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Publication
Globalization, Wages, and the Quality of Jobs : Five Country Studies
(World Bank, 2009)The country studies in this volume analyze the link between globalization and working conditions in Cambodia, El Salvador, Honduras, Indonesia, and Madagascar. These countries vary significantly in population, economic circumstances, region, history, and institutions. All have experienced liberalization and globalization in the last 20 years. The heterogeneity of these countries provides the basis for a useful comparison of the effects of globalization on working conditions. As suggested in the framework, each country study has three main components: a description of the country's experience with globalization, a qualitative part that analyzes country-specific aspects of working conditions, and an analysis of changes in interindustry wage differentials (IIWDs) that can be compared across countries. In general, globalization has been characterized by export-driven foreign direct investment (FDI) concentrated in relatively few sectors. Export-driven FDI in the apparel sector plays a prominent role in each country, although to varying degrees. In Cambodia, apparel made up 82 percent of all merchandise exports in 2003. Nearly two-thirds of that total was destined for the U.S. market. Virtually all factories in the Cambodian garment sector are foreign owned. Honduras rose from being the 34th largest supplier of apparel to the United states (U.S.) market in 1990 to fourth place in 2003. In 2003, two-thirds of all Honduran exports to the U.S. were garments and more than 82 percent of all Honduran workers worked in foreign-owned factories. A similar pattern emerges for El Salvador. For Madagascar, apparel exports from the Zone Franche were the primary force behind the country's remarkable export growth and its transition from exporting primary products to exporting manufactured products between 1990 and 2005. By 2001, Madagascar had become the second most important clothing exporter in Sub-Saharan Africa as measured by total export value. -
Publication
Spending for Development : Making the Most of Indonesia's New Opportunities
(Washington, DC, 2008)This Public Expenditure Review (PER) examines and explains some of the constraints facing the government in public resource management and allocation, and offers recommendations for improvements in six critical areas: fiscal space, education, health, infrastructure, public financial management, and decentralization. Although Indonesia has made important progress in reforming its public finances and increasing transparency, Indonesia's reform agenda, as highlighted by the PER, is far from complete. Equity and efficiency of spending remain major issues, for instance finding an optimal allocation of resources that reflects development priorities, and achieving an annual spending pattern that is no longer strongly skewed towards the end of the financial year. This report tries to establish the facts about Indonesia's public expenditures, presenting trends over time and analyzing the composition across sectors and levels of government. It presents comprehensive information on key sectors, including sub-national governments and state-owned enterprises in key infrastructure sectors. Based on these facts, the report asks: Who benefits from these substantial amounts of public resources? Where are the gaps? Which regions are well-endowed? Which regions are lagging behind? In addition to these questions, this report also tries to respond to key concerns that are in the minds of many ordinary Indonesians and friends of Indonesia, such as: Can Indonesia afford to spend more? Is the current level of education and health spending sufficient? How to revitalize infrastructure investment, and which sectors are the priorities? Why is it so difficult to disburse funds through the government budget system? How unequal is Indonesia and how should fiscal transfers be structured to equalize disparities? This report addresses seven critical expenditure areas. The first two chapters (Chapter 1 on fiscal space and Chapter 2 on cross-sectoral allocations) discuss how much money is available to the government and how it is allocated across sectors and levels of government. The following three chapters on education, health, and infrastructure analyze how resources are currently allocated within these critical sectors and how effectively they are used. The final two chapters (Chapter 6 on public financial management and Chapter 7 on decentralization) highlight institutional and crosscutting issues in effective public expenditure management -
Publication
Delivering on the Promise of Pro-Poor Growth : Insights and Lessons from Country Experiences
(Washington, DC: World Bank and Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)Delivering on the Promise of Pro-Poor Growth contributes to the debate on how to accelerate poverty reduction by providing insights from eight countries that have been relatively successful in delivering pro-poor growth: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Tunisia, Uganda, and Vietnam. It integrates growth analytics with the microanalysis of household data to determine how country policies and conditions interact to reduce poverty and to spread the benefits of growth across different income groups. This title is a useful resource for policy makers, donor agencies, academics, think tanks, and government officials seeking a practical framework to improve country level diagnostics of growth-poverty linkages. -
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Improving The Business Environment in East Java : Views From The Private Sector
(Jakarta: World Bank and Asia Foundation, 2005)This report presents the results of research undertaken by The World Bank and The Asia Foundation to identify barriers to trade and investment in East Java. This activity was initiated by the World Bank and The Asia Foundation with several important aims: (i) to support private sector participation in the public planning process related to potential World Bank assistance for infrastructure projects; (ii) to provide an opportunity for the private sector to express their concerns to local governments and to make recommendations for improving the business climate; and (iii) to encourage increased coordination between local governments in stimulating trade between regions. The role of the Asia Foundation / World Bank Team was to identify barriers to trade and investment and to facilitate activities to introduce a sustainable and replicable process for how regional governments can best work with the private sector in creating a conducive business climate. -
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The Microfinance Revolution : Volume 2. Lessons from Indonesia
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-05)This book focuses on how the demand for microfinance can be met on a global scale. It documents the contributions of institutions and of people who have led the development of commercial finance for the poor, and it analyzes the principles on which the microfinance revolution is based. In sum, this work offers a detailed overview of the development of microfinance over the past 20 years; a global view of microfinance in the developing world (largely excluding Eastern Europe); a thesis on the future path of microfinance; a coherent theory about microfinance--why it works when so many other development interventions fail; detail on a number of important microfinance topics--such as informal moneylending and savings; an important study on, and lessons from Indonesia, with detailed analysis of Bank Rakyat Indonesia; and, brief studies of many other microfinance institutions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. -
Publication
The Microfinance Revolution: Sustainable Finance for the Poor
(Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2001-05-31)This book focuses on how the demand for microfinance can be met on a global scale. It documents the contributions of institutions and of people who have led the development of commercial finance for the poor, and it analyzes the principles on which the microfinance revolution is based. In sum, this work offers a detailed overview of the development of microfinance over the past 20 years; a global view of microfinance in the developing world (largely excluding Eastern Europe); a thesis on the future path of microfinance; a coherent theory about microfinance--why it works when so many other development interventions fail; detail on a number of important microfinance topics--such as informal moneylending and savings; an important study on, and lessons from Indonesia, with detailed analysis of Bank Rakyat Indonesia; and, brief studies of many other microfinance institutions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.