Publication: From Struggle to Opportunity: The Profile of Brazil’s Working Poor and Implications for Economic Inclusion
Loading...
Published
2023-10-10
ISSN
Date
2023-10-10
Editor(s)
Abstract
The purpose of the note is to inform the design of policies and instruments that can enhance labor market outcomes of Brazil’s poor and vulnerable populations. Global and regional experiences show that active labor market programs, and more broadly economic inclusion interventions, both at the strategic level and for territorial implementation, require population-specific labor market diagnostics. And aggregate labor statistics do not portray adequately the specific situation of the poor and vulnerable. This note studies how Brazil’s poor and vulnerable engage in the labor market and in public labor market policies, or fail to do so, according to individual, family and location characteristics. The authors focus on two broad populations of interest: work-able adults in households living below the Cadastro Único poverty line (the poor), and its subset of beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer Bolsa Familia (BF), the country’s largest social program in 2019, and named Auxilio Brasil (AB).
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Morgandi, Matteo; Fietz, Katharina; Ed, Malin; Oliveira, Gabriel. 2023. From Struggle to Opportunity: The Profile of Brazil’s Working Poor and Implications for Economic Inclusion. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/40448 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Does Local Employment Growth Accelerate Exits From Social Assistance?(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2024-01-25)A large literature highlights the need for low- and middle- income countries to establish adaptive social safety nets responsive to labor market shifts. While much is known about safety nets’ expansion during downturns, less is understood about their response to labor market recoveries. This paper examines how municipal formal employment affects the likelihood of families exiting Bolsa Familia, Brazil’s means-tested cash transfer program. Survival analysis reveals that families exiting the program tend to have better-educated household heads, live in urban areas, and have fewer children. Fixed-effects estimation, combined with a shift-share instrument, shows that local employment growth leads to a small but statistically significant increase in the probability of exiting Bolsa Familia. A 10% growth in local employment raises the exit probability by 0.342 percentage points, increasing the average transition rate from 8.61% to 8.69%. These effects are concentrated in households with spare labor supply.Publication Brazil - The Contrato Verde Amarelo Wage Subsidy(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-05)In November 2019, the Brazilian government introduced, as part of an employment stimulus package, the Contrato Verde Amarelo (CVA), a wage subsidy program for young first-time employees entering in contracts of up to 1.5 minimum wages. Despite CVA did not pass the final senate vote and, consequently, lost its validity, the relevance of this measure remains in light of Brazil’s high labor costs and unemployment, and the dramatic impact that COVID-19 epidemic will leave in its labor market. This note analyzes the design, relevance and potential impacts of the CVA, as it was introduced in 2019, and recommendations for improvements based on international experience. In particular, as government will consider a revised version to speed up recovery of the labor market following COVID-19 epidemic, these recommendations will be useful in the drafting of an improved proposal.Publication Enhancing Coverage and Cost-effectiveness of Brazil’s Unemployment Protection System(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-12)The objective of the policy note is to inform reforms of the unemployment protection system of Brazil,through a comparison of its salient features with international benchmarks, and by taking stock of employment dynamics since the 2014 crisis. Recommendations include varying degrees of ambition (and political complexity), from parametric reforms of the unemployment insurance Seguro Desemprego (SD) to more systemic reorganization of programs, and the extension of coverage to growing shares of nondependent workers. The note builds on prior analysis of Brazil’s labor market programs undertaken as part of the World Bank’s expenditure review for Brazil (published World Bank 2018). The main novelties include a broader and deeper international benchmarking, as well as analysis of the unemployment dynamics since 2015, which are important to inform the optimal redesign of unemployment programs. The note was developed before the COVID-19 pandemic, and, while it takes stock of recent trends, it is not meant to be an assessment of Brazil’s emergency response or do justice to the emerging literature and data on the matter. As Brazil prepares for its economic recovery, the note aims to provide valuable information for a national policy debate around the much-needed modernization of the unemployment