Strengthening Income Stabilization through Social Protection in Emerging and Developing Economies: The Brazilian Experience

Fernanda Brollo, Gabriel Lara Ibarra and Ricardo Campante Vale

No 2024/052, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: Social protection programs are crucial for stabilizing household income, especially during crises. Brazil's response to the pandemic, the Auxilio Emergencial (AE) program, demonstrated the value of a resilient social safety net and digital tools. This study assesses AE's effectiveness in income stabilization, poverty reduction, and inequality. Results show that the pre-pandemic social protection system would have only buffered about a quarter of income loss, with unemployment insurance more significant for higher-income households, and social safety net transfers crucial for lower-income households, especially those in informal employment. AE successfully supported lower-income households during the pandemic, but its generosity went beyond the stabilization of income, resulting in large fiscal costs.

Keywords: Income Stabilizer; Social Protection; Social Safety Net; Brazil; Auxilio Emergencial; Poverty Reduction; household income; income stabilization; Auxílio Emergencial beneficiary; AE's effectiveness; Income; Social protection spending; Social assistance spending; COVID-19; Labor markets; Global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27
Date: 2024-03-08
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=545498 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2024/052

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Akshay Modi ().