Expanding Social Insurance Coverage to Informal Workers
The high incidence of informality in developing countries implies that many workers are not covered against important risks, such as unemployment, illness and old-age poverty. Given that expanding the Bismarckian system to include informal workers...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/798051502894913219/Expanding-social-insurance-coverage-to-informal-workers http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27932 |
| Summary: | The high incidence of informality in
developing countries implies that many workers are not
covered against important risks, such as unemployment,
illness and old-age poverty. Given that expanding the
Bismarckian system to include informal workers presents many
challenges, several countries implemented non-contributory
social insurance programs to expand coverage. However, these
contributed to labor market segmentation and are unlikely to
be financially sustainable. This note reviews the economic
literature dealing with the expansion of social insurance
programs and summarizes the main policy insights. It draws
on international evidence on social insurance system design
and innovations, and the resulting impact on coverage. It
also provides general design principles that can apply to
unemployment benefits, health insurance, and pensions. |
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