03. Journals

2,911 items available

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2210

These are journal articles published in World Bank journals as well as externally by World Bank authors.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 106

Cutting Special Interests by the Roots: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon

(Elsevier, 2022-10-01) Braganca, Arthur ; Dahis, Ricardo

Government policies may impact economic outcomes directly but also indirectly through effects on political incentives. This paper examines the effects of the PPCDAm, a centralized set of environmental policies that effectively raised the expected cost of illegal deforestation, on the behavior of a powerful special-interest group operating in the Brazilian Amazon: farmers. Using different identification strategies, we document that municipalities governed by farmer politicians experienced larger declines in deforestation, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and violence than municipalities governed by other politicians after this set of policies was implemented. Our findings suggest the PPCDAm had indirect and persistent effects on political incentives, amplifying its impact on environmental and social outcomes.
Is It Really Possible for Countries to Simultaneously Grow and Reduce Poverty and Inequality? Going Beyond Global Narratives

(Taylor and Francis, 2020-06) Cuesta, Jose ; Negre, Mario ; Revenga, Ana ; Silva-Jauregui, Carlos

Global narratives underscore that economic growth can often coincide with reductions in poverty and inequality. However, the experiences of several countries over recent decades confirm that inequality can widen or narrow in response to policy choices and independent of economic growth. This paper analyses five country cases, Brazil, Cambodia, Mali, Peru and Tanzania. These countries are the most successful in reducing inequality and poverty while growing robustly for at least a decade since the early 2000 s. The paper assesses how good macroeconomic management, sectoral reform, the strengthening of safety nets, responses to external shocks, and initial conditions all chip away at inequality and support broad growth. Sustained and robust economic growth with strong poverty and inequality reductions are possible across very different contexts and policy choices. The comparative analysis also identifies common building blocks toward success and warns that hard-earned achievements can be easily overturned.
Nutrient Status of Cattle Grazing Systems in the Western Brazilian Amazon

(Taylor and Francis, 2020-02-09) Rueda, B.L. ; McRoberts, K.C. ; Blake, R.W. ; Nicholson, C.F. ; Valentim, J.F. ; Fernandes, E.C.M. ; Tejada Moral, Manuel

Low-input cultivated pastures to feed cattle have dominated land use after forest clearing for decades in the western Brazilian Amazon. This study was undertaken to help understand the inherent nutrient supply dynamics underwriting cattle performance on three farms in the state of Acre. We assessed soil chemical and physical properties associated over time with different land uses following forest clearing. This information permitted specifying a conceptual model of nutrient stocks and flows under the observed grazing system, which produced insights about the dynamics of soil nutrient degradation. Above ground forage mass, topsoil nutrient concentrations and soil bulk density were measured. Land covers were Brachiaria spp. grasses, a grass-Pueraria phaseoloides mix, cropland and forest. Most soil nutrient parameters initially decreased after clearing, gradually recovering over time with grass-only pastures; however, 20 yr-old pastures had 20% less forage mass. Most pasture system nutrients on these farms resided in topsoil and roots, where large stocks of mature forage supported soil fertility with recycled nutrients from litter. Estimates of partial topsoil nutrient balances were negative. This suggested that corresponding nutrient stocks and the accumulation of forage mass were probably maintained primarily through the sum of inflows from cattle excreta, the subsoil, soil organic matter, and litter mineralization with scant input of commercial fertilizer. Therefore, herd management to increase animal system productivity via higher stocking rates on vegetatively younger forage requires monitoring of nutrient stocks and flows and fertilization that assures replenishment of the nutrients extracted. Otherwise, rapid depletion of soil nutrient stocks will lead to system degradation and failure.
Evolving Wage Cyclicality in Latin America

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2018-10) Gambeti, Luca ; Messina, Julian

This paper examines the evolution of the cyclicality of real wages and employment in four Latin American economies, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, during the period 1980–2010.Wages were highly procyclical during the 1980s and early 1990s, a period characterized by high inflation. As inflation declined wages became less procyclical, a feature that is consistent with emerging downward wage rigidities in a low inflation environment. Compositional effects associated with changes in labor participation along the business cycle appear to matter less for estimates of wage cyclicality than in developed economies.
Economy-wide and Sectoral Impacts on Workers of Brazil's Internet Rollout

(Taylor and Francis, 2017-05-03) Dutz, Mark A. ; Ferreira Mation, Lucas ; O'Connell, Stephen D. ; Willig, Robert D.

