Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation in Focus

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The series captures the experience, innovative approaches and solutions for development of the World Bank Group covering financial sector topics of relevance to both the public and private sectors. The series is comprised of short knowledge notes, policy notes, case studies, lessons learned or a combination therein. This series was formerly known as Finance in Focus.

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Coding Bootcamps for Female Digital Employment: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Argentina and Colombia

2021, Aramburu, Julian, Goicoechea, Ana

The increase in female labor force participation is among the most salient economic and social transformations in the world over the last fifty years, and Latin America is no exception. In this regard, the gender gap in educational attainment has not only narrowed, but it has reversed itself in most countries of the region. Despite this, two important gaps remain. First, wages of female workers are, on average, thirty percent lower than those of males. Second, a high degree of occupational and educational segregation remains, with men and women being concentrated in different fields of occupations and study. This study pilots a comprehensive female-targeted computer programming training (bootcamp) in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Bogotá, Colombia. Bootcamps have become a policy instrument to tackle the following two objectives. First, they provide training on coding skills at a time when the rapid spread of new digital technologies is increasing demand for such skills. Second, when training on coding skills is specifically targeted toward women, it reduces the gender gap in terms of access to effective training on coding skills.

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Transforming Health through e-Payments in India

2017, Isern, Jennifer, Sharma, Anita, Marin, Georgina

The World Bank Group (WBG), in collaboration with the Government of Bihar, is implementing a government-to-person (G2P) health payments project with co-funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The timeliness and integrity of these monetary incentives are key to their effectiveness. In late 2009, WBG began discussions with the State Health Society of Bihar (SHSB) and BMGF about delays and inefficiencies related to conditional incentive payments to health program beneficiaries and health workers. On the basis of those initial discussions, WBG conducted a diagnostic with SHSB on health payments in Bihar in 2010-11. WBG found that health programs in Bihar experienced significant delays (ranging from two months to two years) in making incentive payments and that health officials spent nearly 30 percent of their time administering payments instead of providing health care services. To address those challenges, WBG recommended that SHSB modernize its health payment system by: (a) automating the calculation, verification, and recording of payments; (b) enabling centralized payment processing; and (c) making payments using electronic funds transfers directly into beneficiary bank accounts.

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Promoting E-Commerce in Georgia: Exploring Constraints to Online Participation using Baseline Data from an Experimental Study

2020-07-24, Apedo-Amah, Marie Christine, Coville, Aidan, Piza, Caio, Raja, Siddhartha, Scarpari, Raquel

E-commerce has the potential to expand market opportunities for businesses. However, it is not guaranteed. The World Development Report on Digital Dividends (World Bank 2016) highlights the importance of complementary analog support that may be needed to ensure people and businesses are able to fully benefit from the opportunities that high-speed, ubiquitous internet can provide. The first step in providing such support is understanding the constraints to adoption. The Competitive Policy Evaluation Lab (ComPEL) is supporting an impact evaluation in Georgia to generate knowledge about the constraints that prevent firms from participating in e-commerce platforms, while also testing an innovative approach to address the identified issues. The study evaluates the ‘Broadband for Development’ (BfD) project, a component of the World Bank-supported Georgia National Innovation Ecosystem (GeNIE) program, that aims to foster innovation, particularly for otherwise marginalized firms. The BfD provides support to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) located outside of the capital, Tblisi, to adopt broadband connections and establish an online retail presence through e-commerce training. Before BfD launched this effort, the research team collected and analyzed baseline data regarding 2,180 eligible firms. The purpose of this note is to explore the baseline results and some implications for BfD, or similar projects supported by the World Bank’s Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation (FCI) Global Practice, within the context of the impact evaluation.

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Azerbaijan: Leveraging Postal Network for Financial and Social Inclusion

2016-04, Prigozhina, Angela, Boon, Johannes

This paper provides a brief overview of the postal network reform in Azerbaijan and transformation of Azerpost, Azerbaijan’s state postal operator, into an efficient platform for basic financial services delivery throughout the country. This complex reform, supported by the World Bank loan for Financial Services Development Project and the grants from the Swiss Office of International Cooperation (SECO), was launched in 2006 and helped the government of Azerbaijan to improve financial services delivery and inclusion in the country in parallel with modernizing and digitalizing Azerpost, expanding its financial services delivery capacity, enhancing its financial viability and maximizing the public value of Azerpost extensive branch network of 1,600 offices. In the period of 2007-1H2015, Azerpost total revenues, largely from financial services (as universal postal services remain loss-making) tripled, while volume of financial services’ sales increased four times. In 2015, Azerpost reached financial breakeven without state subsidy, and productivity of its staff increased 3 times. In 2009, Azerpost corporatized and became LLC, while in 2010, based on the new postal legislation, it was licensed as a non-bank financial institution subject to prudential supervision of the central bank.

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Less Burden, More Transparency, and Higher Quality: Electronic System for Business Safety Inspections in Peru

2020-07-21, Barron, Manuel, Bedoya, Guadalupe, Garcia Montufar, Diego, Goicoechea, Ana

Business safety inspections are commonly cited as one of the most important bureaucratic barriers to doing business around the developing world (World Bank 2019, 2020). In Peru, the business safety inspection system is characterized by low compliance with established norms, misaligned incentives and high transaction costs. These inefficiencies affect micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) disproportionally, as they do not have the resources or know-how to navigate the inspection procedures. MSMEs constitute 99.5 percent of firms, employ up to 89 percent of the population, and contribute up to 31 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the country (Ministry of Production 2017). Thus, the inefficiencies in the inspection system hamper the business environment, adversely affecting shared prosperity and economic growth. The World Bank Group is conducting a rigorous impact evaluation study in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing of Peru.1 Specifically, it will assess how the deployment of an electronic system for inspections, in combination with the improved monitoring of inspector performance and optimized firm auditing, can be used to address key constraints in the inspection system. This work will shed light on whether these mechanisms can reduce the compliance burden on firms by improving regulatory efficiency while also ensuring safety. In addition, it will provide evidence about how such systems could operate when implemented at scale. This note provides an overview of the policy problem that Peru faces, and describes the solutions to be tested. It then focuses on lessons from developing and implementing the electronic system to solve the policy problem, with an emphasis on those lessons related to the constraints and inputs to improving regulatory efficiency and accountability.

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New Lessons from Australia to Improve Pension Outcomes

2016-01, Price, William

The Australian Government commissioned the independent Financial System Inquiry or ‘Murray Review’ to provide recommendations to improve private pensions (superannuation), as well as financial system resilience, innovation and consumer protection. This continues Australia’s proactive approach - regularly reviewing how to improve a system that already has good features. The recommendation for a clear (and legally binding) statement of what the retirement system is trying to achieve is a sensible move. It mirrors what is happening in a range of World Bank projects, to start with the long-run outcomes and then work backwards to find the best ways to achieve them, in terms of regulation, supervision, market structure and efficient infrastructure. This note reviews the key analysis and recommendations from the review of the private pension system in Australia known as the ‘Murray Review’. It provides a commentary on the implications for pension reforms using World Bank experience in a range of projects.