Regional integration initiatives have long been part of the world economic landscape. In Latin America, integration flourished in the early post-war era but then lost momentum until the 1990s, when there was a new wave of initiatives ranging from free trade areas to customs unions. This Report...

This paper attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of Bolivia's labor market institutions, particularly the Plan Nacional de Empleo de Emergencia (PLANE). It is found that unemployment as conventionally defined may not be the most important problem in Bolivia's labor market, as the non-salaried...

This document presents an impact evaluation of the pilot program Mi Primer Empleo Digno (MPED) – an active labor market program that provides classroom training and paid internships to low income youth from January 2009 to June 210 in main cities in Bolivia. Taking advantage of the...

This document constructs a multidimentional measure of poverty for Bolivia based on the new 2008 constitution's fundamental rights, which can be measured in surveys; it also documents the changes in poverty observed in the last decade, in a multidimensional approach. Particulary, we extend the...

This paper presents the impact evaluation of Crédito Productivo Individual from Banco de Desarrollo Productivo S.A.M – government second-tier bank which channels resources toward productive activities in Bolivia. This financial product is specifically directed to micro and small enterprises...

This paper uses a simple model of the labor supply to identify the distribution of the reserve wages. The distribution of the reserve wages of the non-employed population (Unemployed or out of the labor force) it's fundamental not only to understand the nature of the no-employment but to also...

This paper evaluates the success of National Literacy Program (PNA) “Yo Si Puedo”. First, we evaluate whether the implementation of PNA is associated with a change in the level and trend of illiteracy, and if such changes were sufficient to reduce the incidence of illiteracy below 4% - a...