This report from the World Bank seeks to analyze the distributional effect of minimum wage policies in the developing world, particularly Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to provide guidance on their usefulness as a tool for minimizing poverty and inequality. The report's focus is on the general equilibrium effects at the household level, minimum wage impacts on groups whose labor market participation may be marginal (youth, women, the low-skilled, and informal sector workers), and implications for state finances as concerns questions of the public wage bill and indexing of social benefits to the minimum wage. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)