Publication: Household Risk Management and Social Protection in Chile
Date
2005
ISSN
Published
2005
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
This volume takes a critical look at the
country's social protection "system" -
broadly defined to include policy interventions, public
institutions, and the regulation of private institutions
that lower the welfare costs of adverse shocks to income
from job loss and extended unemployment, health episodes,
old age, and life-time poverty - to determine if a system
exists or simply a set of loosely coordinated programs. The
study also assesses whether households are provided with
appropriate tools to mitigate risks to their income,
identifying gaps in coverage and where instruments are
missing. As well, the study provides the Government with a
set of guidelines grounded in a conceptual framework that,
if carefully applied, could increase the effectiveness of
social protection. The author of the study finds that Chile
succeeds in providing households with the instruments that
they need to mitigate shocks to income. The institutions
Chile has put in place to help households lower losses from
these shocks - from the new unemployment insurance system,
the retirement security system and the mixed health
insurance system - are generally appropriately designed to
match the nature of the risks they are intended to cover.
Yet, while still in a minority, too many Chilean households
- even among the non poor - do not have access to the
sophisticated, state of the art social protection
institutions that are in place.
Citation
“World Bank. 2005. Household Risk Management and Social Protection in Chile. World Bank Country Study;. © Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/df6860cb-92ec-53c1-8de1-5f6fc441da00 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”