Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes
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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
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
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
Brazil – COVID-19 in Latin America and Caribbean: 2021 High Frequency Phone Surveys - Results Phase Two, Wave One
(Washington, DC, 2022-04)Brazil has been one of the countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. In June 2021, it was the country with the second-highest rate of deaths per million and the fourth by the number of cases per million in Latin America and the Caribbean. The effects of the health crisis were broad and still evident a year and a half into the pandemic. In line with pre-existing vulnerability profiles, the pandemic affected the Brazilian population differently in the labor market. At the time of the survey, the proportion of people who lost their pre-pandemic job and were not working was 29.1 percent. This proportion was highest among the elderly (57.8 percent), those with primary education or less (42.7 percent), women (41.4 percent) and rural workers (38.7 percent). About 58 percent of those who lost their jobs became inactive, and most of the new inactive were women (68.9 percent). Simultaneously, 29.2 percent of the previously inactive entered the labor force during the pandemic, though one-quarter of them were unemployed in mid-2021. Women represented a majority among the new active (64.3 percent). Finally, the pandemic resulted in higher informality rates among those who remained employed. -
Publication
Preventing and Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)
(Washington, DC, 2022-02)Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is widely recognized as an impediment to the social and economic development of communities and States and the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Experiencing violence precludes women from contributing to and benefiting from development initiatives by limiting their agency, that is, their choices and ability to act. The deprivation of women resulting from VAWG should be of central concern to governments as an intrinsic human rights issue and due to its impact on economic growth and poverty reduction. Child marriage - a form of violence against women - epitomizes a profound lack of voice and agency and affects multiple areas of a girl’s life by lowering her education, increasing her fertility, reducing her labor force participation, and curtailing her future earnings prospects. Addressing violence against women and girls requires a comprehensive combination of prevention and protection measures involving a multi-level, multi-stakeholder approach, and sustained engagement leveraging various sector entries. The most effective initiatives address underlying risk factors for violence, including social norms regarding gender roles and the acceptability of violence. A 2020 meta-analysis of 104 rigorous impact evaluations of interventions to prevent women’s experience and men’s perpetration of physical and or sexual intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence shows that nine categories of interventions were effective in reducing VAWG, including cash transfers or economic empowerment programs for women when combined with group discussions on VAWG and gender transformative programming, couples’ interventions, parenting programs to prevent domestic violence and child maltreatment, community activism to shift harmful gender norms, and school-based intervention to prevent dating violence. In Latin America and Caribbean (LAC), the World Bank has engaged with countries and partners to support the integration of VAWG components in sector-specific projects in areas such as transport, education, social protection, and forced displacement. Projects have integrated measures to prevent and respond to VAWG through improved access to justice and services, implementation of communications campaigns, training, safeguards, and enhanced national data systems. -
Publication
Improving Gender Wage Equality Reduces Intimate Partner Violence in Brazil: Policy Implications for Mothers
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05)More wage equality for women reduces violence against women in urban Brazil. Evidence shows that violence has declined at various levels of severity. Wage equality may be improved through family-friendly policies such as preschool provision and maternity leave. Public safety and legal protections are also needed. -
Publication
Women Entrepreneurs in Mexico: Breaking Sectoral Segmentation and Increasing Profits
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10)Across the globe, women often face lower income opportunities relative to men. Many of the dierences in economic outcomes can be explained by the sectors in which women tend to operate. Structural factors also contribute to the gender gap in economic opportunities. Mexican women who cross over to operate businesses in male-dominated sectors perform better than noncrossovers in a range of indicators, including sales and profits. This brief focuses on the women entrepreneurs in Mexico as of October 2020. -
Publication
A Data-Driven Framework to Address Gender Issues in Managing Flood Risks: Flood Risk Management Support Project for the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-08-13)This study contributes to the broader literature demonstrating the devastating impact of floods on the poor, particularly women, making it very difficult to move out of poverty. Research on flood impacts in low-income communities in Buenos Aires found that most first responders to floods are women and it is them who assume leadership roles in high-risk situations, despite the serious gender gaps in education and economic opportunities they face. They are also affected differently and more adversely than their male peers, bearing primary responsibility for restoring their family’s housing and livelihoods after the flood, and for household chores and care duties for children and older adults. The results of this analysis can help decision makers design gender-inclusive approaches for flood risk management, promoting and empowering women as positive agents of change. Gender gap analysis is essential to prevent existing inequalities from being maintained or accentuated as a part of the recovery process. -
Publication
Protecting Women from Violence: Bridging the Implementation Gap Between Law and Practice
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-12)For years, Marta was abused by her husband. Eventually she reached out to the police, the Carabineros de Chile – who are tasked with helping survivors of domestic violence. The police referred Marta to a public prosecutor for immediate protection and Marta and her daughter were placed in a shelter run by a government-funded non-profit organization Fundación Honra. With Fundación Honra’s help Marta eventually rented an apartment and got a job. Marta’s story is not unique to Chile. Many women worldwide who experience violence do not readily report it or seek help. This is often due to the lack of quality services and adequate support networks, as well as social and cultural norms.2 Survivors of violence3 may also feel the police are unwilling or unable to help.4 A study examining Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) data across 24 countries found that 40 percent of women experiencing gender-based violence disclosed it to someone, but only 7 percent reported to a formal source.5 In many cases, even when women seek help from the authorities, the response can be inadequate. Recognizing the need to enhance efforts to address violence against women, governments have started implementing recommendations and adopting additional protection measures and services set out in international and regional instruments including the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Belem do Pará Convention and the Maputo Protocol. According to these legal frameworks, adopting implementation measures aiming at increasing effectiveness of legislation is part of the State’s duty to act in protecting women from violence. -
Publication
Gender Differences in Poverty in Colombia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-08)This note presents the gender poverty profiles for Colombia using a lifecycle approach. In Colombia, as in the vast majority of countries around the world, girls and boys are consistently poorer than adults and seniors. Notwithstanding, the difference on poverty rates between women and men during their reproductive age in Colombia is around 6 p.p. while in the world is around 2 p.p. Another interesting finding is that the likelihood of being poor diminishes with formal education, for both women and men. Nevertheless, as the level of formal education increases, the share of women among the poor do so also. This note is organized as follows: section one presents the poverty rates for women and men, by education level, marital status, location, and employment type. Section two presents the results of the lifecycle approach. The authors present the gender poverty profile when variables as age, demographic, and economic composition are combined with gender, to define the profiles. And finally, section three presents some final remarks.