The Long Shadow of Informality
The Long Shadow of Informality

Author: Franziska Ohnsorge

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2022-02-09

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 1464817545

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A large percentage of workers and firms operate in the informal economy, outside the line of sight of governments in emerging market and developing economies. This may hold back the recovery in these economies from the deep recessions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic--unless governments adopt a broad set of policies to address the challenges of widespread informality. This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the extent of informality and its implications for a durable economic recovery and for long-term development. It finds that pervasive informality is associated with significantly weaker economic outcomes--including lower government resources to combat recessions, lower per capita incomes, greater poverty, less financial development, and weaker investment and productivity.

Gains in the Education of Peruvian Women, 1940 to 1980
Gains in the Education of Peruvian Women, 1940 to 1980

Author: Elizabeth M. King

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13:

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What determines girls' educational attainment? School quality (measured by the number of textbooks and teachers) changes in attitudes and better economic opportunities for educated women ; parents (especially mothers') years of schooling and occupations ; and the opportunity cost of sending a girl to school - especially in rural families, or when mothers must hold jobs outside the home.

Determinants of Fertility and Child Mortality in Côte D'Ivoire and Ghana
Determinants of Fertility and Child Mortality in Côte D'Ivoire and Ghana

Author: Kofi Darkwa Benefo

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1994-01-01

Total Pages: 110

ISBN-13: 9780821327890

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Explains the broad range of financial instruments government policymakers can use to avoid commodity price risks caused by fluctuating prices. This hands-on book describes management techniques countries can use to avoid the financial risk that occurs when commodity prices fluctuate dramatically. It illustrates each technique in detail with practical case studies of Colombia, Costa Rica, Hungary, Papua New Guinea, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Venezuela. These financial techniques include short-term instruments and newer methods that let governments evade price risks over longer periods and raise finances that are linked to commodity prices. The new techniques include commodity loans, bonds, swaps, futures, forwards, and options. Policymakers receive clear information about how these financial instruments can manage price risk, provide access to external finance, and lower a country's credit risk. The workbook shows how risk instruments work within traditional stabilization schemes and explains which of the techniques protect against external risk. It also identifies the institutional changes and education requirements governments must meet to use the instruments effectively. This book advances the more theoretical work on the new, longer-term instruments that appears in Commodity Risk Management and Finance, published by the World Bank and Oxford University Press. Published for the World Bank by The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Modeling Economic Behavior in Peru's Informal Urban Retail Sector
Modeling Economic Behavior in Peru's Informal Urban Retail Sector

Author: J. Barry Smith

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13:

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Small family business that operate outside the formal system comprise a large part of the economy in developing countries and more than half the Peruvian street vendors are women. This model of informal activity in Peru's urban areas elicits policy recommendations to improve productivity (especially women's) in the informal sector.

Law and Employment
Law and Employment

Author: James J. Heckman

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2007-11-01

Total Pages: 585

ISBN-13: 0226322858

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Law and Employment analyzes the effects of regulation and deregulation on Latin American labor markets and presents empirically grounded studies of the costs of regulation. Numerous labor regulations that were introduced or reformed in Latin America in the past thirty years have had important economic consequences. Nobel Prize-winning economist James J. Heckman and Carmen Pagés document the behavior of firms attempting to stay in business and be competitive while facing the high costs of complying with these labor laws. They challenge the prevailing view that labor market regulations affect only the distribution of labor incomes and have little or no impact on efficiency or the performance of labor markets. Using new micro-evidence, this volume shows that labor regulations reduce labor market turnover rates and flexibility, promote inequality, and discriminate against marginal workers. Along with in-depth studies of Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Jamaica, and Trinidad, Law and Employment provides comparative analysis of Latin American economies against a range of European countries and the United States. The book breaks new ground by quantifying not only the cost of regulation in Latin America, the Caribbean, and in the OECD, but also the broader impact of this regulation.

Delayed Primary School Enrollment and Childhood Malnutrition in Ghana
Delayed Primary School Enrollment and Childhood Malnutrition in Ghana

Author: Paul Glewwe

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1993-01-01

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 9780821326657

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Explores the effect of malnutrition on school enrollment and extent of schooling. In many developing countries, less than half of all primary school students have enrolled by age six, and many do not enroll until age eight or nine. This paper uses data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey to explore this phenomenon. The authors develop a number of explanations for delayed primary school enrollment in Ghana, but their main focus is on nutrition. They find that infant and child malnutrition has a major impact on the age at which children enroll in school. They argue that chronically malnourished children tend to be kept out of school by their parents because they perform poorly and the benefit to them of schooling is therefore low. Chronic malnutrition, which is extensive in Ghana, has been shown to stunt growth, retard mental development, and reduce motivation and energy levels. Because growth can eventually compensate for the initial retardation caused by malnutrition, the authors suggest that there may be an QUOTEoptimal ageQUOTE of primary school enrollment for malnourished children that is higher than that for other children. The authors also explore the effects of malnutrition on the number of years of schooling completed. By taking enrollment age into account when analyzing the statistics on dropouts, the authors are able to remedy a major shortcoming of previous studies. They thus develop a method of identifying the further negative effects of malnutrition even when delayed enrollment is common.