La estructura y selección de temas de la presente publicación responde, en su mayor parte, a un diagnóstico de crecimiento para Guatemala realizado en 2007, donde se identificaron un conjunto de factores que afectan las posibilidades de desarrollo del país. A lo largo de estas páginas hay...

Utilizing differences-in-differences estimates, this paper reviews the impact of reduced firing costs on the dynamism of the Colombian labor market. The effects include raising exit rates into and out of unemployment, increasing compliance with labor legislation by lowering the costs of formal...

This paper surveys the macro and micro empirical evidence on the effects of different types of labor taxes (in particular, payroll and income taxes) on firm performance and worker behavior. There is some evidence on the impact of labor taxes in Latin American countries, but there is much more...

We study the socio-economic gradient of child development on a representative sample of low- and middle-income children aged 6-42 months in Bogota, using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, a high quality test based on direct observation of the child's abilities. We find a statistically...

Presents information about opportunity cost of attendance to school, touching on issues of the proper dimensioning of cash subsidies, the adequacy of the conditionality and operational issues associated with conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs. It then analyzes the challenge of increasing...

This discussion paper was presented in the seminar "First Meeting of the Social Policy Monitoring Network: Conditional Cash-Transfer Programs". In this paper the authors use an economic model to analyze data from a major randomized social experiment, namely PROGRESA in Mexico, and to evaluate...

Presents information about opportunity cost of attendance to school, touching on issues of the proper dimensioning of cash subsidies, the adequacy of the conditionality and operational issues associated with conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs. It then analyzes the challenge of increasing...