Other ESW Reports

242 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2209

This includes miscellaneous ESW types and pre-2003 ESW type reports that are subsequently completed and released.

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Household Surveys during Multiple Crises: Modifying Questionnaires to Assess the Impact of Shocks

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-09-25) Contreras, Ivette ; Gbemisola, Oseni ; Palacios-Lopez, Amparo ; Banerjee, Raka

Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has experienced multiple global crises in the last few years. As countries adapt to a new normal, multi-topic household surveys should also be adapted to account for the impacts of shocks on household welfare. By reviewing the standard household survey questionnaires included in the guidebook, capturing what matters: essential guidelines for designing household surveys, the authors provide technical guidance on issues to consider when reviewing, designing, or updating questionnaires for household surveys during or after a major shock - relying on lessons learned from the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study program.
Digitalizing SMEs to Boost Competitiveness

(Washington, DC, 2022-10) World Bank

While Malaysia’s digital economy had already been growing rapidly over the past decade, the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has further accelerated this trend. In particular, increased access to digital platforms has enabled businesses of all sizes to mitigate the crisis’ adverse impacts. At the same time, the depth and breadth of small and medium enterprise (SME) digitalization has remained limited, suggesting a growing risk of digital divide in the country. This report analyzes opportunities and challenges for Malaysian SMEs to better leverage digital tools and platforms to increase their productivity and competitiveness. It is structured around three complementary analytical pillars: (i) a digital business landscape diagnostic presenting the extent of digitalization and use of digital platforms among SMEs in traditional sectors, and the constraints that SMEs still face to digitalize; (ii) an institutional and policy mapping reviewing the government of Malaysia’s efforts to foster SME digitalization; and (iii) a digital market regulations assessment evaluating the adequacy of Malaysia’s digital regulatory environment, to identify shortcomings that may undermine SMEs’ capacity to access and benefit from the use of digital platforms. The analysis has been undertaken with a view to inform the implementation of the Malaysia Digital Blueprint (MyDIGITAL).
COVID-19 in Solomon Islands - Economic and Social Impacts: Insights from the January-February 2022 Round of High Frequency Phone Surveys

(Washington, DC, 2022-07) World Bank

This report focuses on the socio-economic impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Solomon Islands. The fourth round of the high frequency phone survey (HFPS) interviewed 2,671 households in January-February 2022 on the socio-economic impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19), including employment and income, community trust and security and COVID-19 vaccination. The January-February 2022 round occurred at the onset of the first wave of COVID-19.
Testing the Resilience of the Turkish Cypriot Economy: A Macroeconomic Monitoring Note - Special Issue : Enhancing Competitiveness and Promoting Economic Integration

(World Bank, Washington DC, 2022-03) World Bank

The Turkish Cypriot economy (TCe) has struggled to recover since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. With a contraction of 16.2 percent in GDP in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold, the TCe experienced the most severe recession in its history, and the most severe recession among the economies of Europe. Moreover, just as other economies were beginning to recover, in 2021 the TCe underwent a phase of exceptional political uncertainty and numerous exogenous shocks, testing its resilience. With the emergence of new variants of the virus, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to adversely impact the TCe throughout 2021, with cases reaching a new peak at the end of 2021 despite the Turkish Cypriot (TC) administration’s efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, together with its support for the health system, households, and companies. Furthermore, a new record low in average precipitation in 2021, a series of earthquakes at the beginning of 2022, and weak energy security, with a recent series of power outages experienced across the island, have all revealed the intrinsic vulnerabilities of the island to climate change and natural disasters. Building a competitive private sector would require reforming business regulations and procedures that are under the mandate of the TC administration, and that should be aligned with international best practices and the EU Acquis, irrespective of the broader context of the political economy. Special attention should be devoted to the regulation concerning imports and GL trade. Pre-permits and licenses imposed by the TC administration on imports, on top of regulatory uncertainty and other cumbersome procedures, contribute to increasing prices, penalizing consumers, and eroding domestic competitiveness. A dialogue framework between GC and TC private sectors could be established to support solutions to the long-standing constraints that have been impeding business cooperation across the GL, for the benefit of all Cypriots.
Drivers of Productivity Growth in Poland: A Firm-Level Perspective on Technology Adoption and Firm Capabilities

(Washington, DC, 2022) World Bank

This report provides detailed knowledge on firm-level technology sophistication in Poland, and, by identifying the main barriers and drivers to adoption, it delivers evidence-based policy recommendations to foster technology adoption across different firms and sectors. The analysis based on the TAS is divided into two parts. The main report first describes the new approach to measuring technology sophistication, the structure of the Technology Adoption Survey, and its implementation in Poland. Second, chapter 2 provides key insights from the results by linking technology adoption with productivity, managerial skills, and firms’ capabilities. It also investigates heterogeneity in technology sophistication across firms with different characteristics and the main drivers and barriers to adoption. The analysis is enriched by providing an in-depth comparison of technology sophistication between Poland and Korea. Chapter 3 briefly explains the heterogeneity of technology sophistication across sectors in Poland. This report concludes with a policy recommendation chapter that is based on the results of the TAS and the assessment of current policies supporting technology adoption (chapter 4). The second separate report entitled Sectoral approach to the drivers of productivity growth in Polish sectors. A firm-level perspective on technology adoption and firm capabilities complements this report and focuses on the sectoral differences in technology adoption. Each sector, agriculture, food processing, wearing apparel, automotive, pharmaceuticals, trade, financial services, and land transport, is analyzed in detail, not only through the lens of the TAS but also from the perspective of the general economic situation in the sector. Moreover, the series also includes a policy note Do usług (At your service) The promise of services-led development in Poland that describes the role that the service sector can play in spurring productivity growth.
Sectoral Approach to the Drivers of Productivity Growth in Poland: A Firm-Level Perspective on Technology Adoption and Firm Capabilities

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022) World Bank

The report presents the main structural characteristics of the sectors included in the Technology Adoption Survey (TAS) implemented in Poland and provides sectoral TAS results for general and sector-specific business functions, comparing Poland to a peer country, Korea. Nine sectors analyzed within TAS include agriculture, food processing, wearing apparel, motor vehicles, pharmaceuticals, basic metals, wholesale and retail trade, financial services, and land transport. These form a selection of the most important economic industries in agriculture, manufacturing, and services. The same sectors were chosen in all countries where TAS was implemented because of their important contributions to the national economies as well as their diversity, which allowed us to identify the different natures of their technological needs and the barriers to technology adoption. Sectors in Poland differ in technology sophistication in both general business and sector-specific functions but, to a large extent, those differences are driven by the sectors’ structural differences, such as the number of large firms, the share of exporters, and the number foreign-owned enterprises. Firms in different sectors face different economic conditions and are exposed to a different balance of regulatory, environmental, and geopolitical risks and challenges. Understanding those sectoral differences, especially as they affect the use of sector-specific technologies, is of utmost importance, because productivity improvements historically have been driven primarily by capital-intensive investment, which often involves sector-specific technologies. In the context of sector-specific technologies, it is worth noting that the level of sophistication differs between sectors. Comparing technology trends across sectors is beyond the scope of this report, however; rather, here we closely follow the methodology described in Bridging the Technological Divide: Technology Adoption by Firms in Developing Countries.