Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes
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Publication
Thailand Monthly Economic Monitor, July 2023
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-24)The economy maintained moderate expansion, driven by private consumption and tourism. Declining inflation alleviated pressure on living costs and supported private consumption. However, goods exports as well as manufacturing production and investment contracted due to weak external demand. Public debt remained stable;a decrease in budget deficit financing was offset by increased borrowing to support the State Oil Fund. In June, the Thai baht depreciated compared to major ASEAN currencies, primarily due to an all-year high current account deficit. -
Publication
COVID-19 in South Asia: An Unequal Shock, An Uncertain Recovery - Findings on Labor Market Impacts from Round 1 of the SAR COVID Phone Monitoring Surveys
(Washington, DC, 2022-04)All countries across South Asia, faced with the rising risks of COVID-19 infection rates, implemented severe economic lockdowns in early 2020 with varying frequencies and time periods. While the exact nature and duration of these lockdowns varied across countries in the South Asia Region (SAR), almost all SAR countries imposed their first economic lockdown in late March 2020 in response to the growing health threat of COVID-19 infections. In India, for instance, the national lockdown was first introduced in late March 2020, which coincided with the imposition of similar lockdowns in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, followed by a national lockdown in Pakistan on April 1, 2020. By April 17, 2020, the population of all SAR countries was under severe lockdown with varying rules and conditions based on national or local directives. The introduction of these lockdowns led to a drastic, abrupt disruption in all forms of physical mobility and economic activities. Trends from the Google COVID-19 Community Mobility data reveal this sharp drop in day-to-day mobility related to four different types of economic activity across 6 out of 8 SAR countries for which this data was available. Figure 1 plots the daily change in the Google Mobility index, which is constructed by taking an equally weighted mean across the four dimensions of economic activity for the five weeks before March 2020. In the six SAR countries, the average mobility remained approximately, on average, 58 percent below their respective pre-COVID levels during the first week of the lockdown. For example, in Nepal, where the lockdown was first introduced on March 24, 2020, mobility (as measured by the Google Mobility index) was 66 percent below pre-COVID levels on the first day of the lockdown; and it remained, on average, 71.5 percent below per-COVID levels between March 24, 2020, and March 30, 2020. We observe a similar pattern of immediate and large disruptions in mobility in all SAR countries, except in Afghanistan (22.5 percent below pre-COVID levels), where restrictions were more localized. The Google Mobility index closely follows these changes in rules and conditions in SAR countries, which varied over time within each country as well as across countries. In countries like Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka, with an extended period of restrictions imposed through national or local directives at different points in time, mobility had not returned to pre-COVID levels even as late as April 2021. In Nepal and Sri Lanka, where the second lockdown was introduced in August and November 2020, respectively, we observe a sharp drop again in mobility after a gradual recovery following the easing of the first lockdown. In other SAR countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, mobility only returned to pre-COVID levels between September and October 2020. These results underscore the dramatic and prolonged impact that COVID-19 induced lockdowns have had on mobility and economic activity, which is perhaps unprecedented in the region, at least in recent history4. These lockdowns are likely to have important implications on various socio-economic dimensions of welfare, including labor market outcomes, both immediately and in the medium, to long-term. More importantly, the long-term impacts will also be determined by the nature and the pace of recovery observed in these countries in the months and years after the initial phase of lockdown. Moreover, the emergence of new mutants leaves open the possibility of future lockdowns as a policy response to mitigate the health effects of the virus, which could impact economic activity and reverse observed recoveries. -
Publication
What Do We Know About Interventions to Increase Women’s Economic Participation and Empowerment in South Asia?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06)The World Bank’s South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab is conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions with direct or indirect effects on measures of women’s economic empowerment. The review focuses on changes in labor force participation, employment, income, and empowerment outcomes. The goal is to document what has worked and has not for women in the region (covering all countries; Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), the types of interventions implemented, and identifiable gaps in knowledge and action. The review organizes interventions in six broad categories: skills, assets, credit, labor market, entrepreneurship, and empowerment. This note summarizes the main findings from skill-building interventions. -
Publication
Cox’s Bazar Panel Survey, Rapid Follow-up Round 2: Impacts of COVID-19 on Food Security in Cox’s Bazar - Consumption, Coping and Assistance
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06)This brief summarizes findings from rapid welfare tracking surveys in Cox’s Bazar. Two rounds of tracking surveys were implemented via phone interviews in 2020 to monitor the impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on labor markets, wages, and household coping strategies. The first round was conducted during the COVID-related lockdowns in April-May 2020. A second round was conducted from October-December 2020, roughly six months after the government-imposed lockdowns, and also included a short module on education. Within the host community, the survey was further stratified into high exposure (HE, within three hours walking distance of a Rohingya camp) and low exposure (LE, more than three hours walking distance from a Rohingya camp) areas within the district. -
Publication
Cox’s Bazar Panel Survey, Rapid Follow-up Round 2: Status of Education Among School-Aged Children in Cox’s Bazar
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06)This brief summarizes findings from rapid welfare tracking surveys in Cox’s Bazar. Two rounds of tracking surveys were implemented via phone interviews in 2020 to monitor the impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on labor markets, wages, and household coping strategies. The first round was conducted during the COVID-related lockdowns in April-May 2020. A second round was conducted from October-December 2020, roughly six months after the government-imposed lockdowns, and also included a short module on education. Within the host community, the survey was further stratified into high exposure (HE, within three hours walking distance of a Rohingya camp) and low exposure (LE, more than three hours walking distance from a Rohingya camp) areas within the district. -
