This policy note offers motivation as well as game plan how to achieve a coherent and mutually beneficial labor migration system. It argues that migrant workers may importantly contribute to economic growth and development both in sending and receiving countries if they find the enabling...

The paper examines severance pay programs around the world by providing the first ever overview of existing programs, examining their historic development, assessing their economic rationale and describing current reform attempts. While a significant part of the paper is devoted to a...

This policy note offers motivation and a game plan for achieving a coherent and mutually beneficial labor migration system. It argues that migrant workers may make important contributions to economic growth and development in both sending and receiving countries if they find enabling conditions....

Increased labor mobility bears large potential benefits for human development and poverty reduction through various channels including more competitive global labor markets and increased efficiency in the matching of skills supply and demand. Bank support for enhanced and better managed...

The Chilean pension reform of 1981, in which Chile moved from an unfunded to a funded scheme, is considered to have contributed to this country’s excellent economic performance since the mid-1980s. The paper highlights the theoretical underpinnings of the claimed economic effects and presents...

This paper analyzes budgetary subsidy policy issues that arise when centrally planned economies move toward a market economy. The analysis suggests that subsidy reduction, to be successful, has to be embedded into an overall economic reform program and that during the program’s execution,...

This policy paper summarizes four corridor studies on bilateral social security agreements (BSSAs) between four European Union (EU) member and two non-member states, draws conclusions on their results, and offers recommendations. BSSAs between migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries are...

The portability of social benefits is gaining importance given the increasing share of individuals working at least part of their life outside their home country. Bilateral social security agreements (BSSAs) are considered a crucial approach to establishing portability, but the functionality and...