May 2020
22May

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean proposes Universal Basic Income

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, a regional organism of the United Nations Secretariat has declared itself in favour of a new regime of welfare and social protection that includes the gradual, progressive and sustained establishment of universal basic income in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Read also World Bank Group: 100 Countries Get Support in Response to COVID-19 (Coronavirus) On May 12th, its executive secretary, Alicia Bárcena, presented the 3rd Special Report COVID-19:...

May 22, 2020
News, Slider, , , , ,
Read more...
15May

Selfies can help Brazil create a super supplementary pension

By Arun Muralidhar, Robert C. Merton, Alexandre Vitorino Brazilian policy makers and researchers have discussed the introduction of a complementary pension system to complement the Regime Geral de Previdência Social (RGPS), specially for those that want a retirement income above the RGPS ceiling. This article first recommends that the complementary system must be SUPER (Simple, Universal, Portable, Efficient with low cost and Robust Regulatation). It then proposes the adoption of a financial innovation called SeLFIES (Standard-of-Living, Forward-starting, Income-only Securities),...

May 15, 2020
Articles, Investment, Pension design, , , ,
Read more...
08May

Have Cash Transfers Succeeded in Reaching the Poor in Latin America and the Caribbean?

By Marcos Robles, Marcela G. Rubio, Stampini Marco We present novel estimates of the quality of targeting of conditional cash transfer (CCT) and non-contributory pension (NCP) programs in Latin-America and the Caribbean. Our contribution is novel in that we use both national and international poverty lines, provide differentiated estimates for urban and rural areas, and compare CCT and NCP programs. We show that leakage to the non-poor coexists with pervasive under-coverage of all poor, including the extreme poor. On average,...

May 8, 2020
Adequacy, Books, Labor Market, ,
Read more...
05May

COVID-19 Is Exposing the Holes in Latin America’s Safety Nets

Governments around the world need to get cash into the pockets of families who lost their income due to the coronavirus, and Latin America might seem well-equipped for the task. The region helped pioneer massive cash transfer programs for low-income families over the past three decades, with notable success in Brazil, Mexico and elsewhere. But the pandemic has instead exposed existing vulnerabilities in Latin America’s social safety net. If policymakers aren’t careful, it could create new ones as well....

May 5, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...

April 2020

29Apr

Sistemas de pensiones de cara a un mundo cambiante

Por Federación Internacional de Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones (FIAP), AAFP de Chile Este seminario nos convoca a tratar de identificar cuáles son los ajustes que requiere este mundo cambiante para que pueda responder a los requerimientos que tienen las personas; es decir, en términos de que los sistemas pensionales logren reunir las condiciones necesarias para generar una jubilación óptima después de tantos años de trabajo. Nuestra tarea en esta instancia es determinar cuáles son las causas que ya...

April 29, 2020
Diseño de Pensiones, Libros, Sostenibilidad del Sistema, ,
Read more...
24Apr

Informal employment in Mexico: Current situation, policies and challenges

By ILO Informal employment is a persistent problem in Latin America and the Caribbean. Following a decade of economic growth and decline in unemployment rates, there are still 130 million workers holding informal jobs, deprived of social protection and labour rights. This does not mean, however, that there has not been any progress made on the issue of formalization. Formal employment, wage labour and social protection coverage have increased in Latin America and the Caribbean. Now, it is important...

April 24, 2020
Books, Labor Market, , , ,
Read more...
17Apr

The challenges of social security in the world: a Latin American polaroid

By Nelson Dionel Cardozo This essay seeks to discuss the diagnoses of the so-called "pension crisis". In the literature we find a hypothesis that population aging and changes in employment markets will make the payment of public pensions unsustainable in the future. This is explained by the decrease in the number of workers and the increase in the number of older adults in the population pyramid. Thus, the arguments critical of this vision, which has become hegemonic in the...

April 17, 2020
Articles, System Sustainability,
Read more...
16Apr

Chile gives pension funds more firepower as virus batters growth

Chile’s Central Bank agreed on Wednesday to increase the maximum investment limits on alternative assets for four of the country’s five public pension funds as it seeks to contain the impact of the coronavirus health crisis on the economy. The bank said in a statement that the move was designed to allow for “diversification of the pension fund portfolios ... to access better combinations of risk and return.” The potential to extend the funds’ investments could provide a welcome...

April 16, 2020
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
11Apr

Enlisting Employees In Improving Payroll-Tax Compliance: Evidence From Mexico

By Todd Kumler, Eric Verhoogen, Judith A. Frías A growing body of research suggests that difficulties in collecting taxes are an important constraint on economic performance in developing countries. Evidence from rich countries points to third- party reporting — in particular, employer reports of employees' wages — as a potential remedy. To what extent does the accuracy of third-party reporting carry over to developing countries, with their weaker enforcement regimes? In this paper, we compare two sources of wage information...

April 11, 2020
Articles, Labor Market, Operation, , ,
Read more...

March 2020

27Mar

Coronavirus and online solutions: Necessity the mother of invention

Contagion-control measures in Latin America have led to private companies and citizens heightening their dependence on, and increasing their use of, internet-powered solutions and apps. While many firms, including those in the financial services sector, have told staff to work from home, the bulk of people in the region simply cannot do this because of the nature of their work, which is often informal.  State agencies, meanwhile, are also tightening their embrace on technology and instructing regulated entities to do the same. Changes will...

March 27, 2020
News, Slider
Read more...