Publication
COVID-19 Monitoring Survey in Poor and Slum Areas of Dhaka and Chittagong: Bangladesh Food Security and Coping Strategies as of Round 2, September 2 - October 2020
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021)By September 2020, Dhaka and Chittagong labor markets in Bangladesh showed signs of recovery in employment. Employment recovered faster in Chittagong, reaching pre-COVID-19 levels, while Dhaka remained below pre-COVID-19 employment levels. To track the impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on labor markets and household coping strategies, a rapid phone survey was implemented on a representative sample of households living in poor and slum areas of Dhaka and Chittagong City Corporations (CCs). This brief, the third in the series, summarizes results from the first and second rounds of the rapid phone survey, conducted from June 10 to July 10, 2020, and from September 2 to October 11, 2020. Ninety-four percent of respondents interviewed in the first survey round were reached in the second round. This brief focuses on how the labor market situation, and how food security and coping strategies evolved between the two rounds. -
Publication
COVID-19 Monitoring Survey in Poor and Slum Areas of Dhaka and Chittagong: Bangladesh Labor Market Situation As of Round 3, January 13 - February 27, 2021
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021)To track the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on labor markets and household coping strategies, a rapid phone survey was implemented on a representative sample of households living in poor and slum areas of Dhaka and Chittagong City Corporations (CCs). This brief, the fifth in the series, summarizes results from the first, second, and third rounds of the rapid phone survey, conducted from June 10 to July 10, 2020, from September 2 to October 11, 2020, and from January 13 to February 27, 2021, respectively. Eighty-eight percent of respondents interviewed in the first and second survey rounds were reached in the third round (see annex 1 for details of the survey design and response rates). This brief focuses on how the labor-market situation evolved between the rounds a year after the onset of the crisis. -
Publication
COVID-19 Monitoring Survey in Poor and Slum Areas of Dhaka and Chittagong: Bangladesh Labor Market Situation as of Round 2, September 2 - October 11, 2020
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021)By September 2020, Dhaka and Chittagong labor markets in Bangladesh showed signs of recovery in employment. Employment recovered faster in Chittagong, reaching pre-COVID-19 levels, while Dhaka remained below pre-COVID-19 employment levels. To track the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on labor markets and household coping strategies, a rapid phone survey was implemented on a representative sample of households living in poor and slum areas of Dhaka and Chittagong City Corporations (CCs). This brief, the third in the series, summarizes results from the first and second rounds of the rapid phone survey, conducted from June 10 to July 10, 2020, and from September 2 to October 11, 2020. Ninety-four percent of respondents interviewed in the first survey round were reached in the second round. This brief focuses on how the labor market situation evolved between the two rounds. -
Publication
Impacts of COVID-19 on Work and Wages in Cox's Bazar: Part 1 - Rohingya Camps
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-12-12)This brief summarizes findings from rapid welfare tracking surveys in Cox’s Bazar. Two rounds of tracking surveys were implemented via phone interviews in 2020 to monitor the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on labor markets, wages, and household coping strategies. The first round was conducted during the COVID-related lockdowns in April-May 2020. A second round was conducted from October-December 2020 (roughly 6 months after the government-imposed lockdowns). These rapid phone surveys are built on the Cox’s Bazar Panel Survey (CBPS), which is a multi-topic survey that focused on socio-economic outcomes and access to services. The baseline CBPS survey, implemented in March- August 2019, was designed to be representative of the recently displaced Rohingya population (displaced after August 2017) and the full Bangladeshi population in Cox’s Bazar. Within the host community, the survey included hosts from two strata: high exposure (HE, within 3 hours walking distance of a Rohingya camp) and low exposure (LE, more than 3 hours walking distance from a Rohingya camp) areas within the district. The overall sample size of the CBPS baseline was 5020 households (and two adults per household), split roughly equally across Rohingya camps and host communities, and within the latter, equally among HE and LE areas. Key modules of the baseline survey, including detailed labor market modules were administered to two randomly selected adults in each household. The first tracking survey re-interviewed 3,012 adults originally interviewed in the baseline, while the second survey interviewed 3,438 adults baseline adult respondents (1,554 adults in camps). This brief (Part 2) focuses on key findings among the Rohingya population in camps, with findings for the host community discussed in an accompanying brief (Part 1). -
Publication
Impacts of COVID-19 on Work and Wages in Cox's Bazar: Part 1 - Host Communities
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-12-12)This brief summarizes findings from rapid welfare tracking surveys in Cox’s Bazar. Two rounds of tracking surveys were implemented via phone interviews in 2020 to monitor the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on labor markets, wages, and household coping strategies. The first round was conducted during the COVID-related lockdowns in April-May 2020. A second round was conducted from October-December 2020 (roughly 6 months after the government-imposed lockdowns). These rapid phone surveys are built on the Cox’s Bazar Panel Survey (CBPS), which is a multi-topic survey that focused on socio-economic outcomes and access to services. The baseline CBPS survey, implemented in March-August 2019, was designed to be representative of the recently displaced Rohingya population (displaced after August 2017) and the entire Bangladeshi host community in Cox’s Bazar. Within the host community, the survey includes two strata: high exposure (HE, within 3 hours walking distance of a Rohingya camp) and low exposure (LE, more than 3 hours walking distance from a Rohingya camp) areas within the district. The overall sample size of the CBPS baseline was 5020 households (and two adults per household), split roughly equally across Rohingya camps and host communities, and within the latter, equally among HE and LE areas. Key modules of the baseline survey, including detailed labor market modules were administered to two randomly selected adults in each household. The first tracking survey re-interviewed 3,012 adults originally interviewed in the baseline, while the second survey interviewed 3,438 adults baseline adult respondents (958 in HE, and 927 in LE areas among hosts). This brief (Part 1) focuses on key findings among the host community, with findings for Rohingya in camps discussed in an accompanying brief (Part 2).