This paper compares the different approaches of Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, and China with respect to how they manage their respective defined contribution, individual retirement account systems. The four cases illustrate important differences in terms of some of the key issues in design of...

The paper provides a first investigation into the portability of pension and health care benefits for international migrants. It is based on available literature and newly minted data, but more importantly on selective case studies from main migrant-sending and receiving countries. While...

This paper brings together some of the empirical work conducted by IFPRI researchers which investigates linkages among the degree of consumption insurance, households'vulnerability to poverty, and household use of formal and informal coping mechanisms using the same empirical approach in five...

Since the creation of the first Social fund 14 years ago in Bolivia, these funds have been developed in more than 40 countries around the world. Over time they have diversified as well to serve as a very useful instrument for human development. The recommendations in this study are based on an...

The paper attempts to answer the following questions: how can conditional cash transfer (CCTs) be better designed, coordinated, and leveraged to increase their impact on child undernutrition? How can best practices from nutrition interventions be applied to ensure maximum CCT impact on child...

This paper aims to examine the impact of type of pension scheme on retirement behavior. Section 1 describes a simple, theoretical model of optimal retirement. Section 2 introduces an empirical model of a simple retirement savings plan, or defined contribution pension scheme. Section 3 compares...

This paper focuses on minimum wages (MW), mandated benefits (MB), employment protection legislation (EPL), and unemployment insurance benefit systems (UIB). Even though different institutions might try to accomplish the same goal(s), the mechanisms through which each regulation interacts with...

This report serves as a conceptual background piece for the development of the Social Strategy Paper (SSP). To develop the conceptual underpinnings, the objectives and instruments of strategy papers (SP) are viewed under the rubric of Social Risk Management (SRM). SRM consists of public measures...

Human trafficking, as it is defined by international law, subsumes all forms of nonconsensual exploitation. That is, whenever people are forced or lured into exploitation no matter if movement of victims is involved it is considered human trafficking. There is, though, a large overlap with...

The structure of the paper is as follows. Section A proposes that the starting point for policy discussion should be the employment problems of those young people in developing and transition countries who are at the greatest disadvantage, rather than merely those who are unemployed. In section...