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The objective of the article is to present a study about the main challenges that are presented to vocational training in technical and professional education in UrbanoNoris, meeting the demands of the socioeconomic development model and the necessary territorial autonomy, which is given by the limited workforce for agro-industrial activity, an issue that appears as an axis of said development. In this sense, the School of Technical and Vocational Education can contribute a lot, by prioritizing Vocational Training in its training scenarios where knowledge, skills must be present, values and trait of a certain trade, of endogenous belonging, that contributes to energize the contextual development of the municipality. In results presented, they show important ideas and open the need to face challenges that cannot be postponed., O objetivo do artigo é apresentar um estudo sobre os principais desafios que se colocam para a formação profissional no ensino técnico e profissional em Urbano Noris, tendo em conta as exigências do modelo de desenvolvimento socioeconómico e a necessária autonomia territorial, que é dada pela limitada mão de obra para a atividade agroindustrial, questão que aparece como eixo desse desenvolvimento. Nesse sentido, a Escola de Educação Técnica e Profissional pode contribuir muito ao priorizar a Formação Profissional em seus cenários de formação onde conhecimentos e competências devem estar presentes. ​e traços de uma determinada profissão, de pertencimento endógeno, que contribui para dinamizar o desenvolvimento contextual do município. Os resultados apresentados mostram ideias importantes e abrem a necessidade de enfrentar desafios urgentes., El objetivo del artículo es presentar un estudio acerca de los principales desafíos que se le presentan a la formación vocacional en la enseñanza técnica y profesional en Urbano Noris, atendiendo a la exigencias del modelo desarrollo socioeconómico y la necesaria autonomía territorial ,lo que viene dada por la limitada fuerza laboral para la actividad agroindustrial, asunto que figura como un eje de dicho desarrollo .En este sentido la escuela de Enseñanza Técnica y Profesional mucho puede aportar ,al priorizar en su escenarios formativos La Formación Vocacional donde deben de estar presente conocimientos ,habilidades ,valores y rasgo de un determinado oficio ,de pertenecía endógena ,que contribuya a dinamizar el desarrollar contextual del municipio .En resultados presentados muestran importantes ideas y abren la necesidad de enfrentar desafíos impostergables.

The objective of the article is to present a study about the main challenges that are presented to vocational training in technical and professional education in UrbanoNoris, meeting the demands of the socioeconomic development model and the necessary territorial autonomy, which is given by the limited workforce for agro-industrial activity, an issue that appears as an axis of said development. In this sense, the School of Technical and Vocational Education can contribute a lot, by prioritizing Vocational Training in its training scenarios where knowledge, skills must be present, values and trait of a certain trade, of endogenous belonging, that contributes to energize the contextual development of the municipality. In results presented, they show important ideas and open the need to face challenges that cannot be postponed., O objetivo do artigo é apresentar um estudo sobre os principais desafios que se colocam para a formação profissional no ensino técnico e profissional em Urbano Noris, tendo em conta as exigências do modelo de desenvolvimento socioeconómico e a necessária autonomia territorial, que é dada pela limitada mão de obra para a atividade agroindustrial, questão que aparece como eixo desse desenvolvimento. Nesse sentido, a Escola de Educação Técnica e Profissional pode contribuir muito ao priorizar a Formação Profissional em seus cenários de formação onde conhecimentos e competências devem estar presentes. ​e traços de uma determinada profissão, de pertencimento endógeno, que contribui para dinamizar o desenvolvimento contextual do município. Os resultados apresentados mostram ideias importantes e abrem a necessidade de enfrentar desafios urgentes., El objetivo del artículo es presentar un estudio acerca de los principales desafíos que se le presentan a la formación vocacional en la enseñanza técnica y profesional en Urbano Noris, atendiendo a la exigencias del modelo desarrollo socioeconómico y la necesaria autonomía territorial ,lo que viene dada por la limitada fuerza laboral para la actividad agroindustrial, asunto que figura como un eje de dicho desarrollo .En este sentido la escuela de Enseñanza Técnica y Profesional mucho puede aportar ,al priorizar en su escenarios formativos La Formación Vocacional donde deben de estar presente conocimientos ,habilidades ,valores y rasgo de un determinado oficio ,de pertenecía endógena ,que contribuya a dinamizar el desarrollar contextual del municipio .En resultados presentados muestran importantes ideas y abren la necesidad de enfrentar desafíos impostergables.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech), in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University Altoona (Penn State Altoona) and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), to expand an existing summer youth program into the Tracks to the Future Railroad Transportation and Engineering summer program for students entering grades 9-12. Phase 2 expanded the program to a total of six universities, adding University of South Carolina, University of New Mexico, and California State University-Fresno.

This document is the final report on the U.S. Department of Transportation Volpe Center – Federal Aviation Administration's thought leadership series: Up, Up, and Away: Innovations in Advanced Air Mobility.

