This paper surveys 11 international comparative studies of poverty, income distribution, and the elderly. Although it focuses on OECD economies, some 44 countries are covered. The paper addresses a series of questions. What level are the incomes of the elderly relative to the population as a...

This paper interprets case studies, and theory on community involvement in beneficiary selection, and benefit delivery for social safety nets. Several considerations should be carefully balanced in assessing the advantages of using community groups as targeting agents. First, benefits from...

Although there has been a considerable amount of legislation aimed at marital rights in several countries in recent decades, the implications for women's labor supply has been a comparatively neglected area. In this report, the authors use insights from the economics of marriage , including...

Using household level panel data from Nicaragua, this paper explores the impact of the recent coffee crisis on rural households engaged in coffee production, and coffee labor work. Taking advantage of the panel structure of the data, a number of findings emerge: a) while overall growth between...

A legacy of the command economy in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is a social protection system that emphasizes institutional care for vulnerable individuals. It has been well established that in many cases institutionalization can be more expensive per client served and...

The paper is intended to provide an orientation to the past and present work of the Social Development network and a contribution to its future strategy. It presents a brief overview of the history of the Social Development network or family; it illustrates both continuity and change in the way...

The informal sector is typically characterized as being very heterogeneous and possibly composed of two clearly distinct segments, sometimes called the lower and upper tier. However, empirical evidence shows that even among lower tier entrepreneur's profitability can be quite high. The authors...

This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of industry-level multifactor productivity growth. It focus on traditional factors, including the process of technological catch up, human capital and R&D as well as institutional factors affecting labor adjustment costs. The link...

This paper argues that it is important to take into account unfunded public pension liabilities as part of an assessment of the overall fiscal situation, including the fiscal positions of pension schemes pre and post reforms. It examines the concept of the implicit pension debt (IPD) and...

Unemployment insurance has been the subject of numerous theoretical and empirical studies. These studies elucidate the benefits and the cost of unemployment insurance, namely, the improved allocation of risk bearing and the reduced incentives for work. In the past two decades a branch of the...