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Understanding the Dynamics of Labor Income Inequality in Latin America
Publication Date: 18 Nov 2016
Source: Other sources
Since the early 2000s, after a long period of wide and persistent gaps, Latin America has experienced a steady decline in income inequality. This paper presents evidence of a trend reversal in labor income inequality, which is considered the main factor behind such a decline in income inequality across the region. The analysis shows that, while labor income inequality increased during the 1990s, with heterogeneous experiences across countries, it fell in a synchronized way across countries beginning in the early 2000s. This systematic decline was supported by an expansion in real hourly earnings among the bottom of the wage distribution and, to a lesser extent, the middle part of the earnings distribution, thus reducing upper and lower tail inequality. This trend reversal is explained by a lower dispersion of earnings among workers with observable different attributes and by a much less extensive dispersion of residual labor inequality. Regarding the earnings differentials among workers with observable different attributes, the analysis concludes that the decline in labor inequality in Latin America has been closely associated with a reduction in the college/primary education premium and in the urban-rural earnings gap, coupled with a steady drop in the high school/primary education premium, which accelerated markedly since the 2000s, as well as a reduction in the experience premium across all age groups.
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SDC’s vocational skills development activities: Evaluation 2011/2
Publication Date: 12 Apr 2016
Source: Bilateral organizations
The report presents the findings of an external evaluation of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation’s (SDC) Vocational Skills Development activities. The evaluation portfolio covered 10 projects and programmes in 9 countries (Albania, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Mali, Moldova, Nepal, Nicaragua, Peru). The report is structured along the lines of the OECD DAC Evaluation Criteria.
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Demand versus returns? Pro-poor targeting of business grants and vocational skills training
Publication Date: 09 May 2013
Source: International organizations
Interventions aimed at increasing the income generating capacity of the poor, such as vocational training, micro-finance or business grants, are widespread in the developing world. How to target such interventions is an open question. Many programs are self-targeted, but if perceived returns differ from actual returns, those self-selecting to participate may not be those for whom the program is the most effective. The authors analyze an unusual experiment with very high take-up of business grants and vocational skills training, randomly assigned among nearly all households in selected poor rural communities in Nicaragua. On average, the interventions resulted in increased participation in non-agricultural employment and higher income from related activities. The paper investigates whether targeting could have resulted in higher returns by analyzing heterogeneity in impacts by stated baseline demand, prior participation in non-agricultural activities, and a wide range of complementary asset endowments.
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Equipping youth who are harder to hire for the labor market
Publication Date: 12 Nov 2012
Source: Other sources
Entra 21 is an initiative of Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and USAID that was created in 2001 to improve the employability of disadvantaged youth in Latin America and the Caribbean and place them in decent jobs. IYF commissioned a study of five new groups projects funded under Phase II of entra21 to gain greater knowledge on how successful the projects were in recruiting more vulnerable youth, whether they became more employable, and which practices seem to have contributed to these youths’ ability to acquire new skills and secure employment or create their own micro-businesses. The study focused on projects in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Peru where the targeted youth face obstacles – having less education, living in rural areas, or having other personal or social characteristics – that make it harder to find decent work.