Search the OKR
Featured Publications
Recently Added
-
Publication
World Bank East Asia and the Pacific Economic Update, April 2023: Reviving Growth
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-31)Economic activity in developing East Asia and Pacific has recovered from the recent shocks and is growing. However, output remains below pre-pandemic levels in many countries and inflation remains higher than target ranges in some countries. Near-term growth will depend on the dynamics of global growth and commodity prices, and financial tightening, which is likely to continue in the face of high inflation in the US. Taking a long-term view, growth in EAP has been faster and more stable than in much of the rest of the world. The result has been a striking decline in poverty and, in the last decade, also a decline in inequality. But it would be a mistake to let these achievements obscure vulnerabilities, past, present, and future. The region must implement structural, macro-financial, and climate-related reforms to address the problems of slowing productivity growth and scars from the pandemic, even as it faces up to the major challenges of deglobalization, aging and climate change. -
Publication
Which Socio-Emotional Skills Matter Most for Women’s Earnings?: New Insights from Sub-Saharan Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-03-30)Evidence on gender-specific returns to socio-emotional skills in developing economies is lacking. To inform the selection of socio-emotional skills in policy design, a new study mobilizing data from 17 African countries with 41,873 respondents examines gender differences in ten self-reported socio-emotional skills and their relationship with education and earnings. Evidence from the existing literature shows that socio-emotional skills positively influence labor market outcomes. Findings from our sample suggest that women in Sub-Saharan Africa could benefit from training programs designed to improve their socio-emotional skills, as women earn on average 54 percent less than men and report lower levels of socio-emotional skills. Educational attainment, which likely contributes to the increase of socioemotional skills for both men and women, might not be enough to eliminate gender differences in socio-emotional skills, since even among the most educated individuals, women still have lower levels of socio-emotional skills than men. Research on the relationship between socio-emotional skills and labor market outcomes should be deepened to improve the design of future programs teaching socio-emotional skills in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our results suggest that public interventions seeking to equip women with interpersonal skills (e.g., teamwork, expressiveness, and interpersonal relatedness) may provide an effective pathway to reduce gender disparities in the labor market. -
Publication
Private Sector Engagement for Tuberculosis Elimination: India’s Journey from Pilots to National Scale-Up (2012–2021)
(Washington DC, 2023-03-30)Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of illness and death worldwide. India accounts for 26 percent of the world’s TB burden; hence, the significance of India’s role in achieving the global elimination of TB cannot be overstated. India has a mixed health care system comprising a vertical program-oriented public health care system and a fragmented private health care system, which drives out-of-pocket expenditures by households. Approximately 80 percent of TB patients start their diagnostic and treatment journey in the private sector, and nearly 50 percent continue their treatment there. Thus, private sector engagement (PSE) is an essential intervention for the Indian context. PSE is an important pathway for the government of India to achieve national TB targets. Since the mid-1990s, the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP) has been implementing various PSE activities, in some cases with support from development partners. Most early PSE projects and interventions yielded poor-to-mixed results and did not impact the quality of private sector care. From 2012, NTEP began to scale up innovative approaches with support from development partners. Encouraging results from the pilots were instrumental in convincing policy makers and program managers to transition and integrate financing for newer PSE models into India’s domestic budgets. The program has successfully transitioned and institutionalized various PSE models. This working paper examines and documents early experiences and lessons from India’s TB PSE journey. While it is still too early to evaluate the impact of the transition, the story of how India transitioned from pilots to national scale-up holds lessons for other health programs and countries with similar TB burdens. -
Publication
Land and Mortgage Markets in Ukraine: Pre-War Performance, War Effects, and Implications for Recovery
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-03-30)Almost throughout Ukraine’s independent history, agricultural land sales were prohibited. Measures to allow them and make land governance more transparent in 2020/21 were expected to improve equity, investment, credit access, and decentralization. This paper draws on administrative data and satellite imagery to describe land market performance before and after the Russian invasion, assess changes in land use for transacted parcels, and analyze determinants of land prices. Agricultural land market volume soon exceeded that of residential land and continued at a reduced level and with prices some 15–20 percent lower even after the invasion, with little sign of speculative land acquisition. Mortgage market activity and credit access remained below expectations. The paper discusses reasons and options for addressing them in a way that also factors in the needs of post-war reconstruction. -
Publication
Access to Credit and Bank Ownership: Evidence from Firm-Level Data
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-03-30)This paper uses a unique dataset with matched information at the firm-bank level covering 13,000 firms and 550 banks in 36 emerging and developing economies over 2012–20. The analysis tests whether government-owned banks fulfill their social mandate by targeting credit constrained firms or firms that are more likely to generate positive externalities. The findings show that credit constrained firms are more likely to borrow from government-owned banks, and that this is especially the case in countries with good institutions. However, the paper does not find any evidence that government-owned banks target innovative firms or “green” firms. The findings show that in firms that borrow from government-owned banks, employment reacts less to business cycle conditions relative to firms that borrow from private banks. The paper further shows that employment is more stable in credit constrained firms that have a relationship with a government-owned banks with respect to credit constrained firms that borrow from a private bank.