"The authors analyze general equilibrium relationships between trade policy and the household distribution of income, decomposing social welfare into real income level and variance components and emphasizing Gini and Atkinson indexes. They embed these inequality-adjusted social welfare functions...

This report lays out a strategy for Ukraine to make the transition to a market economy in the social sectors, taking into account the widespread system of benefits and the high spending on education and health inherited from the former Soviet Union. A central part of this strategy is the need to...

The gains from the transition in post-communist Russia were captured by the new managerial class, which won rents from the state in the form of privatized enterprises, state subsidies, credits, and opportunities for tax evasion. Those rents reduced state revenues that could have supported social...

The report argues that the Peru's Social Safety Net (SSN) reform process needs to be anchored to a coherent national social safety net and poverty reduction strategy. The report suggests that the SSN interventions should be differentiated, as appropriate, between the urban and rural parts of...

This report responds to the Government of Cameroon's strong interest in strengthening its social safety net system to support the poorest and most vulnerable households during crises. It is grounded in extensive discussions with government counterparts in a collaborative and inclusive process....

Over the last several years, the Government of Togo has made important advances in the area of social protection. Although Togo has had limited social insurance and social assistance programs, the economic shock and natural disasters starting in 2008 brought the need for better mechanisms of...

In recent years, the Government of Liberia launched efforts to develop a coordinated strategy for social protection. Indeed, social protection will be one of the key policy issues addressed within the Human Development pillar of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) II. This strategy development,...