FRA supported Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech), in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University Altoona (Penn State Altoona) and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), to establish a Tracks to the Future: Railroad Transportation and Engineering summer program for high school students. Phase 1 of this program was offered in two formats: 1) a traditional, week-long, on-campus program (at Michigan Tech only) and 2) a hybrid version of the program at Michigan Tech, Penn State Altoona, and UIUC. FRA funded the course development, program fees for the students (including meals and housing), and field visit expenses at the host site. Rail industry companies provided limited travel support for students in need to reach the host site.

Digital transformations can change the structure of interactions between public institutions, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders. These transformations aim to enhance service quality, efficiency, and effectiveness by improving processes and implementing digital and nondigital channels to provide access to the benefits of digitalized services and information. The end goal is a truly digital ecosystem that substantially increases peoples wellbeing in society, while at the same time stimulating innovation and making information more available. This paper describes the experience of Paraguay's Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security in improving its processes, services, and systems as part of a digital transformation guided by a modular enterprise architecture.

The approach to scaling up innovations in development is broken due to insufficient skills and funding for intermediation. Intermediation involves the essential technical assistance required by organizations and projects to achieve scale, such as strategic planning, convening, and coordinating stakeholders, and investment packaging. This report derives lessons on how to effectively scale innovations in development through an analysis of 39 IDB Lab projects and approximately 100 interviews. It proposes adhering to four principles for enhancement: establishing a consistent and systematic definition of scale, measuring success based on the maturity of the solution, acknowledging, and fostering the intermediation function, and investing in agile tracking while learning from errors. By implementing these strategies, development organizations can seamlessly incorporate scaling up innovation into their operations.

This study tests four "light touch" interventions in the language used in job posts of male- dominated occupations to attract female workers using a discrete choice experiment. This experiment had more than 5000 participants from five Latin American countries. We test two possible mechanisms: the gender-stereotypes related to job skills and the use of inclusive language. We find that language matters, and men and women value information and inclusive language in job advertisements. However, women are more sensitive in this regard. We test the effect of simply aggregating irrelevant, but additional words to the job ad, and find that when the inclusive language in the ad is subtle, the effect of having more words is very important. But it decreases when the language signals a strong preference for an inclusive work environment. These findings highlight the importance of language and the type of information presented in job advertisements in attracting a gender-balanced workforce.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the decisive factors for the future health workforce are manifold. The health workforce is the backbone of healthcare, with the common goal of improving the health of individuals and populations, but its characteristics, competencies and functions are evolving gradually. In attempting to predict the attributes and roles of the health workforce in the future, it is essential to examine social, occupational, cultural and technological contexts and trends, including those related to health, education and the environment. In this sense, it is appropriate to use futuristic frameworks to outline what might happen and the potential impact, considering different alternatives. This approach helps to identify possible scenarios and to plan actions to close the gaps between preferred and probable futures. For example, digital and genomic literacy of healthcare personnel cannot be postponed, both for those in training and for those who routinely provide care to users. Maintaining the status quo without considering this currently unmet need represents a reduction in the capabilities and competencies of the healthcare workforce for the foreseeable future. This paper establishes an analytical framework that attempts to anticipate what is possible and desirable in the area of HCWs and seeks to establish the influence of: (i) policies aimed at achieving universal coverage; (ii) demographic trends and population health needs, such as chronic diseases, public health emergencies and climate change; (iii) the convergence of technological innovation; and (iv) users participation in healthcare. In response to these circumstances, this publication provides useful elements to understand the context and identify the importance for health and education systems to prepare, adapt and promote the necessary changes to shape the future competencies, roles and diversity of the health workforce that Latin America and the Caribbean will require in the coming decade

Due to an increase in import competition from the early 2000s, Mexico experienced a loss in manufacturing employment of 1.8 percentage points accompanied by a decrease in wages in the short run. These negative effects persisted but its size decreased in absolute value. Twenty after the shock, the negative effects have disappeared. This fade out on the aggregate effects on employment happened through several adjustments in the labor market. Wage employees were substituted by contract workers, and formal workers substituted by informal workers

Developing countries are characterized by a high share of informal workers and several types of labor market regulation. We study the effects of the enforcement of this type of regulation on firm dynamics in Brazil, using different linked administrative data sets. Using a difference-in-differences design, we show that firms caught with informal workers experience a slowdown in their growth rates that last several years. Informal workers are present in firms of all sizes. Formal and informal workers exhibit almost identical observable characteristics.

Countries can use carbon taxes to achieve their climate mitigation goals from the Paris Agreement with little economic disruption. Using carbon taxes, the United States could achieve its Paris Agreement pledge of a 26% reduction in carbon emissions with a negative effect on yearly GDP of at most 0.8%. Carbon taxes can have important effects on inequality. While skilled workers in polluting sectors experience substantial income losses from carbon taxes, they represent only a small share of the labor force: less than 2% in the United States. Workers in the green energy sector, however, stand to gain from carbon taxes.

