The causes of informality are many and range from imperfections in existing legislation and segmentation of the labor markets to macroeconomic adjustment programs and globalization. Some see in informality a mechanism for escaping unemployment, while for others it generates a spirit of...

This paper describes the conceptualization, development and implementation of the National Health Fund in Jamaica. Established in 2003, the NHF provides direct assistance to patients for drug purchases and funding support to private and public organizations for approved projects. The NHF marks a...

O Artigo "Políticas de saúde e blocos econômicos" trata da integração de sistemas de saúde dentro de blocos econômicos. Entretanto, a obra não é restrito aos temas de saúde. Tópicos como proteção ao imigrante intra-regional, e extra-regional também são abordados. Dentro do tópico...

Unemployment benefit systems are nonexistent in many developing economies. Introducing such systems poses many challenges, which are partly due to the high level of informality in the labor markets of these economies. This paper studies the consequences on the labor market of implementing an...

This paper discusses infrastructure investment and the need for private financing, in turn with the trend of pension fund reform. This paper outlines the conditions under which sources and uses of long-term resources can meet and focusing the attention of both parties to the benefits of a...

The orientation of social spending is a decisive element for the creation and allocation of opportunities for all because it reveals, to some degree, the priorities and relative importance a government assigns to directly and indirectly tackling poverty, inequality and their consequences....

Recent empirical evidence has indicated that Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) do not have an aggregate effect on adult labour supply, however little attention has been paid to the role of other intrahousehold dynamics. This paper examines how the bargaining power structure of households affects...

This paper uses matched social security and program micro data from the Uruguayan Plan de Atención Nacional a la Emergencia Social to investigate the effect of social assistance on formal labor market outcomes. One specific feature of this program is that households could gain and retain...

In 1995, the government of Uruguay undertook a first pillar-based reform of the pension system, as opposed to the second pillar-based Chilean-style reform. The paper's first section describes Uruguay's pension system prior to reform. It demonstrates quite clearly that the crisis faced by that...