Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes
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Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than 1 billion people, half of whom will be under 25 years old by 2050, is a diverse ...
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Publication
Disaggregated Survey Data on Taxation to Improve Policy Design: A Perspective from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey (2018/19)
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06)A disaggregated analysis of the tax burdens and economic needs of the most economically vulnerable - such as poor women and men, informal workers, and owners of micro- and small enterprises - is crucial for designing equitable and well-targeted tax and public spending policies. This is particularly important in low-income countries, where formal and informal tax systems often exist in parallel, and administrative data is sparse. Availability of data on tax payments by households and non-farm enterprises, individual-level employment and asset ownership, and contributions to community institutions and infrastructure programs can reveal important distributional implications for tax policy design going forward. This survey brief summarizes findings from the tax module of the nationally representative 2018-19 Ethiopia socioeconomic survey (ESS). The tax module covers different types of formal and informal taxes that households, businesses, and individuals pay, as well as informal contributions towards services and infrastructural improvements in the community. Findings from the multi-topic survey also reveal different tax burdens by socioeconomic and demographic groups, as well as across rural and urban areas, that are important for national tax policy design and targeting. -
Publication
Gender Implications of Rural Land Use Fee and Agricultural Income Tax in Ethiopia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06)Land use fees and agricultural income tax in Ethiopia are levied on rural landholders according to the size of agricultural landholdings. Summarizing the evidence presented in the authors paper based on new, nationally-representative data on taxation of households and individual landholdings and rights in the Fourth Ethiopian Socioeconomic Survey, this brief discusses how area-based land taxes are regressive and the tax burdens for female-only households are larger than for dual-adult households. Social norms limiting women’s roles in agriculture and a gender agricultural productivity gap are likely to be a source of this gender bias. Lower tax rates for smallholders can reduce women’s tax burdens, but area-based land taxation would continue to be regressive. -
Publication
Financial Inclusion in Ethiopia: Key Findings from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey 2018/19
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06)Integrating a financial inclusion module into a multitopic household survey like the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey (ESS) makes it possible to explore how different community spatial, demographic, and socioeconomic characteristics affect the financial decisions of individuals and households. In addition, the survey data underpins financial inclusion policymaking and measurement, an agenda spearheaded by the National Bank of Ethiopia through the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) efforts. The survey collected information from households and individuals on several financial matters including current levels of access to finance based on the prevalence of account ownership, use of financial services, types of institutions used, and their proximity to the household; household and individual financial decisions about savings, credit, insurance, and payments; and financial behavior, knowledge, and attitudes. The data provides a rigorous, multidimensional picture of where the country stands in expanding access to formal financial services and reaching the NFIS goals. This brief summarizes the ESS Financial Inclusion survey report, emphasizing on key findings on account ownership, gender gap, financial behavior and knowledge of financial institutions and products. -
Publication
Locust Invasion in Ethiopia: Scope and Impact
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05-01)The desert locust, the most destructive migratory pest in the world, is highly mobile and feeds on large quantities of any kind of green vegetation, including crops, pasture, and fodder with great potential to cause deterioration in the food security situation across the East Africa region. Ethiopia experienced two invasions of locust in 2020. The impacts of locust invasions are exacerbated by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions, war, and flooding which are expected to substantially reduce Ethiopia’s economic growth. This brief reports on the scope, intensity, and type of damage incurred by rural households as a result of both the first and second locust invasions in Ethiopia, based on high-frequency phone survey data. It provides a rich set of background information on the COVID-19 high frequency phone survey of households which can be leveraged to assess the differential impacts of the COVID-19 and desert locust invasion. -
Publication
Barriers to Accessing Medical Care in Sub-Saharan Africa in Early Stages of COVID-19 Pandemic
