Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes

664 items available

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https://hdl.handle.net/10986/9388

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Does Fiscal Policy Have a Role in Improving Child Well-Being in Ethiopia?
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-04-01) Ambel, Alemayehu A.; Belete, Getachew Yirga; Fiala, Oliver
Taxes, government spending, and public transfers affect the well-being of children and adults, albeit in different ways. There is, however, a dearth of empirical evidence on the impact of these policies on the well-being of children in low-income countries. This policy brief summarizes a recent study by Ambel, Belete, and Fiala (2024), which investigates the effects of fiscal actions on poverty and inequality among children in Ethiopia. The study applies the Commitment to Equity for Children (CEQ4C) methodology on survey data integrated with administrative data. It finds that the fiscal system in Ethiopia is progressive, poverty-reducing, and equalizing for children. However, there are observed differences in the effects of some of the fiscal policy components, as many of these effects are stronger for girls and children in rural areas. The study also highlights the essential role of public services in improving children’s well-being.
Building Climate Resilient and Environmentally Sustainable Health Systems in Africa: A Summary of Findings and Recommendations from Climate and Health Vulnerability Assessments (CHVAs) Funded by AFRI-RES Across Four Countries
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-06) World Bank
This note summarizes lessons and practices deployed in embedding climate resilience into the design of projects that received catalytic funds from The Africa Climate Resilience Investment Facility (AFRI-RES). It draws from application of the Resilience Booster Tool to specific projects, as relevant, Compendium Volume on Climate Resilient Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank (2023) and Guidance, Standards, and Good Practice Notes developed under the program.
Gender Implications of Rural Land Use Fee and Agricultural Income Tax in Ethiopia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06) Komatsu, Hitomi; Ambel, Alemayehu A.; Koolwal, Gayatri; Yonis, Manex Bule
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.
Disaggregated Survey Data on Taxation to Improve Policy Design: A Perspective from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey (2018/19)
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06) Ambel, Alemayehu A.; Komatsu, Hitomi; Koolwal, Gayatri; Tsegay, Asmelash H.; Yonis, Manex B.
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.
Financial Inclusion in Ethiopia: Key Findings from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey 2018/19
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06) Achew, Mengistu Bessir; Ambel, Alemayehu A.; Gradstein, Helen L.; Tsegay, Asmelash Haile; Ul Haq, Imtiaz; Varghese, Minita M.; Yonis, Manex Bule
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.
Locust Invasion in Ethiopia: Scope and Impact
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05-01) Ilukor, John; Gourlay, Sydney
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.
Barriers to Accessing Medical Care in Sub-Saharan Africa in Early Stages of COVID-19 Pandemic
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03) Swindle, Rachel; Newhouse, David
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.
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) Abebe, Girum; Bundervoet, Tom; Wieser, Christina
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.
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) Contreras-Gonzalez, Ivette; Siwatu, Gbemisola Oseni; Palacios-Lopez, Amparo; Pieters, Janneke; Weber, Michael
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.