In-service teacher training aims to improve the supply of public education. A randomized experiment was conducted in Mexico to test whether teacher training could increase teacher efficiency in public secondary schools. After seven and a half months of exposure to a trained teacher, students...

School-based management programs aim to improve education outcomes by involving parents in allocation decisions about external funds transferred to the school. This paper explores the effects of two school-based management programs on parental investment in schools via voluntary contributions....

The creation of non-contributory pension schemes is becoming increasingly common as countries struggle to reduce poverty. Drawing on data from Mexico's Adultos Mayores Program (Older Adults Program) --a cash transfer scheme aimed at rural adults over 70 years of age-- we evaluate the effects of...

The expansion of the informal sector in the last decades has been accompanied by a lack of almost every form of social protection and low-productivity/low-wage employment. This report summarizes the characteristics of the informal sector and provides policy recommendations to tackle it. Section...

The causes of informality are many and range from imperfections in existing legislation and segmentation of the labor markets to macroeconomic adjustment programs and globalization. Some see in informality a mechanism for escaping unemployment, while for others it generates a spirit of...

This paper summarizes the findings of an impact evaluation of the Mexican training programs PROBECAT-SICAT for the period 1999-2004. It is a study commissioned by the Office of Evaluation and Oversight of the Inter-American Development Bank in accordance to the Bank's policy of ex-post...

The causes of informality are many and range from imperfections in existing legislation and segmentation of the labor markets to macroeconomic adjustment programs and globalization. Some see in informality a mechanism for escaping unemployment, while for others it generates a spirit of...

La expansión del empleo informal en las últimas décadas ha venido acompañada por una falta de protección social y un empleo de baja productividad y bajos salarios. En este informe se resumen las características y los principales aspectos del sector informal en América Latina y el Caribe....

El empleo informal representa una porción significativa y, en algunos países, creciente del empleo total en América Latina y El Caribe. Entre los países de la región, Venezuela es uno de los que ha experimentado un crecimiento más rápido y notable de la informalidad. El presente estudio...

The causes of informality are many and range from imperfections in existing legislation and segmentation of the labor markets to macroeconomic adjustment programs and globalization. Some see in informality a mechanism for escaping unemployment, while for others it generates a spirit of...