Natural hazards, an increasingly important phenomenon, have a direct impact at regional and household level. The growing incidence and persistence of natural events are strongly linked to increasing vulnerability of households and communities in developing countries. Previous socioeconomic vulnerabilities may exacerbate the impact of a specific event, making more difficult the process of...

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There is little micro-evidence on the persistence of natural disasters' welfare impacts. This paper assesses the effect of Hurricane Mitch on consumption of Nicaraguan agricultura) households. Mitch occurred in October 1998. Pre-post data is obtained from a nationally representative panel collected in 1998 and 2001. An additional survey was fielded in 1999 for households from the panel affected...

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The Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Office in Mexico jointly organized the conference “Natural Disasters in Latin America: Welfare Impacts and Social Protection Solutions” held in Mexico City in January 2010. The main objectives of the conference were to improve the understanding of (i) how natural disasters affect...

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The book by Armendáriz and Morduch focuses on how microfinance institutions work, what has been their impact and whether they are financially sustainable. For such purpose the book can be divided—from my viewpoint—into six sections. The first describes the environment of imperfect information that surrounds credit transactions and the consequences that this entails. First the authors define in a...

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Various circumstances make difficult the rigorous study of processes, strategies and impact of V the efforts of financial inclusion and penetration, either at the academie level, in the public policy area or in companies and organizations of financial services industry. The central problem in Mexico has been the lack of a unified agreement on the definition and the low comprehension level of the...

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One of the central concerns in Latin America an the Caribbean (LAC) has been the reduction of poverty and inequality so prevalent in the continent. Using large world samples, the literature has found that financial development increases economic growth, increases the income of the poor, and reduces inequality. This paper studies the effects of financial development on the whole distribution of...

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Mexican Government’s Banks offer loan guarantees to private banks in order to spur credit directed to non-financial small and medium sized firms and this policy is examined here. Application of representative data to the comparative static analysis of the guarantee-use decision suggests that these schemes, as currently designed, are justifiable from an economic viewpoint. However, there is some...

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The document that was presented by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2011 sets forth a series of proposals to encourage member countries to achieve universal health coverage. These proposals are presented in detail and are based both on world statistics and case studies.

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We use the PISA 2003 student-level achievement database for Mexico to estimate state education production functions. Student characteristics, family background, home inputs, resources and institutions are controlled for. We take advantage of the state-level variation and representative sample to analyze the impact of institutional factors such as state accountability systems and the role of...

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This book gathers analyses performed by several authors on policies considered appropriate by the World Bank to enhance the quality of basic education provided in Mexico, in particular, education received by majority sectors in our society (World Bank: 2005).

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This study uses data from Colombia’s 2003 Encuesta de Calidad de Vida to examine how well do electricity strata (proxy for socioeconomic status) explain the choice decision for type of institution and session attended. In the model of choice by type – private vs. public universities – I find that as the electricity strata increases, the marginal probability of enrolling in a public university...

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This paper raises the point that only few health reforms implemented in Latin American countries modified the existing health systems in order to fix the problems brought by the institutional fragmentation typical of this sector. A great part of these reforms did not implemented the necessary measures to improve coordination among health systems in the prevailing pluralistic model and besides,...

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This paper aims at analyzing healthcare expenditure and demand of families, by estimating income-elasticity and price-elasticity for ten groups of products using the so-called model Linear Almost Ideal Demand System (LAIDS). The 2002/03 consumer expenditure surveys (POF) of the Fundação Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística – FIBGE (Brazilian census bureau) are used, providing extremely...

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The objective of this article is to put in economic perspective the expenditure in health within the pattern of family expenditure of the Mexican households. Information of the National Survey on Income Expenditure of Households (ENIGH) of Mexico of 2004 is analyzed on: structure of the expenditure of the households, expenditure in health and income-expenditure elasticities in health; by...

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This paper reviews the determinants and conditionalities of the process of universalizing public health in developed countries, notably the European ones, and in Brazil, and is aimed at highlighting their differences. The first part discloses the main interpretations on the constructing of the Welfare State, emphasizing the characteristics of that historical moment and its articulation with...

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This paper analyzes the roles of health goods and services markets within the regional integration process. It is a known fact that the consolidation of integrated markets is slower regarding social goods and services (as health and education) than among other goods and services (e.g. durable consumption goods). The paper discusses the nature of the health sector and its global dimension, showing...

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This article examines health sector reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean to discuss the ideological, theoretical, and conceptual elements that inform the reform agenda and the models put forward for attaining greater equity in the region’s countries. Its starting assumption is that the relevant literature generally neglects the economic, social, and political aspects underlying the...

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This paper describes the Chilean experience concerning the implementation of a new unemployment insurance (UI) program. The use of individual savings accounts and private management are essential elements. In addition, a redistributive fund (Common Fund) helps workers pool risks, distributing resources from employed to unemployed workers and from stable firms to workers with low incomes and...

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The 2006 Issue of the Report on Social Security in the Americas is divided in four chapters. The first two chapters address older-adult issues, the third chapter deals with disability-related problems, and the fourth chapter discusses Social Security agreements in the Americas. In the Presentation, it was pointed out that the objective of the Report on Social Security in the Americas is to become...

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This is a stimulating book which explores the relationship between employment conditions and health outcomes. The authors provide a conceptual framework to illustrate the channels through which health outcomes are determined and affected; this framework includes individual and aggregate variables, such as the economic, political and environmental conditions. The book also includes case studies...

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