This paper investigates the effect of the minimum wage on employment transitions in Brazil and, in particular, on the informal sector transitions. We estimate the probability of becoming nonemployed (unemployed or out of the labour force) and the probability of moving to the informal sector...

In 2006, the Bolsa Família Program completed its expansion, expecting to cover 11 million beneficiary families. The objective of this article is to evaluate whether this implied in deterioration in the program's efficient targeting and whether the target of 11 million families in fact covers...

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...

O artigo apresenta diversas características dos dois principais programas focalizados de transferência de renda no Brasil, o Benefício de Prestação Continuada - BPC, e o Bolsa Família. Discute aspectos institucionais dos programas, sua sustentabilidade de longo prazo, seu público atendido...

This paper analyses Brazilian, Chilean and Colombian experiences with conditional cash transfer programmes and how they have helped tackle gendered economic and social vulnerabilities. It is argued that Bolsa Família, Chile Solidario and Familias en Acción should be analysed within the broader...

In this paper we propose a method to estimate externality effects in cash transfer programmes, even in cases when the benefit is not randomly assigned. Externality is assessed through the decomposition of the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) into participation (direct) effect and...