Nearly 120 million people reside in urban slums in Latin America and the Caribbean, where precarious housing and socioeconomic circumstances testify to deep inequality. This paper investigates whether labor market discrimination influences the realities of fewer formal jobs and lower wages with which slum dwellers contend. We implemented a field experiment in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in which we hired human resource recruiters and tasked them with evaluating several pairs of similarly productive job applicants. Out of every 10 applicants, the recruiters chose slum dwellers 4.2 times and other applicants 5.8 times. They also evaluated slum dwellers as less fit for the vacancies and offered them lower wages (nearly 2 percent lower). An intervention showed recruiters the discrimination rate in Buenos Aires, after which they began favoring slum dwellers.

Uruguay implemented an ambitious financial inclusion program that included a fiscal stimulus through VAT rebates and subsidies for point of sale (POS) adoption. One of its main provisions banned cash payment of wages and social benefits and forced financial institutions to open wage-accounts with extremely beneficial conditions. In the aggregate, the number of debit cards transactions increased sharply. We test the wage-banking channel of the financial program exploiting differences in the treatment intensity between public sector and private sector workers. We find that while the provision of bank accounts increased the number of debit cards, it had modest effects on the probability of payment with cards that are mostly produced by a more intensive use of debit cards by those who already had them before the Financial Inclusion Act went into effect. Thus, the aggregate effects must be produced by the fiscal channel of the financial inclusion program. Finally, we fail to find effects on either access to short-term credit or expenditure or savings.

The Caribbean economies are well-ranked in terms of womens participation in the labor market, but less so in terms of innovation, suggesting the relevance of an analysis of gender diversitys impact on innovation. This paper examines how gender diversity in Caribbean firm affects the formation of external partnerships and agreements for innovation, and also how the effects of that diversity on innovative outcomes are influenced by the presence of women in diverse positions within a firm. Using information for 13 Caribbean countries from the Innovation, Firm Productivity and Gender (IFPG) database, this study confirms gender diversity as a factor which both improves the likelihood of innovation, as well as spurring the decision to collaborate with other firms and organizations. However, impacts will depend on the areas within a firm in which women are present. Gender diversity in the total workforce and in production and non-production activities is more effective than when women are present in areas solely related to management. These findings prompt a reflection on policy implications around the definition or improvement of measures oriented to the closing of innovation-related gender gaps.

Cash and counseling provides an allowance that recipients can use to purchase home- and community-based long-term care services instead of receiving them from an agency. This scheme gives beneficiaries the choice and independence to self-direct the implementation of their preferred long-term care plan, using an assigned budget, under the supervision of a counselor. One feature of this program is that recipients can choose between hiring a professional or a family member as a caregiver. The objective of this document is to explore how cash and counseling works, with examples of interventions in the United States, and how it is relevant for policy-making in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Gig economy platforms can contribute to improving the financial inclusion of women. This publication presents the results of a survey on socioeconomic and financial conditions carried out among nearly 1,000 domestic workers from four platforms in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. It presents the sampling frame, technical data sheet, and main results in socioeconomic profile, relationship with the platform, income, financial inclusion, and savings and credit perspectives.

We study how signaling skills that are specific to college majors affect labor market outcomes of college graduates. We rely on census-like data and a regression discontinuity design to study the impacts of a well-known award given to top performers on a mandatory nationwide exam in Colombia. The award allows students to signal their high level of specific skills when searching for a job. These students earn 7 to 12 percent more than otherwise identical students lacking the signal. This positive return persists five years after graduation. The signal mostly benefits workers who graduate from low-reputation colleges, and allows workers to find jobs in more productive firms and in sectors that better use their skills. We rule out that the positive earnings returns are explained by human capital. The signal favors mostly less advantaged groups, implying that reducing information frictions about students skills could potentially shrink earnings gaps. Our results imply that information policies like those that formally certify skills can improve the efficiency in talent allocation of the economy and, at the same time, level the playing field.

Latin America and the Caribbean are facing numerous challenges, such as low-quality education, poor well-being, and non-peaceful and exclusive societies. The causes are complex, yet connected to outdated, ineffective, and underfinanced education systems. The emotional strain of the pandemic continues to create new challenges and unearth problems that have long been neglected. There is an urgent need for a disruptive solution that supports educators, parents, and students to overcome existing problems as well as better prepare them for uncertain times that lie ahead. In this brief, we introduce Edumoción, Coschools unique pedagogical model and solution which centers the emotion in education. Through the development of educators socioemotional and professional skills and well-being, teachers can better support students development of socioemotional, academic, and global competencies. Through Edumoción learning platform and community, educators are provided with the tools, knowledge, and a support network to develop professionally and personally. The Edumoción methodology enables teachers to cascade skills and knowledge to their students in safe and inclusive learning environments.

