C. Journal articles published externally
2,064 items available
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These are journal articles by World Bank authors published externally.
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1 - 10 of 17
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Publication
The Political Economy of Multidimensional Child Poverty Measurement: A Comparative Analysis of Mexico and Uganda
(Taylor and Francis, 2020-03-11)As part of the 2030 Agenda, much effort has been exerted in comparing multidimensional child poverty measures both technically and conceptually. Yet, few countries have adopted and used any of these measures in policymaking. This paper explores the reasons for this absence from a political economy perspective. It develops an innovative political economy framework for poverty measurement and a hypothesis whereby a country will only produce and use reliable and sustainable multidimensional child poverty (MDCP) measures if and only if three conditions coalesce: consensus, capacity and polity. We explore this framework with two relevant case studies, Mexico and Uganda. Both countries satisfy the capacity condition required to measure MDCP but only Mexico satisfies the other two conditions. Our proposed political economy framework is normatively relevant because it identifies the conditions that need to change across multiple contexts before the effective adoption and use of an MDCP measure becomes more likely. -
Publication
Optimal Targeting Under Budget Constraints in a Humanitarian Context
(Elsevier, 2018-01-05)The paper uses Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves and related indexes to determine the optimal targeting strategy of a food voucher program for refugees. Estimations focus on the 2014 food voucher administered by the World Food Program to Syrian refugees in Jordan using data collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The paper shows how to use ROC curves to optimize targeting using coverage rates, budgets, or poverty lines as guiding principles to increase the overall efficiency of a program. As humanitarian organizations operate under increasing budget constraints and increasing demands for efficiency, the proposed approach addresses both concerns. -
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Organizational Performance with In-group and Out-group Leaders: An Experiment
(Elsevier, 2017-12-02)In this paper, we compare the performance of a homogeneous organization in which group members and the leader belong to the same group, with a heterogeneous organization in which the leader is an outsider. Using a modified public goods game in which leaders’ performance in a real effort task determines the marginal return to the public good we focus on the effect of shared group membership on: i) the effort of the leader in the real effort task, ii) cooperation of group members and iii) group members’ payoffs. When the leaders are selected randomly, we find that homogeneous groups tend to out-perform heterogeneous groups. This is due to lower performance of the out-group leader and not to differences in cooperation. This effect disappears when high-performance leaders are selected. High performance out-group leaders tend to over perform relative to in-group leaders, yet, there are no differences in cooperation once we control for the marginal incentives to invest in the public good. The results of our study have important implications for how organizations can deal with the arrival of out-group leaders. -
Publication
Transferring the Purchasing Role from International to National Organizations During the Scale-Up Phase of Performance-Based Financing in Cameroon
(Taylor and Francis, 2017-04-13)The World Bank and the government of Cameroon launched a performance-based financing (PBF) program in Cameroon in 2011. To ensure its rapid implementation, the performance purchasing role was sub-contracted to a consultancy firm and a nongovernmental organization, both international. However, since the early stage, it was agreed upon that this role would later be transferred to a national entity. This explanatory case study aims at analyzing the process of this transfer using Dolowitz and Marsh's framework. We performed a document review and interviews with various stakeholders (n = 33) and then conducted thematic analysis of interview recordings. Sustainability, ownership, and integration of the PBF intervention into the health system emerged as the main reasons for the transfer. The different aspects of transfer from international entities to a national body consisted of (1) the decision-making power, (2) the “soft” elements (e.g., ideas, expertise), and (3) the “hard” elements (e.g., computers, vehicles). Factors facilitating the transfer included the fact that it was planned from the start and the modification of the legal status of the national organization that became responsible for strategic purchasing. Other factors hindered the transfer, such as the lack of a legal act clarifying the conditions of the transfer and the lack of post-transition support agreements. The Cameroonian experience suggests that key components of a successful transfer of PBF functions from international to national organizations may include clear guidelines, co-ownership and planning of the transition by all parties, and post-transition support to new actors. -
Publication
The Dilemma of Autonomy: Decentralization and Water Politics at the Sub-National Level
