Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes
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Publication
Distributional Impacts of Brazil’s Tax Reform: scenarios regarding Cesta Básica exemption
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-10-31)A consumption tax reform in Brazil has been recently approved by the House of Representatives, providing a full tax exemption for the yet undefined ‘National Basic Basket’ of goods (cesta basica nacional), alongside a cashback scheme that is yet to be determined. This note simulates the distributional impacts of different fiscally neutral scenarios of reduced rates and exemptions. The authors show that the exemption of taxes for food and personal care goods (such as those suggested by Law 10,925) would benefit the most vulnerable. Nonetheless, overall expenditures on certain items that are being considered for inclusion in the cesta are relatively concentrated on households in the top decile of the income distribution. Thus, a blanket exemption on Cesta Basica items may benefit the richest more in absolute terms. If the list of items in the exempted Cesta Basica is shortened and the equivalent resources of the potential forgone revenues are returned into a targeted cashback scheme, a far less regressive indirect tax system could be achieved. -
Publication
Gender and Property Taxes in São Paulo
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-15)This knowledge note provides new evidence on property ownership and taxation patterns across genders in São Paulo (Brazil), the largest city in the Americas, with 12 million inhabitants. We exploit microdata on all commercial and residential properties to document the share of total property and property wealth owned by women, the geographic distribution of female-owned properties, and the implications of this data for property taxes in the city. -
Publication
High-Frequency Phone Survey (HFPS) - Phase 2: Sampling Design, Weighting, and Estimation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-12)After implementing Phase 1 of the High-Frequency Phone Survey (HFPS) project in Latin America and The Caribbean (LAC) in 2020, the World Bank conducted Phase 2 in 2021 to continue to assess the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on households. This new phase, conducted in partnership with the UNDP LAC Chief Economist office, included two waves. Wave 1 covered 24 countries and Wave 2 covered 22 countries. Of these countries, 13 participated in Phase 1 and the rest joined in Phase 2. This document describes the sampling design, weighting and the right procedure to estimate indicators for the LAC HFPS Phase 2 surveys. -
Publication
LAC COVID-19 High-Frequency Phone Surveys: Phase II 2021 - Technical Note
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) were among the regions most affected by the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 - despite being home to only 8.5 percent of the world’s population, over 47 million people were infected by the virus by the end of November 2021, representing almost 18 percent of global cases, and the socioeconomic and human capital effects will be felt for many years to come. While in 2021 the region experimented an important economic recovery, with mobility almost fully restored to pre-pandemic levels and a remarkable progress in vaccination campaigns, positive spillovers on households’ welfare have proved elusive in some countries and for some segments of the population. In an effort to continue monitoring how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the livelihoods of households in the region, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) joined forces to implement a second phase of high-frequency phone surveys (HFPS) in over 20 LAC countries in 2021. A first wave (wave 1) was collected between May and July, with a second (wave 2) following between October and December 2021 to January 2022 for Peru. The HFPS phase II adds 11 countries to those originally included in phase one. In wave 2, a representative sample of minorities was obtained in seven countries. -
Publication
Facilitating the School to Work Transition of Young Women
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)In Latin America and the Caribbean, the school-to-work transition is more challenging for girls than boys due to societal norms. Young women who drop out of school are more likely to be employed in less stable, lower-paid jobs in the informal sector. Work-study programs can help to address the gender gaps in the school-to-work transition. In Uruguay, a national work-study program offered by a lottery system significantly improved the school-to-work transition for young girls and boys. Key features of the program included providing high-quality jobs with a focus on human capital accumulation that is compatible with schooling. -
Publication
Disruption of Health Care Services and COVID-19 Vaccination in Latin America and the Caribbean by Mid-2021
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)Vaccination has constituted the most effective response to save lives and reactivate economies and societies. By October 19th, 2022, almost 1,300 million Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine doses had been administered in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). However, lingering gaps in achieving target vaccination levels throughout the region are especially concerning as new SARS-CoV-2 variants continue to emerge. At the regional level, Chile and Cuba were ahead with almost 91 and 89 percent of the population having completed their initial vaccination protocol, respectively. At the other end of the spectrum, Jamaica and Haiti lagged the rest of the region, with only 26 percent and 2 percent of their populations vaccinated, respectively. The 2021 high-frequency phone surveys (HFPS) provide insight into these issues by taking the pulse of household health care needs and barriers to access a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the information from the first wave of the 2021 HFPS, this note aims to present an overview of the disruption of health care services, the need for preventive and non-preventive health care services, and the status of COVID-19 vaccinations. -
Publication
Not There Yet: Slow Recovery and Many Left Behind as Latin America and the Caribbean Navigates the Ripples of the Pandemic - 2021 High-Frequency Phone Surveys - Wave 2
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-09)To continue monitoring how the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the welfare of households in the region, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) joined forces in 2021 to implement a second phase of High-Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). A first wave was collected between May and July 2021, and a second between October 2021 and January 2022. This last wave takes the socio-economic pulse of households and measures the region's well-being almost two years into the pandemic. This note presents the emerging results in the areas of labor markets, income, food security, coping mechanisms, education, health, and gender. -
Publication
A Shot in the Arm: New Evidence from the World Bank High Frequency Surveys on COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Uptake in the Caribbean
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-09)This brief reports the findings from innovative high frequency phone surveys (HFPS) on the drivers of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and uptake in the Caribbean among the adult population. -
Publication
Internet Access and Use in Latin America and the Caribbean: From the LAC High Frequency Phone Surveys 2021
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-09)While most households in Latin America and the Caribbean use mobile broadband via smartphones, expensive fees and poor service quality pose major obstacles for potential users. In addition, power outages are a challenge for nearly 40 percent of existing mobile broadband users. Addressing the region’s need for faster, cheaper, and more reliable internet connections is thus a policy and investment priority. There are persistent and significant gaps in digital infrastructure between countries in the region, as well as weighty rural-urban gaps within some countries. Bridging these digital divides will be key to inclusive digital transformation. Households with tertiary education are on average more connected (with better quality service and higher expenditures on data) compared to the rest of the population. As education level is correlated with income, digital inequalities mirror and may amplify existing social inequalities – underscoring the critical need to address them. Over two-thirds of connected households in the region are concerned about privacy and security when using the internet. However, households on average across Latin America and the Caribbean still reported increasing their use of the internet amid the pandemic, suggesting that neither issue poses a barrier to their internet use at present. -
Publication
2021 LAC High Frequency Phone Surveys: Result Briefs Phase II, Round 1 - 2021
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-04)The World Bank and UNDP conducted a multi-wave High-Frequency Phone Survey (HFPS) in 2021 to assess the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the welfare of Latin American and Caribbean households. The first wave was collected between May and July 2021, and the data is nationally representative for 24 countries: Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia and Uruguay. he HFPS provides information on the welfare impacts that households experienced with respect to food insecurity, changes in employment, income changes, access to health and education services, and coping mechanisms.