Despite the recovery of economic growth in Latin America during the 1990s, rising unemployment, high informality rates and sluggish wages lie at the root of high inequality and poverty. This paper looks at changes in hourly earnings from the early 1990s to the early 2000s in three relatively...

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...

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Poverty affects a large proportion of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa and, far from decreasing, the proportion and numbers of poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa have actually increased over the last ten years. Policies to reduce poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and elsewhere are defying...

This paper evaluates the contribution of cash transfer programmes to the observed fall in inequality in Brazil between 1995 and 2004 as well as its impact on poverty. We use the 2004 Brazilian National Household Survey (PNAD) that for the first time collected data on the incidence of some of the...

This Working Paper offers an institutional overview and comparative analysis of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) experiences of El Salvador (Red Solidaria) and Paraguay (Tekoporã). We focus on the potential contradictions and tensions that arise from the double objectives of these...

O artigo analisa a evolução do salário mínimo (SM) no Brasil depois da estabilização do Plano Real. Mostra-se que entre 1994 e 2007, a variável teve um aumento real acumulado de mais de 100%. Com isso, seu valor avançou na escala de rendimentos, estimando-se que em 2007 tenha alcançado...

The objective of this paper is to estimate the length of poverty spells and its determinants. We analyze if short-term changes in the labor market affect the probability of staying in poverty. On the assumption that poverty transitions occur more frequently when we use a monthly data rather than...