This paper investigates the impact of the pilot phase of Paraguay's conditional cash transfer programme, Tekoporã, on the demand for healthcare and education, and how much of this impact was due to the cash transfers and/or due to changes in behaviour/preferences, possibly as an effect of...

We estimate the returns to education for women and the racial wage differential among women over the wage distribution in Brazil by using quantile regression with semiparametric correction for sample selection. Our estimates show that the returns to education are high and that they are not...

Two facts have characterized the evolution of the informal sector in Brazil during the last two decades: the increase in the proportion of non-registered workers and the diminishing wage gap between non-registered and registered workers. In this paper, we briefly review the literature on...

Conditional cash transfer programmes have been increasingly adopted by several low and middle-income countries. Despite this overall acceptance, conditionalities remain under scrutiny regarding their possible independent effects on educational and health indicators. This paper is an ecological...

Even though substantial progress has been achieved worldwide in reducing both poverty and malnutrition, much is yet to be done. There are signs that the progress made in both dimensions has stalled in recent years. This special issue of Policy in Focus is dedicated to answering a crucial...

The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated large-scale, rapid responses from governments to ensure that the negative effects of the crisis on people's livelihoods are mitigated. Countries with more well-established social protection systems in place prior to the crisis were able to respond faster,...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the foundations of the economy and provoked devastating social effects in all the countries in the world, being Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) one of the most affected regions. This report updates the regional overview of the response measures...