World Crisis Effects on Social Security in Latin America and the Caribbean: Lessons and Policies (Institute of Latin American Studies) - Softcover

Mesa-Lago, Carmelo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1900039974 ISBN 13: 9781900039970

Publisher: University of London Press, 2010

Synopsis

Written by a top scholar on social security in Latin America and the Caribbean, this book assesses the effects of the world economic crisis on social security and welfare in the region. Drawing on the impact of and lessons from previous crises, Carmelo Mesa-Lago identifies the strengths and weakness of Latin American social security before the current global crisis. He evaluates the event's actual and potential effects on pensions, health care, and social assistance programs, based on a taxonomy of three groups of countries.

The book ends with a summary of policies adopted by some countries and the author's own recommendations on social policies to lessen the adverse outcomes of the financial crisis. Latin America's pioneering social-welfare reforms make this book important for other regions of the world, both developed and developing.

About this title

About the Author:

Carmelo Mesa-Lago is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Economics and Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and has been a visiting professor, researcher or lecturer in 40 countries. He is the author of 82 books and 275 articles/chapters published in seven languages in 34 countries; his most recent is Reassembling Social Security: A Survey of Pension and Healthcare Reforms in Latin America (Oxford University Press, 2008). Mesa-Lago has worked in all Latin American countries and several in the Caribbean, as well as in Germany, Egypt, Ghana, Philippines and Thailand, as a regional advisor for ECLAC, a consultant with the ILO, the International Social Security Association, PAHO, UNRISD, UNDP, and other U.N. branches, as well as most international financial organizations (World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank), and national and foreign foundations. A former President of the Latin American Studies Association, he has been awarded: the inaugural ILO International Prize on Decent Work  (shared with Nelson Mandela), the Alexander Von Humbolt Stiftung Senior Prize and collaborative research grants, two Fulbright Senior Awards, Arthur Whitaker and Hoover Institution Prizes, University of Pittsburgh Senior Research Prize, Annual Recognition from the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, homage from OISS and CISS (for life work on social security), homage from the Institute of Cuban Studies and journal Encuentro (for life work on Cuba), and finalist in Spain's Prince of Asturias Prize on Social Sciences. He is a Member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and of editorial boards of seven academic journals, and has received grants from the Ford, Heinz, Kellogg, Mellon, Reynolds, Rockefeller, Tinker and Inter-American Foundations, SSRC, NSF,  Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, Japan Foundation and US-Spain Commission for Academic Exchange. Choice have selected several of his books as "outstanding."

Review:

"Offers a broad regional perspective on the crisis effects on social security in 25 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Who better than Mesa-Lago - the "master of social security in Latin America" -could have taken on such a daunting challenge? The detailed information about the crisis outcomes both within and across countries is particularly helpful, providing a useful "tool box" in the quest for a socially equitable recovery.  A useful guide to policies that have worked and those that have failed. " (Hedva Sarfati,  International Labour Review, 2010).

"Mesa-Lago attempts in this informative and ambitious book to determine the impact of the world crisis on social security (health and pensions) in Latin America and offer policy recommendations with a useful methodology to explore the short-, medium- and long-term evolution of social security." (Diego Sánchez-Ancochea, University of Oxford, Journal of Latin American Studies, 2010).

"Mesa-Lago, a leading social security expert and social policy analyst recently has played an eminent role in the activities of the ILO and ISSA in Geneva. This book is doubtless one of the earliest reactions in the academic world to the crisis passing the available information through the grid of his regular analytical framework for evaluating social security schemes. Policy recommendations are based on careful and systematic analysis of facts" (Vladimir Rys, University of Geneva, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 2011).

"The latest work published by Professor Mesa-Lago, one of the leading experts on social security in Latin America, is a concise and sagacious analysis of the impact of the world economic crisis on social security systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. An indispensable to learn what is happening on social protection in [that region], guided by the best who can show it (Diego Valero, Director of NOVASTEC, Revista ADC21, 2011).

About this edition

• Publisher: University of London Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1900039974
• ISBN 13: 9781900039970
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200