This study provides estimates of the fiscal cost of a universal age pension in Sri Lanka. It challenges opponents of universal pensions who assert that such pensions are unaffordable, despite the fact that countries as diverse as New Zealand, Mauritius, Nepal, Namibia, Bolivia and Kosovo have...

The author reports the results of February 1993 field work examining Export Processing zones in the Dominican Republic, which provided 63% of the jobs in manufacturing and 6.6% of all jobs in the economy

Using cross-country data for 51 countries, including 23 in Africa, the author controls for differences in per capita income and measures the effect of structural variables on a number of outcomes, including the quality, integrity and prestige of public service. He finds merit-based recruitment...

Few residents of developing countries have access to pensions in old age. Well-intentioned reformers have concentrated on privatisation of public pensions and creation of individual accounts, but this does nothing to expand coverage. It is possible for a non-contributory, flat pension to...

In 2000 only 22% of older people in Mexico received a pension. Then, in 2002, the first non-contributory pension was introduced in Mexico City. Since then 17 of Mexico's 31 states have also introduced social pensions and so has the federal district. The introduction of these non-contributory...

The World Bank recommends that pension systems rest on three pillars: (1) redistribution, (2) forced savings, and (3) voluntary savings. There is wide agreement that the first pillar should be provided through the State and the third largely through private markets. In contrast, provision of the...

That the Government of Mauritius provides nearly every resident over the age of 60 with a non-contributory, basic pension is one of the best-kept secrets in the world. The scheme dates from 1950 and became universal in 1958, following abolition of a means test. Remarkably, introduction of a...

This paper chronicles the rise of social pensions in Mexico. First it summarizes the pension system prior to introduction of social pensions. Next it describes how Mexico City, the federal government, and seventeen of Mexico’s 31 states initiated social pensions, a policy supported eventually...