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Economic Crises and Returns to University Education in Middle-Income Countries: Stylized Facts and COVID-19 Projections
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11) Fasih, Tazeen; Patrinos, Harry A.; Shafiq, M. Najeeb
This paper documents stylized facts on rates of returns to education during economic crises. It shows from three middle-income countries -- Indonesia, Pakistan, and South Africa -- that the rate of return to university education (versus secondary education) has increased during economic crises. Based on this stylized fact, the paper projects that the returns for university graduates may increase by at least one-quarter to one-third during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Are Mobile Savings the Silver Bullet to Help Women Grow Their Businesses?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-09) Bastian, Gautam; Bianchi, Iacopo; Buvinic, Mayra; Goldstein, Markus; Jaluka, Tanvi; Knowles, James; Montalvao, Joao; Witoelar, Firman
In Tanzania and Indonesia, we promoted the expansion of mobile savings accounts among women micro-entrepreneurs and provided them with business related training. In doing so, we simultaneously relaxed supply- and demand side constraints to savings that women might face. In both countries, the training enhanced the impact of promoting mobile savings. In Indonesia it led women to save more overall, including a nascent use of mobile accounts, and report greater decision making power within the household. In Tanzania, it led to substantially higher mobile savings, new businesses and products, more capital investment, labor effort, and better business practices. However, these short-term impacts have yet to translate into higher business profits. In Indonesia, we observe increased household welfare, but no discernible effects on business outcomes shortly after the training ended. In Tanzania, the increased business investments were not accompanied by greater profitability.
Doing Business 2015 : Going Beyond Efficiency
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014-10-29) World Bank Group
Twelfth in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 189 economies, Doing Business 2015 measures regulations affecting 10 areas of everyday business activity: • Starting a business; • Dealing with construction permits; • Getting electricity; • Registering property; • Getting credit; • Protecting minority investors; • Paying taxes; • Trading across borders; • Enforcing contracts; • Resolving insolvency. This year's report will present data for a second city for the 11 economies with more than 100 million inhabitants. These are Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, and the United States. Three of the 10 topics covered have been expanded, with further plans to expand on five additional indicators in next year's report. Additionally, the Doing Business rankings are now based on the distance to the frontier measure where each economy is evaluated based on how close their business regulations are to the best global practices. This provides a more precise view of each economy's performance and its improvement over time. The report updates all indicators as of June 1, 2014, ranks economies on their overall 'ease of doing business,' and analyzes reforms to business regulation – identifying which economies are strengthening their business environment the most. Doing Business illustrates how reforms in business regulations are being used to analyze economic outcomes for domestic entrepreneurs and for the wider economy. It is a flagship product produced in partnership by the World Bank and IFC that garners worldwide attention on regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. More than 60 economies have used the Doing Business indicators to shape reform agendas and monitor improvements on the ground. In addition, the Doing Business data has generated over 870 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals since its inception.
The Bogotá Spirit : South-South Peers and Partners at the Practice-Policy Nexus
(2010-10) Schulz, Nils-Sjard
On a warm evening in late March of this year, more than 500 enthusiastic delegates from around the world poured out of the Chamber of Commerce building in Bogot�, with a shared vision that South-South cooperation would reshape today�s development cooperation landscape. Despite the Colombian capital�s dizzying altitude of 2,800 meters, their zeal for effective South-South knowledge exchange and mutual learning left the participants of the Bogot� High Level Event on South-South cooperation and Capacity Development clear headed and with a long list of ideas, projects and plans, for their countries and regions, and for their multilateral, parliamentary, civil society, and research organizations.
Assessing the Impact of Public Spending on Growth : An Empirical Analysis for Seven Fast Growing Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-07) Moreno-Dodson, Blanca
The goal of this paper is to understand better, at the empirical level, how public spending contributes to growth by focusing on both the level and composition of public spending, in connection to the dynamics of GDP per capita growth. It attempts to answer two specific questions: (a) What are the policy conditions under which public spending contributes positively to growth? and (b) What are the public spending components that have a stronger and longer-lasting impact on growth? The analysis is applied to a sample of seven fast-growing developing countries: Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Botswana, and Mauritius, which have been among the top performers in the world in terms of GDP per capita growth during the period (1960-2006). The rationale for this country sample selection is twofold. The first hypothesis is that, given their positive growth achievements over a relatively long time period, perhaps it is more straightforward to establish a link to public spending in those countries. Second, it is expected that the findings of the analysis will provide lessons regarding the level and composition of public spending that can be useful for other countries where growth has been less rapid. Assessing what role public spending has played in a dynamic growth context may indeed be enlightening for other cases as well. The paper is structured as follows. The first section is an introduction that provides relevant facts and information about the seven countries during the period of analysis, based on seven individual country case studies. Section II presents the theoretical background behind the empirical analysis. Section III focuses on the empirical methodology, function specification, and variables selected. Section IV is dedicated to the results obtained with the cross-country analysis and some specific country results, as well as some comparisons with previous findings by other authors. Finally, Section V draws policy implications and concludes.
