From Right to Reality : Incentives, Labor Markets, and the Challenge of Universal Social Protection in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

This series was created in 2003 to promote debate, disseminate information and analysis, and convey the excitement and complexity of the most topical issues in economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean. This volume aims to move the debate forward by: 1) developing a common policy framework for the region's Social Protection (SP) system as a whole, including health insurance; 2) providing guidelines on ways to extend coverage through rationalizing financing mechanisms and the design of redistributive arrangements; and 3) making the case for improved coordination of policies and programs. Building on careful, detailed analysis of a wealth of data on social protection programs across Latin America and the Caribbean, this book addresses these challenges in a thorough yet accessible manner. Although the analysis is comprehensive, the authors focus primarily on three fundamental questions that must be faced by any effort to strengthen social protection in the region: how can programs protect the most vulnerable without promoting informality and dampening incentives to work and save? How can programs ensure that scarce public resources are used for subsidies that are transparent, fair, and effective-and not for badly targeted and regressive benefits for formal sector workers? Finally, how can programs reinforce human capital development so that the more mobile workers that the region needs are able to insure themselves through savings or risk-pooling arrangements, thus reducing vulnerability and the need for subsidies?

La desigualdad y la pobreza estructural se han reducido en los países de América Latina y el Caribe, gracias en gran medida a la expansión de programas de protección social no contributivos. Sin embargo, siguen existiendo retos. La mayoría de los trabajadores de la economía informal carecen de acceso a la protección social, los programas de previsión tienden a ser fragmentados con poca o nula coordinación entre los mismos, y en muchos casos los elementos redistributivos de los sistemas de aseguramiento social no son transparentes y pueden distorsionar el mercado de trabajo. Este libro aborda estos retos de manera meticulosa y examina los sistemas de protección social existentes en la región destacando su interacción con los mercados de trabajo. Presenta una evaluación profunda de los principales programas, contributivos y no contributivos y hace recomendaciones prácticas para incrementar la cobertura de los programas de protección social, mejorar su diseño y crear mejores empleos.