After the 2001 crisis, Argentinaonce the poster-child for pro-market structural-adjustment policieshad to define a new strategy in order to manage the societal demands that had led to the fall of the previous administration. The demand by the majority of the population for employment recovery...

Latin America and the Caribbean have become in the last decade or so a formidable laboratory for the design and implementation of innovative social policies. In the face of an unprecedented surge in the number of non-contributory social assistance benefit programs in the region, there is a...

This paper aims to carry out an exercise to measure the benefits of the social assistance policy, having as reference the conceptual framework of Ipea's Social Security Beneficiometer project (projeto Beneficiômetro da Seguridade Social do Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - Ipea). In...

Using a factor decomposition of the Gini coefficient we measure the contribution to inequality of direct monetary transfers to and from the Brazilian State. Among the transfers from the State are wages of public workers, pensions and social assistance; the transfers to the State are direct taxes....

This research analyzes the principal conditions that allowed the development of national cash transfer programs in the social protection systems of Brazil, Argentina and South Africa. The main focuses are the political and institutional conditions for the emergence and development of these...

At the beginning of the 21st century, Bolivia presented improvements in the indicators of poverty and monetary inequality following the trend of Latin America. The analysis of the evolution of the Unsatisfied Basic Needs Index (NBI) also shows a positive trend. However, significant differences...

Using a factor decomposition of the Gini coefficient we measure the contribution to inequality of direct monetary income flows to and from the Brazilian State. The income flows from the State include public servants' earnings, Social Security pensions, unemployment benefits and Social Assistance...

With a time frame that covers the period after the Federal Constitution of 1988 promulgation, this text describes, analyzes and compares the main attributions reserved to the state governments in the field of education, health and social assistance policies. In addition, it addresses the way in...

For half a century, social policies in Latin America were characterized by conflict. Well, for the last fifteen years the conflict approach gave place to the consensus one, whether the latter relates to goals (of poverty reduction) or the instruments used for this.This paper examines the origins...

Prior research on Mexican migration has shown that social networks and economic incentives play an important role in determining migration outcomes. This study utilizes experimental data on PROGRESA, Mexico's primary poverty reduction program, to evaluate the effects of public cash transfers on...