Longer lives and fertility far below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman are leading to rapid population aging in many countries. Many observers are concerned that aging will adversely affect public finances and standards of living. Analysis of newly available National Transfer Accounts data for 40 countries shows that fertility well above replacement would typically be most beneficial for government budgets. However, fertility near replacement would be most beneficial for standards of living when the analysis includes the effects of age structure on families as well as governments. And fertility below replacement would maximize per capita consumption when the cost of providing capital for a growing labor force is taken into account. While low fertility will indeed challenge government programs and very low fertility undermines living standards, we find that moderately low fertility and population decline favor the broader material standard of living

We analyze individual and country factors that explain attitudes toward intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) in Latin America and the Caribbean. Most patterns at individual level are similar to the international ones: for example, approval of IPVAW is higher among women and people in rural areas or in disadvantaged socio-economic situations. The most novel contribution of our work is the study of the variables at country level: approval of IPVAW increases with poverty, fertility rate, and equal gender outcomes. It decreases with Internet access and, less robustly, with the time elapsed since the enactment of women’s suffrage.

ABSTRACT-Research on moral cleansing and moral self-licensing has introduced dynamic considerations in the theory of moral behavior. Past bad actions trigger negative feelings that make people more likely to engage in future moral behavior to offset them. Symmetrically, past good deeds favor a positive self-perception that creates licensing effects, leading people to engage in behavior that is less likely to be moral. In short, a deviation from a "normal state of being" is balanced with a subsequent action that compensates the prior behavior. We model the decision of an individual trying to reach the optimal level of moral self-worth over time and show that under certain conditions the optimal sequence of actions follows a regular pattern which combines good and bad actions. We conduct an economic experiment where subjects play a sequence of giving decisions (dictator games) to explore this phenomenon. We find that donation in the previous period affects present decisions and the sign is negative: participants' behavior in every round is negatively correlated to what they did in the past. Hence donations over time seem to be the result of a regular pattern of self-regulation: moral licensing (being selfish after altruist) and cleansing (altruistic after selfish).

How much redistribution does Uruguay accomplish through social spending and taxes? How progressive are revenue collection and social spending? What could be done to further increase redistribution and improve redistributional effectiveness? A standard fiscal incidence analysis shows that Uruguay achieves a nontrivial reduction in inequality and poverty when all taxes and transfers are combined. Direct taxes are progressive and indirect taxes are practically neutral. Social spending on direct transfers, contributory pensions, education, and health is quite progressive in absolute terms except for tertiary education, which is almost neutral in relative terms. Specific suggestions for improving the effectiveness are suggested.

How much redistribution does Uruguay accomplish through social spending and taxes? How progressive are revenue collection and social spending? A standard fiscal incidence analysis shows that Uruguay achieves a nontrivial reduction in inequality and poverty when all taxes and transfers are combined. In comparison with other five countries in Latin America, it ranks first (poverty reduction) and second (inequality reduction), and first in terms of poverty reduction effectiveness and third in terms of overall (including transfers in kind) inequality reduction effectiveness. Direct taxes are progressive and indirect taxes are regressive. Social spending on direct transfers, contributory pensions, education and health is quite progressive in absolute terms except for tertiary education, which is almost neutral in relative terms.

ResumenHistorias laborales incompletas y altamente fragmentadas amenazan con dejar a muchos contribuyentes de los regímenes de pensiones de América Latina sin la pensión mínima garantizada, o incluso sin acceso a la pensión (jubilación) común. En el presente estudio, se propone una metodología para evaluar este riesgo, identificar los grupos vulnerables y estudiar los posibles factores determinantes de las historias de contribuciones, utilizando la información de los registros de historia de laboral de las instituciones de seguridad social. Aplicando esta metodología sobre los registros de la principal institución de seguridad social del Uruguay, el Banco de Previsión Social, se obtiene que la mayoría de los contribuyentes de esta institución podría no cumplir con el mínimo de años de cotización requeridos actualmente para acceder a una pensión (jubilación) común al llegar a las edades habituales de retiro.Palabras clave: densidad de cotizaciones, historia laboral. Clasificación JEL: H55, J14, J26. AbstractIncomplete and highly fragmented work histories threaten to leave many contributors of the pension schemes in Latin America without the minimum pension guarantee or even without access to the ordinary pension. We propose a methodology to assess this risk, identify vulnerable groups and study potential determinants of the history of contributions using information from the work history records of the social security institutions. We apply this methodology to the largest social security institution of Uruguay, the Banco de Previsión Social, and show that the majority of contributors to this institution might not comply with the minimum number of years of contribution that is currently required to access an ordinary pension when they reach the retirement age.

ResumenNo obstante la existencia de una legislación temprana respecto al divorcio, en Uruguay ha aumentado significativamente la cantidad de divorcios a partir de la segunda mitad de la década de los ochenta. El propósito de este trabajo consiste en identificar las características, individuales y de la pareja, que se asocian con un mayor riesgo de divorcio para dos generaciones de mujeres, según la evidencia que aporta la Encuesta de Situaciones Familiares de 2001. Los resultados, obtenidos a partir de la aplicación del análisis de supervivencia, se condicen, en general, con lo que predice la teoría: la presencia de hijos y la religiosidad de las personas funcionan como estabilizadores del matrimonio. Se encuentra también que la existencia de un período de cohabitación previa al matrimonio funciona en detrimento de éste, aumentando así el riesgo de divorcio. Respecto a las diferencias detectadas entre genera-

En los últimos quince años se registró un importante aumento de la incidencia del divorcio en Uruguay y el incumplimiento con las pensiones alimenticias a los hijos se ha vuelto un problema frecuentemente citado. El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar los determinantes que conducen a la evasión en el pago de pensiones alimenticias a los hijos, así como presentar un análisis de los problemas que enfrenta el sistema judicial uruguayo en la aplicación de las herramientas legales previstas para su cumplimiento. Por un lado, se describe la normativa vigente en Uruguay sobre pensiones alimenticias y se analiza la opinión de actores del sistema judicial respecto a las dificultades para aplicarla. Por otro lado, se realiza una caracterización de los padres que no cumplen con las obligaciones económicas hacia sus hijos y se identifican los factores que se asocian al incumplimiento. El análisis empírico se basa en una encuesta del año 2001 específicamente diseñada para revelar este tipo de información.