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Population aging has positioned as a key demographic change. This paper analyzes the characteristics of older adults in situations of dependence, care strategies and the profile of caregivers for Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, El Salvador and Uruguay. The population in a situation of functional dependence is mostly female and over 75 years old. Between 54% and 70% receive some type of care, with unpaid family care being the main care strategy. Unpaid caregivers are mostly women, under 65, and economically inactive. We evidence a negative relationship between the status of elderly caregiver and employment, that is stronger for women. Although elderly informal care leads to a lower probability of employment among individuals of all ages and income quintiles, the employment gap between caregivers and non-caregivers narrows substantially among higher-income people. Improving care for older people would have positive effects on female employment and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the development of Latin America over the past three decades by using growth incidence curves and weighted growth rates calculated on the basis of harmonized microdata from national household surveys. Over the past three decades, Latin America has made progress in fundamental socioeconomic indicators. On average, there has been significant growth in income as well as some educational and housing variables, particularly among the lower income strata. In contrast, progress was slower among the most vulnerable population in other important areas (e.g., higher education, female labor participation). Despite notable improvements in various areas of development captured through household surveys, the evidence reveals that substantial shortfalls and disparities still persist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically studies the impact of government quality on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in a sample of 46 economies in the 1996-2018 period. In particular, we comparatively examine to what extent quality of government influences FDI inflows in two groups of countries that show relevant differences in their levels of government quality: 33 OECD countries and 13 Latin American countries. Applying panel data methods, we found that institutional quality positively affects FDI in both groups of countries, and the impact is stronger in OECD countries than it is in Latin American countries. This study reveals that the design of public policies that strengthen institutional quality is essential, particularly in Latin American countries with weaker institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of money demand enables us to understand the macroeconomic effects of monetary policy. In this paper, we estimate the money demand for 15 Latin American countries from 1996 to 2016, using panel cointegra-tion and FMOLS estimation methods. We also estimate a model of dynamic common factors to test for the existence of common trends between countries. The results show a long run relationship between money demand, income, and interest rates. However, there is no evidence of common factors between countries, which is consistent with the heterogeneity observed in the estimated elasticities. Contrary to what we expected, in several cases, the estimated income elasticity is greater than one, which could be associated with agents' higher risk perceptions which affect their liquidity preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to estimate how the gender differences in the labor market (participation and wage gap) affect both poverty and income inequality, based on four Latin American countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Perú, Uruguay). The methodology is based on a multiple imputations technique (Rubin, 1987) applied to the construction of counterfactuals. While the effects on poverty are always positive and strong, the effects of the elimination of the gender differences on the labor market on labor and household income cannot be generalized. They depend on the country, and the scenario since modifications on different parts of the income distribution is observed, associated with the starting point of each one. These results are in accordance with the differences in the sort of inequalities between men and women observed among countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]