Women have been gaining ground in labor markets, transitioning into paid work and increasingly into leadership positions in Latin America and the Caribbean. But far more progress is needed to create opportunities in which women can realize their economic potential. While the region has bridged 72.6% of its gender gap, progress is currently stagnant. Over the last year, 16 out … [Read more...] about How the Lack of Childcare Exacerbates the Gender Gap
Social Issues
What Can City Governments in Latin America Do to Improve Public Health?
The place where somebody lives matters for their physical well-being. Even within the same country, residents of different cities can have on average better or worse health, partly due to policies their city governments have adopted. Consider life expectancy in Latin America. The gap between the highest and lowest life expectancies in urban areas of Argentina, Chile, … [Read more...] about What Can City Governments in Latin America Do to Improve Public Health?
When Insurance for Small Businesses Provides Broad Social Gains
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, various studies have examined how large domestic and multinational firms respond to economic shocks, including health-related ones. But there has been less focus on how family-operated micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) modify their business decisions when faced with such disruptions. Similarly, relatively little … [Read more...] about When Insurance for Small Businesses Provides Broad Social Gains
Trust: An Obstacle and an Opportunity for Digital Transformation
It is well understood that digital transformation can build trust between citizens and the state. It improves service delivery, transparency, and the efficiency of public expenditure—all of which contributes to greater citizen trust in government. But trust is also critical to allowing the process of digital transformation to occur in the first place, and Latin America, the … [Read more...] about Trust: An Obstacle and an Opportunity for Digital Transformation
Closing Gender Gaps in the Southern Cone: The Path for Growth
As the COVID-19 pandemic struck the Southern Cone countries of Latin America, gender equality gaps, already far too wide, suffered real setbacks, reflecting the fragility of the gains made in recent years. Women took on most of the additional workload at home due to the closure of schools and care facilities, and their participation in the labor market declined sharply. Its … [Read more...] about Closing Gender Gaps in the Southern Cone: The Path for Growth