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.

This paper aims at evaluating the impacts of innovation promotion programs administrated by the Colombian Innovation Agency (COLCIENCIAS). Although the agency implements multiple programs, the focus of these research are on those programs that provide financial incentives for R&D (matching grants and contingent loans) and at the same time encourage the formation of linkages between firms, universities and other public research organizations.

The primary goal of a pension system should be to provide adequate, affordable, sustainable, and robust retirement income. Belize, like many other countries in the Caribbean, faces the challenge to both expand the pension coverage and guarantee its financial sustainability. In the last few years, the issue of social security reform has been a rising concern in Belize, as well as throughout the region. In this context, Belize has undertaken actuarial forecasts to examine the prospective state of its social security scheme.

The Technical Note provides an overview of labor market outcomes in Belize and a review of labor market institutions and regulations. The study considers various perspectives on Belize's market and concludes that prevailing labor market regulations, institutions and labor supply do not appear as binding constraints on achieving more rapid economic growth. Nevertheless, labor market regulations, institutions and labor supply can be improved upon, especially laws and regulations that are no longer appropriate for 21st century circumstances.

This paper uses matched social security and program micro data from the Uruguayan Plan de Atención Nacional a la Emergencia Social to investigate the effect of social assistance on formal labor market outcomes. One specific feature of this program is that households could gain and retain eligibility only conditional on their formal income being below a predetermined level. Using a regression discontinuity estimator, we show that, consistent with a textbook model of labor supply, the program reduced formal employment and earnings, primarily among men.

This paper analyzes the correlation between the expansion of the Mexican Conditional Cash Transfer program Oportunidades and the evolution of the labor market over the period 2000-10. We find no evidence of perverse effects. Program expansion was not associated with drops in either labor force participation or wageformality. On the contrary, the expansion of Oportunidades was strongly correlated with a transition from informal wage employment to self-employment for men (by 1.6% and 0.6% of total employment in rural and urban municipalities respectively).

This technical note analyzes the evolution of Latin American and Caribbean systems in three stages: early development of basic services (Stage One) and advancing coverage, efficiency and services (Stage Two). It proposes a direction for the future (a hypothetical Stage Three), demonstrating how some advanced Stage Two countries (Brazil, Mexico, and Chile, for example) are beginning to take steps in this direction. A set of operational priorities and monitoring and evaluation indicators is developed for each stage.

The proposal by Levy (2008) whereby a universal social insurance (USI) scheme is guaranteed to all workers, regardless of formality status, aims at abolishing the current contributory social insurance system and financing social insurance through value-added taxes instead (henceforth, the social security reform).

This technical note provides guidance for project managers and policy makers to integrate a gender perspective in rural development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

This study aims to evaluate whether health providers in Peru might be contributing to ethnic health disparities in the provision of family planning services, by comparing providers' adherence to national family planning guidelines.