The use of drone technology in capital projects is an emerging area that holds promise for growth. Drones are becoming more widely available, and regulatory bodies are gradually allowing their use on a larger scale. With the development of software solutions that can effectively utilize data, drones are increasingly being used throughout the entire lifecycle of capital projects, including smaller infrastructure projects. The benefits of using drones in construction projects are numerous and include providing an unparalleled record of all activities, reducing planning and survey costs, increasing productivity, improving the accuracy of volumetric measurements, and mitigating disputes over the project's status. In the future, drone data will be integrated with CAD and BIM models and artificial intelligence (AI) to track construction progress and adherence to design automatically. While the construction industry has been slower in adopting new digital technologies than other sectors, leading global companies have widely adopted drones for capital project monitoring. In Latin America, drone adoption in the infrastructure sector is still limited, but early adopters have validated and are utilizing the technology. This report provides an examination of the current state of drone use in the Latin American region, including the benefits, barriers, early adopters, and what is required to promote its adoption.

Mobility restrictions have the potential to accelerate automation. Using difference-in-differences and triple-differences empirical strategies, and leveraging cross-industry variation in mobility restrictions and within-industry variations in automation risk, this paper estimates the impact of pandemic-related restrictions on automation in Peru. Our results indicate that mobility restrictions significantly decreased employment rates (22.5%) and hourly wages (74.1%) for workers in highly automatable jobs up to 18 months after the shock. These effects were particularly pronounced among women, small and medium-sized firms, informal workers, and individuals with low and medium skill levels working in manufacturing, construction, and services. Evidence suggests that occupational mobility from high-risk to low-risk jobs drove recovery afterwards.

We study the effects of a Bolivian law that introduced benefits and protections for child workers (who are overwhelmingly informal workers) and lowered the de facto legal working age from 14 to 10. We employ a difference-in-discontinuity approach that exploits the variation in the laws application to different age groups. Work decreased for children under 14, whose work was newly legalized and regulated under the law, particularly in areas with a higher threat of inspections. The effects appear to be driven by a reduction in the most visible forms of child work, suggesting that firms may have reduced employment of young children to minimize the risk of being inspected. In contrast, we nd that more formal channels of adjustments - such as increased costs of hiring due to the costs of complying with the new law - are unlikely to explain the overall decline in the work of young children.

The development and expansion of platforms, as an opportunity to identify and connect labor demand and supply, has generated favorable expectations of job opportunities for less integrated groups such as women. This expansion, however, raises questions about the generation of sustainable income and opportunities for job stabilization and formalization. How should we leverage digital channels to improve women's financial inclusion? What is their financial profile and their demand for financing in platforms in the region? Is it possible for these platforms to be a solution in situations of economic vulnerability? Financial inclusion goes hand-in-hand with financial development and remains a challenge for Latin America. This paper follows a novel path by focusing on the conditions associated with gig economy women workers in the household services segment, as surveyed in four Latin American countries. The results show that gig economy platforms: i) have the potential to contribute to improving women's financial inclusion; ii) enable an "activity effect" and a "formalization effect"; and iii) identify lack of trust in payment instruments as the main obstacle to improve financial inclusion.

This paper analyzes preferences for certain school attributes among in-service teachers. We explore a centralized matching process in the city of Sao Paulo that teachers must use when transferring schools. Because teachers have to list and rank their preferences for schools, we can estimate the desirability of school attributes using a rank-ordered logit model. We show that the schools distance from the teachers home, school average test scores, and teacher composition play a central role in teacher preferences. Furthermore, we show that preferences vary according to teacher characteristics, such as gender, race, age, and academic subject.

By exploiting spatial variation in import exposure arising from initial differences in industry specialization, we analyze how local labor markets in Mexico adjusted to increased Chinese-import competition over different time horizons. The initial adjustment to the shock took various forms: a decline in the number of wage employees, a substitution of wage employees with piece-rate or outsourced workers, and a substitution of formal employees with informal employees. The negative effects on employment were mainly associated with job destruction from exiting firms, particularly those that were small and medium-sized. During periods in which employment fell, the population that actively participated in the labor force fell. The negative short- and medium-run effects mostly disappeared after 20 years.

