This paper examines how changes in the legislation governing health and pension benefits that took place between 2003 and 2008 in Colombia affected the informal and formal labor markets. In particular, this paper examines two major changes in the legislation. First, it looks at the effects of imposing the requirement to use the same base income to contribute to both health insurance and pensions for independent workers using a difference-in-differences strategy.

This paper studies the incentive effects of social security benefits on labor market informality following a policy reform in Uruguay. The reform extended health benefits to dependent children of private sector salaried workers, and thus altered the incentive structure of holding formal jobs within the household. The identification strategy of the reform¿s effects relies on a comparison between workers with children (affected by the reform) and those without children (unaffected by the reform).

This paper critically discusses the theoretical and empirical literature on the quantitative and qualitative employment impact of technological change, compares the relative explanatory power of the competing theories, and explains in detail the macro and micro evidence on the issue, with reference both to the advanced economies and the developing countries (DCs).

The employment impact of innovation in the heterogeneous universe of services was studied using data from the 2004-2009 Uruguayan service innovation surveys. The empirical evidence shows that the impact of product innovation on employment is positive, while process innovation appears to have no effect. The effect varies according to the skill level of the labor force, across sectors, and the type of innovation strategy pursued by firms.

This paper provides evidence about the relationship between innovation and employment in Argentina. In particular, it quantifies the impact of different types of innovations (process or product innovations) on employment growth and skill composition (skilled-unskilled labor) and the impact of different innovation strategies (buy or make) on employment growth, and analyzes whether these impacts depend on firm size or technology intensity.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between innovation and employment, in terms of both its quantity and quality, in Uruguay. The effect of product and process innovation on employment growth and on employment composition in terms of skills was studied, using data from manufacturing firms' innovation surveys, matched against economic activity surveys. The impact of different innovation strategies was also analyzed, particularly producing technology vs. sourcing technology externally. The results revealed that product innovation is associated with employment growth.

This paper compiles and analyzes several sources of information to shed light on the relationship between innovation and employment growth in the manufacturing industry in Chile in the last 15 years. Our overall conclusions are that process innovation is generally not found to be a relevant determinant of employment growth, and that product innovation is usually positively associated with an expansion in employment. These results seem to be similar regardless of firm size and hold for both low- and high-tech industries.

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 for the evaluation of SPH's projects in maternal and child health are presented.

The advent of the knowledge society has highlighted the growing importance of innovation and intellectual assets as sources of competitiveness and long-term economic growth. This book examines human capital and financial inputs into innovation systems, scientific and innovation outputs, innovative behavior by firms, the links between changes in economic structure, technological intensity, and growth, institutional development and public policy, and the status of one key crosscutting and enabling technological revolution: information and communication technology.

Inequality between men and women in Latin America persists in everything from wages to health care, education, and access to credit. Based on studies for an IDB-sponsored forum in Guadalajara, Mexico, this book examines the respective roles of men and women in development. Prevailing social policies in the region often view men as income earners and women as wives and mothers, neglecting the role of women in the work force and as community leaders.