estruturas impositivas regressivas, e a incapacidade de usar os impostos...

This executive summary presents the argument for using taxation as a development tool rather than simply a source of revenue. It also touches on some of the problem areas in tax systems including evasion, regressive personal income tax structures, and the failure to use taxes to improve...