We study the effect of Brazil’s staggered Internet rollout between 2000 and 2014 on municipality employment and wages. We use a new annual data-set on Internet availability from the Brazil school census, with the assumption that the share of schools that have Internet access in each municipality reflects general accessibility of Internet connections. We combine these data with Brazil’s rich matched employer–employee survey (RAIS), which contains annual occupation and wage earnings information for all formally employed workers in Brazil across all sectors, including primary, secondary, and tertiary industry groups. We consider both contemporaneous and lagged effects. We find that increased Internet access has no statistically significant net effect on aggregate employment and has a negative effect on average wages, with a reduction in measures of wage dispersion. Brazil’s Internet rollout results in employment shifts from sectors with more limited expansion opportunities (wholesale and retail trade, public administration and largely publicly owned utilities, that jointly comprise almost half of the formal workforce in 2010) to sectors with more output expansion opportunities. Employment effects are positive and most pronounced in manufacturing, transport and storage, finance and insurance, and hospitality industry groups. In the manufacturing sector, Internet access induces positive employment and wage effects in both medium- and high-skill occupations.
Women's Police Stations and Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from Brazil

(Elsevier, 2017-02) Perova, Elizaveta ; Reynolds, Sarah Anne

Although women's police stations have gained popularity as a measure to address intimate partner violence (IPV), there is little quantitative evaluation of their impacts on the incidence of IPV. This paper estimates the effects of women's police stations in Brazil on female homicides, a measure of the most severe form of IPV. Given that a high fraction of female deaths among women ages 15–49 years can be attributed to aggression by an intimate partner, female homicides appear the best proxy for severe IPV considering the scarcity of data on IPV in Brazil. We assemble a panel of 2074 municipalities from 2004 to 2009 and apply a difference-in-differences approach using location and timing to estimate the effect of establishing a women's police station on the municipal female homicide rate. Although we do not find a strong association on average, women's police stations appear to be highly effective among young women living in metropolitan areas. Establishing a women's police station in a metropolitan municipality is associated with a reduction in the female homicide rate by 1.23 deaths per 100,000 women ages 15–49 years (approximately a 17 percent reduction in the female homicide rate in metropolitan municipalities). The reduction in the homicide rate of women ages 15 to 24 is even higher: 5.57 deaths per 100,000 women. Better economic opportunities and less traditional social norms in metropolitan areas may explain the heterogeneous impacts of women's police stations.
Impact of Long Run Exposure to Television on Homicides: Some Evidence from Brazil

(Taylor and Francis, 2016-05-25) Chong, Alberto ; Yañez-Pagans, Mónica

This paper focuses on the link between television coverage and violent crime, in particular, homicides in Brazil, a country where crime has grown dramatically in recent decades. Using Census data for the period 1980–2000, the paper finds that people living in areas covered by television signal have significantly lower rates of homicides. The effect is strongest for men of lower socioeconomic status.
The Causal Impacts of Child Labor Law in Brazil: Some Preliminary Findings

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2016-04-10) Piza, Caio ; Portela Souza, Andre

This paper investigates the causal impact of the change in law of December 1998 that increased the minimum legal age of entry into the labor force from 14 to 16. The authors used a difference-in-differences (DD) approach to estimate the impact of this law change on labor force participation rates as a whole, as well as for the formal and informal sectors separately. The results showed that the ban reduced participation rates for boys by 4 percentage points and that this effect was mostly driven by the informal sector. The authors found no effect on girls.
Effects of the Internet on Participation: Study of a Public Policy Referendum in Brazil

(Taylor and Francis, 2016-03-17) Spada, Paolo ; Mellon, Jonathan ; Peixoto, Tiago ; Sjoberg, Fredrik M.

Does online voting mobilize citizens who otherwise would not participate? During the annual participatory budgeting vote in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil—the world's largest—Internet voters were asked whether they would have participated had there not been an online voting option (i-voting). The study documents an 8.2 percent increase in total turnout with the introduction of i-voting. In support of the mobilization hypothesis, unique survey data show that i-voting is mainly used by new participants rather than just for convenience by those who were already mobilized. The study also finds that age, gender, income, education, and social media usage are significant predictors of being online-only voters. However, technology appears more likely to engage people who are younger, male, of higher income and educational attainment, and more frequent social media users.
Service Innovation in Developing Economies: Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean

(Taylor and Francis, 2016-02-22) Rubalcaba, Luis ; Aboal, Diego ; Garda, Paula

This paper proposes a framework for understanding key aspects of service innovation in developing economies, based on four dimensions: first, the integration of services in national innovation systems; second, competences and preferences; third, networking and cooperation; and, fourth, outcomes in terms of socio-economic impacts. This conceptual framework is matched with new evidence from case studies performed in six different Latin America and the Caribbean countries (Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Jamaica) and nine sectors (tourism, software-ICT, outsourcing, mining, logistics, retail, creative services, sport services and biotech services). The results reveal the importance of specificities in service innovation and suggest policy and managerial implications.