(Taylor and Francis, 2017-01-19)This article develops a framework for understanding the role of subnational states in water politics in decentralized federal systems. First, that role has increased worldwide as a result of decentralization. Second, the quest for autonomy sometimes leads subnational officials to prefer weak forms of cooperation. Third, the interaction of subnational states, central governments and non-governmental actors largely explains interjurisdictional conflict and cooperation in shared river basins. This framework is applied to the case of the Colorado River basin to help explain a long-term shift towards more cooperative relationships between the riparian states. -
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Religion and Social Cooperation: Results from an Experiment in Ghana
(Taylor and Francis, 2016-09-06)The international community recently adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Achieving these goals by 2030 will require major commitments and efforts. It will also require cooperation between multiple groups and stakeholders, both nationally and internationally. An interesting question is whether religious diversity and the evocation of religion tend to be conducive to “social cooperation” between individuals from various religious traditions. We refer here to social cooperation in a fairly broad sense, but we focus in this paper on specific measures of altruism and trustworthiness between individuals of various different religious affiliations. -
Publication
Book Review: The Middle East Economies in Times of Transition
(Taylor and Francis, 2016-09-02)In 2011, when the organizers of the International Economics Association decided to hold their 2014 World Congress in Jordan, they did not anticipate that the Middle East would be the center of one of the most important economic, political and social transitions of our time. The Arab Spring caught much of the world by surprise. Its aftermath has led to political unrest, violent conflict and deteriorating economic performance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The organizers therefore asked Ishac Diwan and Ahmed Galal, two leading economists and experts on the region, to put together an edited volume from the papers at the World Congress relevant to the transition in the Middle East. This volume collects some of those papers, as well as a few others, to explain the factors that led to the Arab Spring and to anticipate some of its consequences. It provides a multidisciplinary “snapshot” of research on the transitions in MENA. -
Publication
Substantial but Uneven Achievement--Selected Success When Stars Align: Public Financial Management Reforms in Sierra Leone
(Taylor and Francis, 2015-07-27)In the decade following the end of the civil war, the Government of Sierra Leone made substantial progress in strengthening public financial management. Improvements were achieved across all aspects of the budget cycle and were particularly notable with regard to budget execution functions. The main factors that appear to have contributed to these improvements are a strong starting position at the beginning of the cease-fire; political appetite for public financial management reforms; a cadre of motivated and professional local technical advisers; and considerable international support co-ordinated through budget support operations. -
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Democracy and the Distribution of NGOs Promoting Renewable Energy in Africa
(Taylor and Francis, 2015-06-05)Roughly 60 per cent of Africans lack access to electricity, negatively impacting development opportunities. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have started promoting distributed generation – small-scale, localized electricity generation – to change this situation. Despite widespread need, however, the dispersion of these distributed generation NGOs (DG-NGOs) is uneven, with high concentrations in a few African countries. Drawing on an original database and field research, the authors analyze location variation among DG-NGOs across the continent. This article finds that DG-NGOs are likely to operate in democratic settings with large populations that lack access to electricity. International DG-NGOs are also likely to operate where aid allocation levels are relatively high. -
Publication
The Impact of Ethnic Diversity in Bureaucracies: Evidence from the Nigerian Civil Service
(American Economic Association, 2015-05)The authors document the correlation between the workplace diversity in bureaucratic organizations and public service delivery, in the context of Nigeria, where ethnicity is a salient form of self-identity. This article expands the empirical management literature highlighting beneficial effects of workplace diversity, that has focused on private sector firms operating in high-income settings. The analysis combines two data sources: (i) a survey to over 4,000 bureaucrats eliciting their ethnic identities; (ii) independent engineering assessments of completion rates for 4,700 public sector projects. The ethnic diversity of bureaucracies matters positively: a one standard deviation increase in the ethnic diversity of bureaucrats corresponds to 9 percent higher completion rates. In line with the management literature from private sector firms in high-income countries, this evidence highlights a potentially positive side of ethnic diversity in public sector organizations, in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa.