At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world faced the challenge of providing effective financial support to help citizens weather the fallout from the accompanying economic crisis. That crisis unfolded at unprecedented speed, leaving many households vulnerable to sliding into poverty before governments could design and implement new social … [Read more...] about How an Existing Non-Contributory Pension Program Proved Critical During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Bridget Hoffmann
Bridget Hoffmann is an economist in the Research Department of the Inter-American Development Bank. Her research interests are applied microeconomics, development economics, and environmental economics. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University in 2015. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Financial Economics and Mathematics from the University of Rochester.
How Climate Change Worsens Poverty and Inequality
Over the coming decades, climate change and natural disasters have the potential to undo much of the progress made in lifting households out of poverty over prior decades. By one estimate, climate change could push 100 million people across the globe into poverty within the next 10 years. By the end of the century, the ratio of GDP per capita … [Read more...] about How Climate Change Worsens Poverty and Inequality
Investing to Create Better Societies Without Sacrificing Returns
For a long time, investors eager to use their money to improve the world through socially and environmentally conscious investments worried that they would be sacrificing returns in the process. No longer. Investing that takes into account environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors often equals or even outperforms investments that ignore these factors. Today … [Read more...] about Investing to Create Better Societies Without Sacrificing Returns
Climate Change is a Threat to Economic Growth and to Reducing Income Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean
A silver lining that has emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic is that CO2 emissions have decreased dramatically during the lockdowns. But that this is not necessarily good news for climate change. Emission levels are likely to return to previous levels once the lockdowns are lifted because there have not been any structural changes in climate-related policies that will lock in … [Read more...] about Climate Change is a Threat to Economic Growth and to Reducing Income Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean
Coronavirus Survey Results Show Big Impacts, Linkages between Labor Markets and Inequality
To get a better grasp of how the coronavirus pandemic is upending lives and livelihoods, we teamed up with Cornell University to carry out an online survey to measure the economic impacts of the pandemic on households in seventeen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. We found that the impacts were staggering, are closely linked to the composition of the region’s labor … [Read more...] about Coronavirus Survey Results Show Big Impacts, Linkages between Labor Markets and Inequality