Gender gaps in labour force participation in developing countries persist despite income growth or structural change. We assess this persistence across economic geographies within countries, focusing on youth employment in off-farm wage jobs. We combine household survey data from 12 low- and...

This paper studies the incidence and heterogeneity of labour informality in six Latin American countries-Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru. We divide workers into five work statuses: formal wage-employed, formal self-employed, upper-tier informal wageemployed, lower-tier...

This paper studies the incidence and heterogeneity of labour informality in six Latin American countries-Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru. We divide workers into five work statuses: formal wage-employed, formal self-employed, upper-tier informal wageemployed, lower-tier...

Gender gaps in labour force participation in developing countries persist despite income growth or structural change. We assess this persistence across economic geographies within countries, focusing on youth employment in off-farm wage jobs. We combine household survey data from 12 low- and...

We study the causal effect of motherhood on labour market outcomes in Latin America by adopting an event study approach around the birth of the first child based on panel data from national household surveys for Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. Our main contributions are: (i) providing new and...

The research carries out a systematic review to evaluate the necessary conditions that would allow inter-municipal cooperation to promote and generate positive impacts on the provision of public services. The strategy used for the review was the so-called rapid review of evidence, which allows...

We study whether the forced removal of undocumented immigrants from the United States increases violent crime in Mexican municipalities. Using municipal panel data on homicide rates matched with annual deportation flows from the United States to Mexico, we assess whether municipalities with...

This paper investigates the relationship between trade openness and income inequality in 11 Latin American countries over the period 1989-2015. The authors use a panel dynamic approach to take into account the high persistence of income inequality. The analysis classifies trade flows, exports...

This paper uses new data from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and its partners, including the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), to track the importance of trade within global value chains in East Asia and Latin America. The analysis shows that while value chain...

Since 2007, the Ecuadorian government has required teacher candidates to pass national skill and content knowledge tests before they are allowed to participate in merit-based selection competitions for tenured positions at public schools in an attempt to raise teacher quality. We evaluate the...

We use data from time-use surveys and the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) to analyze the relationship between family long-term care (LTC) and female labor supply in four Latin American countries. Time-use survey data from Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico shows that: (i) women provide...

Since 2007, the Ecuadorian government has required teacher candidates to pass national skill and content knowledge tests before they are allowed to participate in merit-based selection competitions for tenured positions at public schools in an attempt to raise teacher quality. We evaluate the...

While some Latin American countries remain in the middle of the pandemic and their governments have been either unable or unwilling to do anything about it, civil society has begun to initiate a considerable number of digital democratic innovations.

Robust forecasting of mining sector revenues is key to effective budgeting (and broader fiscal management) in many resource-rich countries. However, this is challenging in practice, given commodity market volatility, the extended lags (and often opaque processes) between resource discoveries and...

Sustainable Development Goal 16 on "peace, justice, and strong institutions" is widely considered a central pillar of sustainable development. Based on a comprehensive concept of peace that goes beyond the mere absence of war, it might also be the most difficult to realise. Debates in Peace and...

As Latin America and the Caribbeans "Great Liberalization" reaches its 30th anniversary, we revisit the trade and growth debate by updating and expanding Estevadeordal and Taylors 2013 paper. To better understand the regions heterogeneity of policies and outcomes, we extend this analysis to...

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...

This document contributes to the scarce empirical literature on the role of services as a source of manufacturing competitiveness in developing economies, providing evidence on the Latin American region. The 2018 release of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s...

Este documento presenta algunas herramientas de política comercial que pueden contribuir a la igualdad de género. Para avanzar en esta política, es importante contar con datos desagregados por sexo para analizar cómo las mujeres podrían ser afectadas por ciertas reglas del comercio. Un...

The growth of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in developing countries over the last decade has attracted an intense academic and policy-oriented interest for its determinants. Despite the gravity model being considered a useful tool to approximate bilateral FDI flows, the literature has seen a...

In this study, we explore the hypotheses that (a) workers' remittances enhance economic growth in Latin American countries, and (b) workers' remittances help reduce poverty in Latin American countries. In recent decades, workers' remittances have become an important source of income for many...

Since 2007, the Ecuadorian government has required teacher candidates to pass national skill and content knowledge tests before they are allowed to participate in merit-based selection competitions for tenured positions at public schools in an attempt to raise teacher quality. We evaluate the...

While the COVID-19 pandemic posits a significant challenge to all societies around the world, it also reveals in the most dramatic manner the many abysmal differences between so-called advanced economies and the developing world.

We are undergoing a period of epochal change. The COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world, ignoring geographic and political borders, and wove together the individual and collective experience of our condition of humanity that inhabits a single common house: our planet. At the same time, it...

Social protection is the first axis of the Regional Agenda for Inclusive Social Development, which was recently adopted at the third session of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Mexico City in October 2019. This Agenda, through which the...