Other ESW Reports
262 items available
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This includes miscellaneous ESW types and pre-2003 ESW type reports that are subsequently completed and released.
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Publication
Brazil : Jobs Report, Volume 2. Background Papers
(Washington, DC, 2002-12-20)This report, conducted jointly by researchers in Brazil and at the World Bank, aims to address the debate on how the Brazilian labor market functions. It does so not by focusing on labor market functioning but on its outcomes. What is central are labor market outcomes, such as adequate employment growth so that job-seekers can find gainful employment, acceptable worker productivity levels that are fairly compensated, and reasonable income security for workers and their households. This report is structured as follows: Chapter 1 argues that labor laws have begun to show signs of obsolescence. Chapter 2 shows this is reflected in deteriorating outcomes. Key indicators--employment growth, labor force participation, unemployment rates, and income security--all point to worsening labor market functioning since the mid-1990s. The report then examines how changed macroeconomic circumstances call for changes in labor market institutions, regulations, and interventions. Using a characterization of the economy in which informality has a central role, Chapter 3 illustrates the correspondence between the three main macroeconomic phenomena of the 1990s--greater openness, stabilization, and fiscal adjustment--and Brazil's labor market priorities. Chapter 4 concludes that the labor market has signaled the shortage of educated workers since the 1990s, and the onus is now on the education and training systems to respond. Analysis of how Brazil's labor market functions in Chapter 5 points to evidence that indicates that Brazil's poorer workers and smaller firms are especially disadvantaged by how the labor market functions. The report identifies three sets of priorities for reform: changes in mandated non-wage benefits and minimum wage setting to price labor correctly and encourage empoloyment growth (Chapter 6), changes in severance legislation and functioning of labor courts to better align incentives and increase productivity (Chapter 7), and improvements in interventions to increase income security for all workers (Chapter 8). Chapter 9 summarizes and highlights the main policy implications. Volume 2 contains in-depth examination of the issues of interest in Brazil and the relevant international experience, on which Chapters 1 through 8 of the first volume are based. -
Publication
Brazil : Jobs Report, Volume 1. Policy Briefing
(Washington, DC, 2002-12-20)This report, conducted jointly by researchers in Brazil and at the World Bank, aims to address the debate on how the Brazilian labor market functions. It does so not by focusing on labor market functioning but on its outcomes. What is central are labor market outcomes, such as adequate employment growth so that job-seekers can find gainful employment, acceptable worker productivity levels that are fairly compensated, and reasonable income security for workers and their households. This report is structured as follows: Chapter 1 argues that labor laws have begun to show signs of obsolescence. Chapter 2 shows this is reflected in deteriorating outcomes. Key indicators--employment growth, labor force participation, unemployment rates, and income security--all point to worsening labor market functioning since the mid-1990s. The report then examines how changed macroeconomic circumstances call for changes in labor market institutions, regulations, and interventions. Using a characterization of the economy in which informality has a central role, Chapter 3 illustrates the correspondence between the three main macroeconomic phenomena of the 1990s--greater openness, stabilization, and fiscal adjustment--and Brazil's labor market priorities. Chapter 4 concludes that the labor market has signaled the shortage of educated workers since the 1990s, and the onus is now on the education and training systems to respond. Analysis of how Brazil's labor market functions in Chapter 5 points to evidence that indicates that Brazil's poorer workers and smaller firms are especially disadvantaged by how the labor market functions. The report identifies three sets of priorities for reform: changes in mandated non-wage benefits and minimum wage setting to price labor correctly and encourage empoloyment growth (Chapter 6), changes in severance legislation and functioning of labor courts to better align incentives and increase productivity (Chapter 7), and improvements in interventions to increase income security for all workers (Chapter 8). Chapter 9 summarizes and highlights the main policy implications. Volume 2 contains in-depth examination of the issues of interest in Brazil and the relevant international experience, on which Chapters 1 through 8 of the first volume are based. -
Publication
Rural Poverty Alleviation in Brazil : Towards an Integrated Strategy, Volume 2. Technical Papers
(Washington, DC, 2001-12-27)This report finalized in March 2001 constitutes a step toward the objective of designing an integrated strategy for rural poverty reduction in Brazil, The report contains an updated and more detailed profile of the rural poor in the northeast (NE) and southeast (SE) of Brazil; identifies key determinants of rural poverty in these regions; and proposes a five-pronged strategic framework in which to couch a set of integrated policies that could effectively help to reduce rural poverty in Brazil. This tentative set of policy options was identified via an analysis of rural poverty determinants complemented with an evaluation of relevant current public programs and six in-depth thematic studies that bear on critical components of the proposed integrated policy approach aimed at reducing rural poverty in the NE and SE of Brazil: 1) the dynamics of the Brazilian small farm sector, 2) rural labor markets, 3) rural land markets, 4) rural non-farm employment, 5) rural education, and 6) rural pensions. While this study emphasizes primarily microeconomic events--such as the impact of schooling, income transfers, and access to land and credit--poverty reduction requires both economic growth (macro-level) and specific anti-poverty policies (micro-level). -
