Advancing social justice, promoting decent work
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Research on active labour market policies in Latin America and the Caribbean
This project presents the first systematic analysis of active labour market policies in Latin America and the Caribbean and assesses their effectiveness in improving labour market and social conditions. The project includes: a compendium of labour market policies, a literature review and a meta-analysis, three impact evaluations, the synthesis report, and more.
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has achieved significant economic, labour market and social progress in recent decades. Unemployment is at or near historically low levels in many countries, labour force participation has increased and poverty and inequality have improved substantially. However, in the most recent years these achievements have begun to slow on a number of fronts that will challenge the ability of policy makers to sustain progress.
In this context, active labour market policies (ALMPs) can play a central role by improving workers’ employability, contributing – directly or indirectly – to productive employment creation. A number of countries in LAC have embraced this shift in the policy agenda. As a result, the last decade has seen an important increase in the number of ALMPs implemented in the region and expenditure on these programmes continues to rise. However, not enough is known with respect to the nature of these ALMPs, as well as their effectiveness in achieving more and better jobs. This research project aims to fill this gap by presenting the first systematic analysis of ALMPs in LAC and assessing their effectiveness in improving labour market and social indicators. The main outcomes of the project include:
The report summarises the main findings of this research project. Chapter 1 presents the main trends of labour market and social indicators in LAC. Chapter 2 reviews the different concepts relevant to understanding ALMPs in a non-OECD country context and presents the results of a unique compendium of labour market policies implemented in selected LAC countries since the 1990s. Chapter 3 reviews both qualitatively and through a meta-analysis the empirical economic literature on impact evaluation of ALMPs, particularly in LAC countries. Finally, Chapter 4 presents results of three impact evaluations carried out for the purpose of this report and discusses the main policy lessons on how to leverage these policies to sustain further labour market and social progress.
Database - ILO Compendium of labour market policies
The policy compendium collects information on labour market policies implemented in a range of LAC countries since the 1990s. Among other information, for each intervention it provides a description of the programme, the target group of beneficiaries, the number of participants and the level of public expenditures. The entire policy compendium can be assessed electronically; while its main results and trends are also presented in the report (Chapter 2).
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Working papers - Meta-Analysis and impact evaluations
As part of the research project, three new evaluations have been performed to assess three ALMPs implemented in Argentina, Colombia and Peru. A meta-analysis has also been conducted to review the main results of the literature on impact evaluation of ALMPs, paying particular attention to evidence from LAC. All these contributions can be consulted separately as working papers; while their main findings are summarised in the report (Chapter 3 for the meta-analysis and Chapter 4 for the impact evaluations).
Research Department Working Paper n°9 A review of the effectiveness of Active Labour Market Programmes with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean
The main findings and policy conclusions of the research project have been summarised in four briefs as part of the “What works” series of the ILO Research Briefs. The first brief provides an overview of the research project and its motivation and summarizes its main findings. The remaining Research Briefs discuss separately the main conclusions around three different types of interventions: multi-approach activation programmes targeted to conditional cash transfers (CCT) beneficiaries; public employment services; and workfare programmes, based on the Synthesis Report and the case studies of Argentina, Colombia and Peru.