We study the role of multinationals (MNCs) in facilitating firm-level and aggregate structural transformation. Using a stylized model of multinational production and trade, we show that an inward multinational liberalization in the manufacturing sector raises employment in host country firms, and decreases manufacturing employment, while also raising services employment, in the parent firms. We also show the conditions under which aggregate structural transformation occurs. We test the models firm-level predictions by using confidential microdata from Japan. We study the response of Japanese MNC parents and their affiliates in China to an exogenous change in China's openness to foreign direct investment (FDI). We find that in industries where inward FDI was encouraged, Japan MNCs' affiliates in China experienced increases in their employment. We also find that MNC parents in the encouraged industries experienced decreases in home country manufacturing employment and increases in home country services and R&D employment. Finally, using microdata for several advanced and middle-income countries, we decompose the change in overall manufacturing employment shares into MNC and non-MNC components. We find a significant role for MNCs across all countries, suggesting the mechanism we highlight is an important global driver of structural transformation.

Self-collected data on public sector employees from eighteen Latin American countries reveal that employees trust in each other affects individual constraints, organizational constraints, and mission motivation. High-trust employees are i) more willing to collaborate and share information and are more supportive of innovation; ii) are less concerned with low staff quality or lack of discretion to innovate, and more concerned with staff shortages; and iii) have stronger mission motivation. A survey experiment on social distancing policies suggests that trust enhances mission motivation: employee preferences align better with the implied government policy when their trust in the public sector is higher.

This study presents new findings on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on productivity and innovation for Caribbean firms, with particular focus on the effects on firm gender diversity and workforce composition. Research on the impact of women's participation on firm performance and innovation has so far produced mixed results, though there is some evidence to suggest that for Latin America, larger shares of women in the knowledge creation and innovation process may increase innovative behavior and, as a consequence, lead to greater labor productivity. In the current context, female participation in firms becomes an even more pressing issue, given the early indications of the pandemics disproportionately negative burden on women s income and jobs in different regions. We found that the gender composition of the personnel has an interesting direct effect on productivity. At the same time, our results show that the expected reductions in female personnel due to the pandemic, have a negative effect in the shares of female participation which, in turn, have the potential to nullify the mentioned productivity channel. This suggests the existence of a minimum threshold of female participation to profit from diversity. Hence, it seems that policy should focus particularly on protecting female jobs, particularly in the wake of dramatic shocks affecting revenues and/or employment.

The present study analyzes the relation between energy transition and the job creation potential in Latin America. It capitalizes on companies' characteristics to infer potential hiring process drivers in forthcoming years. The analysis is based on an econometric model on cross-sectional data to explain the dependent variable "potential hiring rate" depending on the firm's size (based on the number of clients), area of activity or technology, employees' level of education, and the existence of labor policies. The data came from 338 companies interviewed, including generation, transmission, distribution, energy transition services, oil and gas, and construction companies in six Latin American Countries (Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, and Uruguay). The econometric study focused on 135 companies that declared hiring new employees in the next year concerning the time they were interviewed. The results show that the smaller energy companies with a larger participation of a qualified workforce will tend to have a higher expected hiring rate in the forthcoming year, implying an inverse relationship between a firm's size and potential hiring rate. The model findings convey that as the workforce is compounded with more qualified employees, the higher the expansion of the company's labor force will be, particularly in renewable generation companies. There is an additional aspect worth considering about the factors behind the company's potential hiring rate, and it is the question of job quality. The results suggest that firms hiring more are those with a lower number of policies in place. It can be explained by the fact that more traditional companies tend to have better-established policies, such as hydrocarbon and utilities. These are not the companies with the highest increase in the workforce. This takeaway raises a discussion about whether a change in the job's quality is associated with the energy transition or if it is just associated with new entrants tha

Disruptive technological advances, as well as the globalization of markets, have impacted the evolution of business operations. The adoption of systems associated with the Internet has led to an increase in connected users who are integrated into a global information society, where Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been limited beyond the technological field. Organizations make use of this tool to apply it for work purposes, focused on making processes within their entities more efficient. The objective of this research is to relate the concepts of Industry 4.0 and AI to propose the immediate implications for jobs in Mexican SMEs. The research approach applied is documentary type from secondary sources. The reports considered are from specialized firms that account for current trends for the companies analyzed. The findings show that around 25% of executives use AI for business purposes, as well as IAG is anticipated to cause significant or disruptive changes in the nature of competition in their respective industries in the next three years., Los avances tecnológicos disruptivos, así como la globalización de los mercados, han impactado en la evolución de las operaciones empresariales. La adopción de los sistemas asociados a la Internet fomenta el incremento de los usuarios conectados que se integran a una sociedad de información mundial, en donde la Inteligencia Artificial (IA) se ha circunscrito más allá del ámbito tecnológico. Las organizaciones hacen uso de esta herramienta para aplicarla al ámbito laboral, con el propósito de hacer más eficientes los procesos al interior de sus entidades. El objetivo de la presente investigación es relacionar los conceptos de Industria 4.0 e IA e identificar las implicaciones inmediatas en los puestos de trabajo en las PyMEs mexicanas. El enfoque de investigación aplicado es de tipo documental. Los reportes considerados son de firmas especializadas que dan cuenta de las tendencias actuales para las empresas analizadas. Los hallazgos muestran que alrededor del 25% de los ejecutivos usan la IA para fines empresariales, así como también se anticipa que IAG causará cambios significativos o disruptivos en la naturaleza de la competencia en sus respectivas industrias en los próximos tres años.

