Household surveys underreport incomes from the upper tail of the distribution, affecting our assessment about inequality. This paper offers a tractable simulation method to deal with this situation in the absence of extra information (e.g., tax records). The core of the method is to draw...

This paper aims to assess the extent to which cash transfers, direct taxes, and social contributions help to reduce gender income inequalities in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. We apply microsimulation techniques to household...

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it provides a comprehensive assessment of the financial cost informal workers would incur if they entered formal employment in five Latin American countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Then, it analyzes the extent to which...

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically affected household incomes around the world. In developed economies, pre-pandemic tax-benefit policies and emergency transfers mitigated to a large extent the negative income shock. However, less is known about the effect of government intervention on household...

This paper studies the role of income distribution as a determinant of the size of the informal sector in an economy by relying on a channel whereby inequality affects the behaviour of aggregate demand and thus influences the incentives a firm has to become informal. It is further postulated...

In this paper we study the role of income distribution as a determinant of the size of the informal sector in an economy. We rely on a channel whereby inequality affects the behaviour of aggregate demand and thus influences the incentives a firm has to become informal. We further postulate that...