OECD-style dashboard

Structural Vulnerability in Latin America and the Caribbean

An applied development economics dashboard based on a harmonized country-year panel.

27Countries
2000-2023Years
648Country-year observations
178Econometric sample
17Countries in model sample
SVIMain outcome

Research Question

How do poverty, labor informality, and social protection jointly shape structural vulnerability across Latin America and the Caribbean?

Main Findings

Labor informality is positively associated with structural vulnerability in the TWFE specification.
Social protection coverage is negatively associated with structural vulnerability.
GDP per capita is negatively associated with vulnerability, while unemployment and inequality are positively associated with vulnerability.
Results should be interpreted as associational, not causal, because the index and regressors are conceptually related and endogeneity remains possible.

Structural Vulnerability Ranking

Structural Vulnerability Ranking

The ranking identifies countries where multiple dimensions of vulnerability overlap.

Bolivia Profile

Bolivia Profile

Bolivia illustrates why poverty reduction does not automatically eliminate labor-market vulnerability.

Regional Trends

Regional Trends

Regional averages summarize broad movements across available observations and should be read as descriptive trends.

Correlation and Mechanisms

Correlation Heatmap
Informality and vulnerabilitySocial protection and vulnerability

Correlations and scatter plots are descriptive diagnostics and should not be read as causal effects.

Econometric Evidence

TWFE coefficientsObserved and predicted
VariableTWFE coefficientp-value
labor_informality0.0103<0.001
social_protection_coverage-0.0102<0.001
gdp_per_capita_1000-0.02190.0388
unemployment0.0537<0.001
gini0.0359<0.001
R-squared0.9977

These estimates are associational and should not be interpreted as causal effects.

Data Quality

Missingness map

Missingness varies by indicator and year. The analytical sample is narrower than the full panel because econometric specifications require jointly observed values.

Research Pipeline

Research pipeline

Policy Interpretation

Policy strategies should address overlapping vulnerabilities rather than poverty alone. The descriptive and econometric evidence points to the importance of formal employment, social protection coverage, macroeconomic capacity, and inequality reduction.