protection system. The note is organized as follows. The first part of the note takes stock of some of the key characteristics of Brazil’s labor market and unemployment dynamics since the 2014 economic crisis using the National Household Sample Survey Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios Contínua (PNADc) survey data. The centerpiece of the analysis is the comparison of the design features of SD to a range of international programs of reference countries, through a benchmarking exercise of its regulation, generosity, activation measures, and effective coverage rate. The final part of this note summarizes the key findings and provides recommendations.Publication Inclusion and Resilience : The Way Forward for Social Safety Nets in the Middle East and North Africa, OVERVIEW(Washington, DC, 2012-09)The report aims to meet two broad objectives: (a) enhance knowledge about the current state of existing social safety nets (SSNs) and assess their effectiveness in responding to new and emerging challenges to the poor and vulnerable in the region by bringing together new evidence, data, and country-specific analysis; and (b) open up and inform a debate on feasible policy options to make SSNs in the Middle East and North Africa more effective and innovative. First chapter, 'a framework for SSN reform,' describes and illustrates the reasons for the region's growing need for SSN reform and establishes the framework for renewed SSNs. It identifies key goals for SSNs (promoting social inclusion, livelihood, and resilience) and illustrates how these goals have been achieved in some parts of the region and elsewhere. Second chapter, 'key challenges that call for renewed SSNs,' analyzes the challenges facing the region's poor and vulnerable households, which SSNs could focus on as a priority. Two large groups are at higher-than-average poverty risk: children and those who live in rural or lagging areas. The chapter examines factors such as inequality of opportunities and lack of access to services that can perpetuate the lower human development outcomes among the poor in these groups. It also describes the challenge of vulnerability. Finally, it identifies particular social groups that are at a higher risk of exclusion from access to services and employment. Third chapter, 'the current state of SSNs in the Middle East and North Africa,' analyzes SSN spending and assesses different aspects of the SSN systems' performance. Fourth chapter, 'the political economy of SSN reforms in the Middle East and North Africa: what do citizens want?' presents new evidence on citizens' preferences concerning redistribution and SSN design, using newly collected data. It also discusses how political economy considerations could be taken into account in designing renewed SSNs in the region. Fifth chapter, 'the way forward: how to make safety nets in the Middle East and North Africa more effective and innovative,' proposes an agenda for reform and the path for moving forward, using global experience and the evidence presented in the preceding chapters.Publication Activation for Poverty Reduction(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-09)Since the peak of the economic crisis, poverty reduction in Armenia has made limited progress, with poverty rates moving from 34.1 percent in 2009 to 32 percent in 2013. This slow pace has been mirrored by the limited progress of the labor market (LM), particularly in terms of job-creation. In 2013, about 36 percent of people worked in the agricultural sector, and about half of all workers earned wages through informal jobs. These conditions highlight the need to have a robust social protection (SP) system that not only offers adequate protection to people living in poverty but can also serve as a tool to increase the quality of human capital, which in turn can help improve their economic opportunities. The government of Armenia (GoA) has shown a clear interest in building its infrastructure to deliver SP services through integrated social service centers as a means to better harness its investment in SP. Its vision is to ultimately implement an integrated social policy that personalizes interventions and tries to address multiple constraints that people face when trying to escape poverty— not only through the provision of cash benefits. The objective of this policy note is twofold. First, it provides a diagnostic of the SP system in order to identify the key issues that could be addressed to enhance its effectiveness and efficiency to achieve greater poverty reduction. Second, the note outlines a set of options—policies and reforms—for the GoA to consider as it continues to strengthen its poverty-reduction strategy. It is important to note that the focus of the report is on social assistance (SA) and LM policies for vulnerable groups. Other key aspects of SP—such as pensions, labor regulations, or the functioning of the LM as a whole—are not addressed in this report, and they have been the subject of extensive analysis elsewhere.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03)Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.