The regulation and supervision of pension funds is a critical part of building public confidence in a funded-pension system. This report argues that confidence is best bolstered by an independent, autonomous, and transparent supervision agency, particularly when previous systems have failed. The...

The theoretical literature has pointed at the importance of access to credit market in determining the household decisions concerning children's activities and the reaction of households to adverse shocks. In this paper we address these issues making use of a unique data set for Guatemala that...

This report gives an overview of the social security status of non-citizens in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), describes measures and efforts to support labor mobility through enhanced social security protection of non-citizens in SADC, and makes recommendations as to how to...

This paper explores the appropriate development of policy towards mandatory, retirement income streams within this broad framework, paying particular attention to the economic environments relevant to developing economies. After a review of existing practices, numerical simulation techniques are...

This paper offers a new set of data compiled from individual World Bank country reports. The authors give a brief textual description of patterns and trends in spending, and provide the raw data and documentation of its sources in the appendix. The data are also provided in an excel spreadsheet...

Many developing countries have relied on the varied forms of diversified secondary technical education as the main venue for training skilled workers and mid-level technicians. But there have been numerous and strong critics against this mode of technical education. As an alternative, the...

The aim of this paper is to describe the 1980 Chilean pension reform and to present its main results and economic impact. It is mainly descriptive; however we have tried to emphasize the lessons that may be learned and that may be of interest to other countries in different circumstances. In...

This paper interprets case studies, and theory on community involvement in beneficiary selection, and benefit delivery for social safety nets. Several considerations should be carefully balanced in assessing the advantages of using community groups as targeting agents. First, benefits from...

The authors analyze child work in Zambia, applying two recent surveys, the Bank's Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) of 1998, and the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Statistical Information and Monitoring Programme on Child Labour (SIMPOC) of 1999. The analysis aims at...

Disability is more prevalent in Poland than in any other country in the world, and the cost of the disability pension systems, and programs to encourage the employment of people withdisabilities is among the highest in the world - over four percent of GDP. Too generous benefits, and lax...