Publication
Rural Poverty Alleviation in Brazil : Towards an Integrated Strategy, Volume 1. Policy Summary
(Washington, DC, 2001-12-27)This report finalized in March 2001 constitutes a step toward the objective of designing an integrated strategy for rural poverty reduction in Brazil, The report contains an updated and more detailed profile of the rural poor in the northeast (NE) and southeast (SE) of Brazil; identifies key determinants of rural poverty in these regions; and proposes a five-pronged strategic framework in which to couch a set of integrated policies that could effectively help to reduce rural poverty in Brazil. This tentative set of policy options was identified via an analysis of rural poverty determinants complemented with an evaluation of relevant current public programs and six in-depth thematic studies that bear on critical components of the proposed integrated policy approach aimed at reducing rural poverty in the NE and SE of Brazil: 1) the dynamics of the Brazilian small farm sector, 2) rural labor markets, 3) rural land markets, 4) rural non-farm employment, 5) rural education, and 6) rural pensions. While this study emphasizes primarily microeconomic events--such as the impact of schooling, income transfers, and access to land and credit--poverty reduction requires both economic growth (macro-level) and specific anti-poverty policies (micro-level). -
Publication
Brazil : Eradicating Child Labor in Brazil
(Washington, DC, 2001-12-06)The report reviews evidence of child labor in Brazil, and the Government's efforts to eradicate its worst forms, by examining background assessments of ongoing programs for its prevention. It seeks to identify promising strategies, addressing the needs of highly vulnerable children in urban areas, engaged in activities such as drug commerce, prostitution, or other dangerous activities. One such program is the Child Labor Eradication Program - PETI - unique in that it provides a conceivable strategy to address by 2002, the incidence of child labor. The assessments demonstrate that the program has been successful in reducing child labor rates, school attendance has increased as a result of the program, and, attitudinal and other changes have occurred as a result of the program. The report outlines the political, and legal debate on child labor, examining indicators and trends in Brazil, as well as the determinants of child labor, linking child labor and poverty to its structural determinants, and how economic crises affect child labor. A description of child labor outcomes follows, specifying how child labor leads to low educational attainment, and low earnings, including its implications for adult wages, income, and poverty, summarizing targeted program expansion and future challenges. -
Publication
Brazil - Attacking Brazil's Poverty : A Poverty Report with a Focus on Urban Poverty Reduction Policies (Vol. 2 of 2) - Main Report
(Washington, DC, 2001-03-31)The first central message of this report is that Brazil has over the last years achieved great progress in its social policies and indicators. The second central message is that poverty remains unacceptably high for a country with Brazil's average income levels. The worst remaining income poverty is mostly concentrated in the Northeast region, and in the smaller urban and rural areas. The third central message is that, with decisive action, Brazil can achieve ambitious targets for further improvements in social indicators, including the objective of reducing the rate of extreme income poverty by 50 percent by the year 2015. Poverty is a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. Recognizing the rich literature on poverty in Brazil, this report attempts a few specific contributions. First, it presents a new 1996 poverty profile with a breakdown by city size, incorporation of the imputed value of owned housing, and regional price deflators. Second, it provides analysis of the incidence of selected public social spending based on the 1996/7 "Pesquisa sobre Padroes da Vida (PPV)." Third, it selectively synthesizes other work on poverty in Brazil in order to present an overview of cross-sectoral comparisons of the effectiveness of policy interventions. Fourth, it provides suggestions and selective inputs for devloping a national poverty reduction strategy. The report updates a previous World Bank assessment (report no. 14323) and builds on earlier work on urban poverty strategy. -
Publication
Attacking Brazil's Poverty : A Poverty Report with a Focus on Urban Poverty Reduction Policies, Volume 1. Summary Report
(Washington, DC, 2001-03-31)The first central message of this report is that Brazil has over the last years achieved great progress in its social policies and indicators. The second central message is that poverty remains unacceptably high for a country with Brazil's average income levels. The worst remaining income poverty is mostly concentrated in the Northeast region, and in the smaller urban and rural areas. The third central message is that, with decisive action, Brazil can achieve ambitious targets for further improvements in social indicators, including the objective of reducing the rate of extreme income poverty by 50 percent by the year 2015. Poverty is a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. Recognizing the rich literature on poverty in Brazil, this report attempts a few specific contributions. First, it presents a new 1996 poverty profile with a breakdown by city size, incorporation of the imputed value of owned housing, and regional price deflators. Second, it provides analysis of the incidence of selected public social spending based on the 1996/7 "Pesquisa sobre Padroes da Vida (PPV)." Third, it selectively synthesizes other work on poverty in Brazil in order to present an overview of cross-sectoral comparisons of the effectiveness of policy interventions. Fourth, it provides suggestions and selective inputs for devloping a national poverty reduction strategy. The report updates a previous World Bank assessment (report no. 14323) and builds on earlier work on urban poverty strategy.