This paper evaluates the impacts of increasing female representation in Bolivian municipal councils on public policy choices and welfare outcomes. By combining detailed administrative panel data on municipal expenditures and revenues together with electoral data, an innovative regression...

Effective coverage is a measure of health system performance that combines three aspects of health care service delivery into a single measure: need, use, and quality. In this technical note, the concept of effective coverage is explained, methodological issues are discussed and the implications...

This paper presents some of the background research that contributed to the discussions within the Inter-American Development Bank's policy and strategy regarding indigenous health issues. The paper's conceptual approach and good practice research helped focus the discussion on the importance of...

This study seeks to determine the impact on female labor outcomes of the amendment to the Colombian labor law that extended maternity leave from 12 to 14 weeks (Law 1468 of July 2011). To identify this impact, labor market outcomes of two groups of women with different fertility rates are...

This paper studies the effect of mandated employer-provided child care on the wages of women hired in large firms in Chile. We use a unique employer-employee database from the country's unemployment insurance (UI) system containing monthly information for all individuals that started a new...

This study asks a simple question that has significant implications for gender equality. After decades of increasing female participation in the labor market, advances in the labor legislation and persistent gender wage gaps, what are the effects of motherhood on labor force participation and...

The Jurisprudence of Equality project (JEP) trains judges and other judicial actors on the applicability of international women's rights law in domestic courts, thus enhancing their ability to treat cases of violence against women and ensuring greater protection for women's rights in the region....

Standards measures of female ownership and management of firms included in the World Bank Enterprise Survey do not support the existence of a gender gap in access to finance in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Nonetheless, more precise measures show that women-led businesses are more...