The Decade of Adjustment: A Review of Austerity Trends 2010-2020 in 187 Countries
This paper: (i) examines the latest IMF government spending projections for 187 countries between 2005 and 2020; (ii) reviews 616 IMF country reports in 183 countries to identify the main … Continue reading →
Policy brief – The Forthcoming Adjustment Shock
According to IMF projections, 2016 marks the beginning of a second, major period of expenditure contraction globally. This ILO paper questions if the projected fiscal contraction trajectory—in terms of timing, … Continue reading →
Ethical Perspective: 5 Unacceptable Trade-offs on the Path to Universal Health Coverage
This article discusses what ethicists have called “unacceptable trade-offs” in health policy choices related to universal health coverage (UHC). Since the fiscal space is constrained, trade-offs need to be made. … Continue reading →
The Political Economy of “Targeting” of Social Security Schemes
Stephen Kidd examines the evidence on the political economy of ‘targeting’. By first examining the history behind social security in developed countries, and then looking at contemporary tax-financed social security … Continue reading →
Protection for older persons: A review of coverage deficits in 46 countries
More than half of the global population aged 65 and above, representing 300 million people, is excluded from urgently needed long-term care (LTC), says the International Labour Organization (ILO). The … Continue reading →
Report: The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health
We identify three categories of challenges that have to be addressed to maintain and enhance human health in the face of increasingly harmful environmental trends. Firstly, conceptual and empathy failures … Continue reading →
Social Policy for a Digital Age
As advanced economies become more automated and digitized, almost all workers will be affected, but some more than others. Those who have what the economists Maarten Goos and Alan Manning … Continue reading →
Fiscal Space for Social Protection: Options to Expand Social Investments in 187 Countries
It is often argued that social protection is not affordable or that government expenditure cuts are inevitable during adjustment periods. But there are alternatives, even in the poorest countries. This … Continue reading →
Where Next for Social Protection?
The rapid ascendancy of social protection up the development policy agenda in the past ten to 15 years raises questions about whether its current prominence will be sustained, or whether … Continue reading →
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