Does Aid for Education Educate Children? Evidence from Panel Data
(World Bank, 2008-05-30) Dreher, Axel; Nunnenkamp, Peter; Thiele, Rainer
Most of the aid effectiveness literature has focused on the potential growth effects of aggregate aid, with inconclusive results. Considering that donors have repeatedly stressed the multidimensionality of their objectives, a more disaggregated view on aid effectiveness is warranted. The impact of aid on education is analyzed empirically for almost 100 countries over 1970–2004. The effectiveness of sector-specific aid is assessed within the framework of social production functions. The Millennium Development Goals related to education, particularly the goal of achieving universal primary school enrollment, are considered as outcome variables. The analysis suggests that higher per capita aid for education significantly increases primary school enrollment, while increased domestic government spending on education does not. This result is robust to the method of estimation, the use of instruments to control for the endogeneity of aid, and the set of control variables included in the estimations.
Mental Health Patterns and Consequences : Results from Survey Data in Five Developing Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-01) Do, Quy-Toan; Das, Jishnu; Friedman, Jed; McKenzie, David
The social and economic consequences of poor mental health in the developing world are presumed to be significant, yet are largely under-researched. The authors argue that mental health modules can be meaningfully added to multi-purpose household surveys in developing countries, and used to investigate this relationship. Data from nationally representative surveys in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, and Mexico, along with special surveys from India and Tonga, show similar patterns of association between mental health and socioeconomic characteristics across countries. Individuals who are older, female, widowed, and report poor physical health are more likely to report worse mental health outcomes. Individuals living with others with poor mental health are also significantly more likely to report worse mental health themselves. In contrast, there is little observed relationship between mental health and poverty or education, common measures of socio-economic status. The results instead suggest that economic and multi-dimensional shocks such as illness or crisis can have a greater impact on mental health than overall levels of poverty. This may have important implications for social protection policy. The authors also find significant associations between poor mental health and lowered labor force participation (especially for women) and higher frequency visits to health centers, suggesting that poor mental health can have significant economic consequences for households and the health system. Finally, the paper discusses how measures of mental health are distinct from general subjective welfare measures such as happiness and indicate useful directions of future research.
The Quality of Medical Advice in Low-Income Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-01) Hammer, Jeffrey; Das, Jishnu; Leonard, Kenneth
This paper provides an overview of recent work on quality measurement of medical care and its correlates in four low and middle-income countries-India, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Paraguay. The authors describe two methods-testing doctors and watching doctors-that are relatively easy to implement and yield important insights about the nature of medical care in these countries. The paper discusses the properties of these measures, their correlates, and how they may be used to evaluate policy changes. Finally, the authors outline an agenda for further research and measurement.
Economic Results of CDD Programs : Evidence from Burkina Faso, Indonesia and the Philippines
(Washington, DC, 2007-06) World Bank
In Community-Driven Development (CDD) programs, communities identify, prioritize, design and execute small scale investments. While relevance and community ownership have been high, it is also crucial that these public investments meet economic feasibility criteria and generate adequate rates of return. This note summarizes the results of three recent ex-post economic analyses of CDD programs in Burkina Faso, Indonesia and the Philippines. In all cases, the overall portfolio had relatively high economic rates of return, with conservative estimates ranging from 21 to 68 percent. Quantifiable benefits of the roads, water supply systems, schools, productive projects and other investments were significant, including documented time savings, increases in local production and revenues, and savings on the cost of inputs and services, among others. In addition, a comparison of CDD implemented infrastructure projects with comparable government programs found that CDD projects consistently generated greater cost efficiency, with savings on unit costs channeled into additional community infrastructure initiatives.
Disability, Poverty and Schooling in Developing Countries : Results from 11 Household Surveys
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-12) Filmer, Deon
This paper analyzes the relationship between whether a young person has a disability, the poverty status of their household, and their school participation using 11 household surveys from nine developing countries. Between 1 and 2 percent of the population is identified as having a disability. Youth with disabilities sometimes live in poorer households, but the extent of this concentration is typically neither large nor statistically significant. However, youth with disabilities are almost always substantially less likely to start school, and in some countries have lower transition rates resulting in lower schooling attainment. The order of magnitude of the school participation disability deficit is often larger than those associated with other characteristics such as gender, rural residence, or economic status differentials.