For 20 years, the “Generation Y” characteristics have been discussed in the academic and professional fields. Currently, these young people are between 20 and 35 years old, with which the opportunity is present to take stock of the research carried out in the last decade, and the reality of the development of this generation. In this sense, it is a testing exercise. It allows an argumentative transit to understand how “Generation Y” adapted to the characteristics of the educational and labour systems, as well as to what extent it had to adapt to them. It is also interesting to observe the differences between generations in developed and developing countries. Finally, it is proposed to address with quantitative and qualitative data the characteristics of this generation, their way of thinking about the world, and their experiences, in the context of globalization., Desde hace 20 años se discute en el ámbito académico y profesional acerca de las características de la denominada “Generación Y”. Actualmente, estos jóvenes tienen entre 20 y 35 años, con lo cual está presente la oportunidad de hacer un balance acerca de las investigaciones realizadas en la última década, y la realidad del desarrollo de esta generación. En este sentido, es un ejercicio de comprobación. Por otro lado, permite un tránsito argumentativo para comprender cómo la “Gen Y” se adaptó a las características de los sistemas educativos y laborales, así como en qué medida estos debieron adaptarse. También resulta interesante observar las diferencias entre las generaciones en los países desarrollados y los en vías de desarrollo.

It is increasingly necessary to reflect on the contradictions and socioecological disputes of the capitalist development model that privileges the market economy and deteriorates ecology. In this context, the objective of this article is to explain the concept of nature from a critical stance proposed by neo-Marxist theory. Supported by the qualitative research approach, documentary analysis method and bibliographic review technique of 56 different repositories (books, chapters in books and scientific articles) determined by non-probabilistic intentional sampling, the work is part of a theoretical inquiry characterized by reflecting on the concept of humanized nature that remains today, still stagnant and scarce in discursive developments. The results indicate that there is an ontological and epistemological need to reestablish the link between society-nature, where the latter is not a commodity, therefore, it needs to be decommodified to conceive it as a means for life that works with its own natural laws, external and greater than the economic system, which cannot be regulated by the mechanisms of the market economy. It is concluded that in order to decommodify the notion of nature, the ecocentric paradigm must be strengthened, where public and private actions are aligned with natural laws as a universal condition for survival, Cada vez se hace necesario reflexionar las contradicciones y disputas socioecológicas del modelo de desarrollo capitalista que privilegia la economía de mercado y deteriora la ecología. En este contexto, el objetivo del presente artículo es explicar el concepto de naturaleza desde una postura crítica planteada por la teoría neomarxista. Apoyado en el enfoque de investigación cualitativa, método, análisis documental y técnica de revisión bibliográfica de 56 repositorios diversos (libros, capítulos en libros y artículos científicos) determinados mediante muestreo no probabilístico intencional, el trabajo hace parte de una indagación teórica caracterizada por reflexionar el concepto de naturaleza humanizada que permanece hoy, aún estancado y escaso en los desarrollos discursivos. Los resultados indican que hay una necesidad ontológica y epistemológica por restablecer el vínculo sociedad-naturaleza, donde esta última no es una mercancía, por tanto, requiere desmercantilizarse para concebirla como un medio para la vida que funciona con sus propias leyes naturales, externa y mayor al sistema económico, que no puede ser regulada por los mecanismos de la economía de mercado. Se concluye que para desmercantilizar la noción de naturaleza se debe fortalecer el paradigma ecocéntrico, donde las acciones públicas y privadas se alineen a las leyes naturales como condición universal de supervivencia.

This paper presents the findings of an artifactual field experiment conducted in urban Ecuador to investigate discrimination against LGBTQ (here restricted to individuals self-identified as gay or lesbian) job seekers in the labor market. Focusing on occupations and sectors where LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ individuals commonly apply, the study employed fictitious job applications evaluated by 394 human resource analysts. The results indicate that, on average, LGBTQ candidates did not face discrimination in terms of hiring recommendations, job fit assessments, or wage offers. However, a closer analysis reveals a gender-based differential treatment. Female LGBTQ candidates received positive discrimination, were more likely to be selected and offered higher wages compared to their heterosexual counterparts. In contrast, male LGBTQ candidates experienced negative discrimination and no wage differences with a lower likelihood of selection. The study found an influential role of female recruiters in driving these discriminatory behaviors. These findings contribute to our understanding of the complex dynamics of discrimination towards LGBTQ workers in the labor market and its interaction with gender.

