ABSTRACT
In Panama, the analysis was limited to recognition of the fact that the national government was committed to a decentralized regional development strategy. The Panama housing economic analysis represents the bare minimum needed for preliminary design of a housing intervention. Intuitive judgment rather than detailed data were used to specify the poverty line of $150 per capita in Panama. The Costa Rica investigation included a comprehensive employment analysis which addressed the informal sector and labor supply and demand. In Costa Rica, the survey results were not available in time to meet a report deadline; this is not uncommon. Surveys often are overrated; they tend to take longer and cost more than planned. In Costa Rica the focus was poverty in San Jose and attention was given to rates of immigration, metropolitan population growth, contribution of migration to tugurio population, and differences between migrants and nonmigran.