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03)Eighty-two percent of respondents in a sample of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries were able to access medical care despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the remaining 18 percent, about one-third reported that the COVID-19 pandemic impaired their access, either due to lockdown restrictions, facility closures, or fear of contracting the virus. 'Lack of money' was by far the most frequently reported barrier to accessing care across countries, especially for food-insecure households, two-thirds of which cited 'lack of money' as the main healthcare access constraint. Continued monitoring can help shed light on who is most at risk of not being able to access healthcare during crises. This note makes use of newly harmonized data to summarize reasons why respondents in 11 SSA countries were unable to access medical care during early COVID-19 stages. -
Publication
The Short-Run Economic Impact of Summer 2020 Protests in Addis Ababa: A Brief Look at the Evidence from a High-Frequency Phone Survey of Firms
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-12-21)It is long recognized that instability is inimical to economic growth. Instability produces uncertainty, amplifies risks, undercuts high-return investment, and diverts public policy towards short-term and quick-fix policies. Instability, accompanied by violent protest and riots, not only impacts current productive assets but also thwarts physical and human capital accumulation, weakening future growth. In the last two years, non-state conflict, civil unrest, and violent protest was rife in Ethiopia. While such conflicts are known to be barriers to a peaceful political and economic transition, little is known about how they have impacted the private sector. In this brief, we examine the economic impact of one specific event that led to the outburst of violent protests on firms in Ethiopia. This paper also shows that the internet shutdown affected a large share of SML firms than own-account firms. Not surprisingly perhaps, young and large firms are more likely to run businesses that depend on an online presence. Authors also see sector differences in the impact of internet shutdown on businesses. About 12 percent of firms in the industry sector and 6 percent of firms in the service sector report to have experienced disruptions to the business due to the internet shutdown. There is, however, little variation in the impact of internet shutdown on male, and female-owned firms. -
Publication
Monitoring COVID-19 Impacts on Firms in Ethiopia, Report No. 9: Firm Closure Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic - A Brief Look at the Evidence from HFPS-F
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10-15)For the current study, six rounds of the HFPS-F survey are used, mainly focusing on the business closure module from round six. The six rounds are roughly three weeks apart and were implemented between April 15 and September 8, 2020 in Addis Ababa. The sampling strategy is explained in detail in a companion technical note. Six survey briefs highlighting the impact of the pandemic on firms’ operations and labor dynamics are already produced along with two special topic briefs focusing on the gendered difference of the pandemic and how firms were affected by the State of Emergency. The current brief examines firm closure in relation to firms direct or indirect exposure to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic. The good news is that most of the firms that are closed have stopped production or services temporarily with less than 2 percent of firm closures reported to be permanent in R6 (roughly August). The following analysis thus focuses on temporary closures and mostly rely on data from 436 firms, of which 108 were temporarily closed and 328 were open at the time of the R6 survey. -
Publication
Monitoring COVID-19 Impacts on Households in Ethiopia, Report No. 5: Gendered Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ethiopia - Results from a High-Frequency Phone Survey of Households
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10-12)The analysis is based on a sample of 3,058 households in both urban and rural areas in all regions of Ethiopia. The 15-minute interview covers a diverse set of topics such as access to basic services, child educational activities during school closures, employment dynamics, household income and livelihood, income loss and coping strategies, food security and assistance received. In this brief, we focus on topics where gendered differences were striking. -
Publication
The Labor Market Impacts of COVID-19 in Four African Countries (April to October 2020): Evidence from LSMS-Supported High‑Frequency Phone Surveys on COVID-19
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10)As part of a global effort led by the World Bank to track the socio-economic impacts of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the living standards measurement study (LSMS) team supports high-frequency phone surveys in Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda (among other countries). This brief focuses on the early impacts of COVID-19 on the labor market and their evolution from April to October 2020 using phone surveys in four African countries. -
Publication
Monitoring COVID-19 Impacts on Firms in Ethiopia, Report No. 8: Results from a High-Frequency Phone Survey of Firms
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-09-25)This one-pager summarizes the results of the sixth round of the HFPS-F in Addis Ababa, implemented between August 17 and September 8, 2020. The information presented here is based on 331 firms that were still operational at the time of the survey. Firms that had temporarily closed because of the COVID pandemic were not interviewed in R6, which is a difference with the previous survey rounds (when temporarily closed firms were also interviewed). Firm closures will be looked at in detail in a separate brief.