Conditional cash transfers are powerful tools of social progress in Latin America and the Caribbean. They have reduced short-term poverty for tens of millions of people by providing a monthly stipend and have helped break the intergenerational transmission of poverty by linking financial assistance to behaviors that enhance human capital, like school attendance and health … [Read more...] about Protecting Conditional Cash Transfers
Social Issues
When Less Informality Means Less Inequality
To work in the informal sector, as roughly half of Latin Americans do, is to labor in the shadows. It often means working for firms that neither register with authorities, pay taxes or abide by labor regulations. It is to be deprived of health insurance and contributory pensions. And it generally means limited career advancement, as most firms employing informal workers do … [Read more...] about When Less Informality Means Less Inequality
Nudging Latin Americans to Healthier, More Prosperous Lives
The year 2017 may be the year behavioral economics found its place in the sun. Fifteen years after behavioral economics pioneer Daniel Kahneman won his Nobel Prize, its principles have been transformed into key policy tools in government, business, and development agencies. The 2017 Nobel Prize to Richard Thaler, one of its principle theoreticians and practitioners, only … [Read more...] about Nudging Latin Americans to Healthier, More Prosperous Lives
Can Domestic Violence Be Accurately Measured?
Education has long been promoted as a means for changing women’s position in society. Growing income, opportunity and exposure to more equal social norms, it is thought, should help protect women against abuse, not least by allowing them to choose better partners. However, recent evidence shows that the role of education as a protective factor may be limited. Physical and … [Read more...] about Can Domestic Violence Be Accurately Measured?
Curing Education’s Ills With Lessons From Medicine
Latin America's educational systems are failing their students. Despite steady advances in enrollment, students in the region perform considerably worse on standardized tests than their counterparts in advanced economies. They even trail students from developing economies with similar levels of development. The problem is not lack of spending. The average country in the region … [Read more...] about Curing Education’s Ills With Lessons From Medicine