This edition of the series 'The Future of Work in Latin America and the Caribbean' examines the challenges and opportunities that arise for the region's pension systems in the face of an aging population, technological advances, climate change, and changes in labor markets. Different studies predict that by 2050, the region will be characterized by low birth rates and increased longevity, a scenario that could compromise the ability to ensure adequate and sustainable pensions unless reforms are implemented to adapt pension systems to these trends. However, these same trends offer opportunities: technology, for example, can facilitate the integration of groups normally excluded from the pension system and improve the operational efficiency of pension institutions. This document urges authorities and decision-makers in Latin America and the Caribbean to rethink retirement and consider aging not as an obstacle but as a catalyst for creating more prosperous and just societies. For this purpose, a comprehensive approach to reforms that goes beyond the structure of pension systems and incorporates experiences from countries with more advanced aging processes is essential. Public policies should focus on four key areas: (i) health and dependency care in old age; (ii) labor markets, formalization, accumulation, and updating of human capital; (iii) pensions; and (iv) institutional innovation and digital transformation. This strategic vision will be crucial to forge a future where retirement is synonymous with dignity, prosperity, and equity.

We survey the recent literature studying the effects of globalization on inequality in Latin America. Our focus is on research emerging from the late 2000s onward, with an emphasis on empirical work considering new mechanisms, studying new dimensions of inequality, and developing new methodologies to capture the many facets of globalizations relationship to inequality. After summarizing both design-based and quantitative work in this area, we propose directions for future work. Our overarching recommendation is that researchers develop unifying frameworks to help synthesize the results of individual studies that focus on distinct aspects of globalizations relationship to inequality.

Current insurance schemes for the self-employed in Latin America are, in general, adaptations of the model created for salaried employees. These mechanisms need to respond better to their needs and characteristics to reflect better levels of insurance. The optimization of the schemes can be an optimal way to improve this situation. This document illustrates the path self-employed workers must follow to access and contribute to social security in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Each case documents - from the user's experience - which steps must be followed to fulfil the obligations established in the current regulations, both for social security and tax payments. In each scheme, a significant variation in complexity is documented, and areas of improvement are identified in the procedures and the biases that hinder it (behavioral economics). Although there is no universal solution, there are common elements that could ease compliance with obligations to improve self-employed workers' insurance. These include electronic registration, aggregation of income from different sources, flexible insurance schemes with new products, automatic discounts, information exchange with the tax and the financial system, and, finally, tax incentives. These are areas of innovation that would allow for improving existing processes and products based on digital transformation.

The Unified Digital Health Record (EDUS) project is an initiative that Costa Rica launched in 2010 to organize in a single digitalized file the medical and social security information of people enrolled in the services of the Costa Rican Social Security System (CCSS). This case study explains what EDUS is, how it works and what its challenges and benefits have been. The document includes a list of best practices for the design, development and implementation of digital health records. It also discusses two recent EDUS episodes in Costa Rica: the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and the cyber-attacks that the country received in 2022, which paralyzed the EDUS service for two months.

This paper investigates the long-term impact on earnings of attending a tuition-free, top-quality university in Brazil. We identify the causal effect through a sharp discontinuity in an admission process based on test scores. If admitted, low-income students are found to increase their earnings by 26% ten years later. However, admission has a small and insignificant effect on high-income students. The difference between income groups is not explained by educational attainment, program choice, or selection into better-paying jobs. The evidence suggests that most low-income applicants, if not admitted, still graduate from college but with much lower returns to education. High-income applicants who just miss the cutoff, however, can find other opportunities such that earnings trajectories are unchanged. Our results underscore the role of affordable higher education in promoting social mobility.

During a period of COVID-19-induced job losses and mobility restrictions, the government of Colombia's launched Empléate, an innovative Pay-for-performance (P4P) program that targeted impoverished and vulnerable workers. Empléate operated at a national scale and had a novel financial arrangement: in contrast to traditional programs wherein service providers are remunerated based on their activities, service providers in Empleate only received payments based on successful placement of participants into formal employment. They were also granted premia for sustaining participants in formal jobs months for 3 to 6 months after insertion. This article presents the results of a randomized impact evaluation of Empleate conducted between September 2020 to April 2021. The Intention-to-Treat (ITT) estimates show that program participants were 9% more likely to secure a formal job five to eight months post-treatment. Impacts were larger among men and among individuals with work experience in sectors less affected by the pandemic, with the impacts rising to 22% and 17% respectively. There is no evidence of impacts among women and among individuals without secondary education. These ITT impacts likely underestimate real Average Treatment Effects (ATE) due to issues of imperfect compliance. Complementary analysis from survey data suggests creaming, underscoring the importance of ensuring an adequate allocation of financial risk on P4P contracts. Nevertheless, many design features are promising and positive impacts are noteworthy considering the adverse repercussions in Colombia's formal labor market inflicted by the pandemic.

