Pension reform and self‐employment in Latin America

Abstract

Public pension systems in Latin America have historically suffered from low coverage, with a relatively small percentage of the labor force eligible for benefits in retirement. In recent years, many governments have implemented reforms aimed at expanding the percentage of citizens who are eligible for benefits. In this paper we classify and evaluate pension reforms in four Latin American countries, focusing specifically on policies aimed at expanding coverage among the large share of Latin Americans who operate as self-employed workers. The reforms that we examine range from those linked to simplified tax regimes to those that provide pension-specific subsidies. With the exception of a 2006 reform in Costa Rica that subsidized pension contributions at progressive rates, we find no evidence that any of these reforms increased coverage. Our results highlight the opportunity costs to low-income workers of paying into the system, which include forgoing eligibility for less generous, non-contributory pensions.

Internet usage and the income gap between self‐employed individuals and employees: Evidence from China

“…2 The development of the self-employment sector can promote economic growth in developing countries (ILO, 1972). 3 Thus, it is important to study the self-employment sector of these countries, including that of China (Awasthi, Kumaraswamy, & Boeri, 2020;Guzman & Clair, 2021;Jacolin, Massil, & Noah, 2021;Ma & Li, 2022). During 1949During -1977, China operated as a centrally planned economy and banned the self-employment sector as being a capitalist market practice.…”