Un piso de protección social para preservar la vida: informalidad, pobreza y vulnerabilidad en tiempos de COVID-19

Roberto Mauricio Sánchez Torres and Sergio Chaparro Hernández

Econógrafos, Escuela de Economía from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID

Abstract: This paper analyzes the potential impact of COVID-19 and contention measures on poverty in the 13 main cities of Colombia as a result of the paralysis of the informal economy. Drawing on a simulation with data from household surveys (GEIH), it is estimated that, despite current governmental emergency transfers to support households, poverty rate has increased from 18% to 32% and extreme poverty from 4.5% to 16.7%, as a consequence of a suddenly interruption of labor income earning of around 4.1 million informal workers. Based on an estimation of the amount of monetary transfers required to avoid any increasement in poverty, the paper discusses the merits of some policy proposals made by experts, academic institutions and civil society organizations. The article argues for the need to adopt an emergency basic income scheme as the first component of a rights-based social protection floor which should remain in place beyond the public health emergency, as an essential learning from this crisis.

Keywords: Coronavirus; labor informality; poverty; social protection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H23 I38 J46 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27
Date: 2020-05
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Published in CID

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000176:023736

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