In this chapter reviews the literature and inform policy debates about the effects of minimum wages (MW) on income inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

The 2023 EYE Bond Report discusses the pressing challenges of poverty and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean and emphasizes the need for a comprehensive and well-planned approach to address these issues. The report highlights the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as a trailblazer in the realm of social bonds, striving for decades to enhance lives in the region by funding programs focused on Education, Youth, and Employment (EYE). The core objective of the EYE Bond program is to adopt a holistic "life cycle" strategy that nurtures human capital throughout an individual's lifetime. This involves coordinated investments in people, starting from early childhood care and education, progressing through formal primary and secondary education, and culminating in initiatives that facilitate seamless transitions from school to the labor market through vocational training. The EYE Bond Framework aligns with the Social Bond Principles and encompasses specific Social Project categories. The program's primary social objectives are twofold: first, providing and promoting access to crucial services like education and vocational training; and second, generating employment opportunities while offering support to prevent and alleviate unemployment resulting from socioeconomic crises. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the critical aspect of socioeconomic advancement and empowerment as a central pillar of the EYE Bond program. By empowering individuals and communities, the program seeks to uplift marginalized populations and create a more equitable society. By focusing on investing in human capital and addressing the root causes of poverty and inequality, the EYE Bond program showcases a groundbreaking model for addressing multifaceted social challenges. This report highlights the achievements and impact of the EYE Bond program in Latin America and the Caribbean and underscores the IDB's pioneering efforts in championing sustainable social development. In conclusion, the

This paper studies tax evasion in the form of under-reported wages in Ecuador using microdata from a combination of electronic billing and personal income tax returns filed in 2017. Bringing together this novel combination of data, the study applies the standard method Pissarides and Weber (1989) used to estimate the under-reporting of income by comparing public- and private-sector employees. The results demonstrate empirically that under-reporting of income in private-sector employees is between 7 and 9 percent of their income, which translates to an estimated 3 percent of unregistered GDP. The under-reporting has important implications for social security, reducing these contributions by about 10 percent. Beyond the overall picture of under-reporting, the study detects substantial heterogeneities concerning firm size, concluding that the gap size is negatively correlated with the number of employees at the firm, which is consistent with different risks and administrative costs of envelope wages in small versus large firms.

This edition of the Caribbean Economics Quarterly focuses on the issue of long-term economic growth. As economies have recovered from the pandemic, the main question is: Will the region return to the slow long-run growth of the pre-pandemic period? The key lies in innovation and productivity. To understand the challenges facing businesses to innovate and increase productivity, the authors draw on recent firm-level data from the Compete Caribbean Partnership Facilitys Innovation, Firm Performance and Gender (IFPG) survey. This edition starts with an overview of past performance of Caribbean countries in terms of economic growth and productivity. It then describes the IFPG data and summarizes recent research papers analyzing those data and the conclusions emerging from that research. Finally, the country chapters draw on the Compete Caribbean database to describe the challenges facing firms at the country level.

In the last five decades, living with extended family has become more common around the globe. In Mexico, the share of three-generation households has increased by nearly 20% in both urban and rural areas in the last 15 years. Among other differences, the gender gap in employment is significantly smaller for three-generation households, and it is narrowing faster.

Brazil was already facing a sluggish economic recovery prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2014 and 2016, the country experienced a deep recession marked by substantial drop in economic activity combined with a reversal of recent gains in social indicators. From 2017 to 2019, GDP growth was unable to fully recoup the losses incurred during the recession. In recent decades, Brazil has repeatedly experienced this pattern, with a sharp decline in economic activity followed by an anemic recovery.

Understanding the characteristics of Venezuelan refugees and migrants in the Dominican Republic (DR) is key to informing appropriate policy responses, such as the most recent regularization program (Plan de Normalización de Migrantes Venezolanos). This profile aims to fill a fundamental information gap by providing a detailed review of Venezuelans characteristics to inform a larger project that will assess the impact of the normalization program. It is based on a sample, built using the Respondent Driven Sampling Approach, conducted between December 2021 and January 2022.

What do a wind farm in Uruguay, a math tutoring program in Mexico and a plant with three-meter long roots in Trinidad and Tobago have in common? They are all development projects that advanced after facing huge challenges. They are also among the six finalists in the IDB 2022 Superheroes of Development, an initiative that allows the IDB Group to recognize the teams that make the programs that the Bank supports a reality on the ground amid complex and challenging circumstances. This publication highlights the stories of the six finalists in order to share the lessons learned in each case so that the countries of the region can benefit from their experiences. This includes anticipating challenges that others have already faced, using solutions that others have already developed, and avoiding the mistakes that others have already made. This is the fifth edition of Superheroes of Development, which was launched in 2018, and it continues to develop as a knowledge platform for BID Academy.