03. Journals

2,963 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

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

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

Sub-collections of this Collection

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

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.
North-South Standards Harmonization and International Trade

(Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2015-07) Disdier, Anne-Célia ; Fontagné, Lionel ; Cadot, Olivier

Recent years have seen a surge in economic integration agreements (EIAs) and the development of non-tariff measures (NTMs). As a consequence, a growing number of EIAs include provisions on NTMs. However, little attention has been given in the literature to the effects of NTM liberalization in the context of EIAs. In this paper, we focus on provisions for technical regulations and analyze whether the North-South harmonization of technical barriers affects international trade. Using a gravity equation, we test whether, as a result of the deep integration associated with standards provisions included in the EIA, the Southern partners' trade expands with the North, but at the expense of their trade with non-bloc Southern partners. Empirical results provide strong support for this conjecture. Moreover, harmonization on the basis of regional standards negatively impacts the exports of developing countries to the North.
Stability and Vulnerability of the Latin American Middle Class

(Taylor and Francis, 2013-09-27) Torche, Florencia ; Lopez-Calva, Luis F.

Using panel data-sets from Mexico and Chile for the first years of the 21st century, the authors examine the determinants of middle-class intra-generational mobility. The middle class is defined by means of a latent index of economic well-being that is less sensitive to short-term fluctuation and measurement error than standard measures of income. The authors find high rates of both upward and downward mobility in Mexico and Chile, indicating that the middle class has opportunities to move to higher levels of well-being but is also vulnerable to falling into poverty. In both countries, labour-market resources (education and occupational status of the household head and number of members in the labour market) are much stronger determinants of mobility than demographic factors, suggesting the importance of policies that foster human capital and protect workers from shocks. Rural middle-class households are substantially more vulnerable to falling into poverty and have little chance of advancing to upper classes than their urban counterparts.
Income and Beyond: Multidimensional Poverty in Six Latin American Countries

(Springer Netherlands, 2013-06) Battiston, Diego ; Cruces, Guillermo ; López-Calva, Luis F. ; Lugo, Maria Ana ; Santos, Maria Emma

This paper studies multidimensional poverty for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay for the period 1992–2006. The approach overcomes the limitations of the two traditional methods of poverty analysis in Latin America (income-based and unmet basic needs) by combining income with five other dimensions: school attendance for children, education of the household head, sanitation, water and shelter. The results allow a fuller understanding of the evolution of poverty in the selected countries. Over the study period, El Salvador, Brazil, Mexico and Chile experienced significant reductions in multidimensional poverty. In contrast, in urban Uruguay there was a small reduction in multidimensional poverty, while in urban Argentina the estimates did not change significantly. El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico, and rural areas of Chile display significantly higher and more simultaneous deprivations than urban areas of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. In all countries, deprivation in access to proper sanitation and education of the household head are the highest contributors to overall multidimensional poverty.
Are The Poverty Effects of Trade Policies Invisible?

(World Bank, 2011-05-31) Verma, Monika ; Hertel, Thomas W. ; Valenzuela, Ernesto

Beginning with the WTO's Doha Development Agenda and establishment of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty by 50 percent by 2015, poverty impacts of trade reforms have become central to the global development agenda. This has been particularly true of agricultural trade reforms due to the importance of grains in the diets of the poor, presence of relatively higher protection in agriculture, as well as heavy concentration of global poverty in rural areas where agriculture is the main source of income. Yet some in this debate have argued that, given the extreme volatility in agricultural commodity markets, the additional price and therefore poverty impacts due to trade liberalization might well be indiscernible. This paper formally tests the “invisibility hypothesis” using the method of stochastic simulation in a trade-poverty modeling framework. The hypothesis test is based on the comparison of two samples of price and poverty distributions. The first originates solely from the inherent variability in global staple grains markets, while the second combines the effects of inherent market variability with those of trade reform in these same markets. Results, at the national and stratum level indicate that the short-run poverty impacts of full trade liberalization in staple grains trade worldwide, are distinguishable in only four of the fifteen countries, suggesting that impacts of more modest agricultural trade reforms are indeed likely to be invisible in short run. Countries that show statistically significant short run impacts are the ones characterized by high staple grains tariffs and/or a moderate degree of grain markets variability. Within each country, results are heterogeneous. In two thirds of the sample countries, agriculturally self-employed poor experience statistically significant poverty impacts from trade liberalization. However, this figure is under a third for all the other strata.
Triangular Cooperation : Opportunities, Risks, and Conditions for Effectiveness

( 2010-10) Ashoff, Guido

Triangular cooperation is a relatively recent mode of development cooperation. It normally involves a traditional donor from the ranks of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC), an emerging donor in the South, and a beneficiary country in the South. It has received increasing international attention because of particular advantages it is said to provide. At the same time, it poses several risks that could further complicate international development cooperation. To make full use of its potential, it is important to conceive it as a learning process, to identify the interests of the three parties involved, and to apply the internationally agreed principles of aid effectiveness. When these principles are applied, triangular cooperation can enrich international development cooperation.
Changes in Returns to Education in Latin America : The Role of Demand and Supply of Skills

( 2010) Manacorda, Marco ; Sanchez-Paramo, Carolina ; Schady, Norbert

Using micro data for the urban areas of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, the authors document trends in men's returns to education during the 1980s and the 1990s and estimate the role of supply and demand factors in explaining the changes in skill premia. They propose a model of demand for skills with three production inputs, corresponding to workers with primary-, secondary-, and university-level education. Further, the authors demonstrate that an unprecedented rise in the supply of workers having completed secondary-level education depressed their wages relative to workers with primary-level education throughout Latin America. This supply shift was compounded by a generalized shift in the demand for workers with tertiary education.
Dollars, Debt, and International Financial Institutions

(World Bank, 2007-01-30) Yeyati, Eduardo Levy

Financial dollarization is increasingly seen as a concern because of its tendency to contribute to financial crises and output volatility. As a result the debate on financial dollarization has shifted in favor of a more proactive stance on dedollarization. While often neglected, lending from international financial institutions is an important source of financial dollarization in emerging economies and must be considered in any dedollarization strategy. This article revisits old and new arguments in favor of international financial institution lending in the local currency and argues that any such initiative should rely, at least initially, on demand from residents seeking stable returns in units of the local consumption basket but who are reluctant to take on sovereign risk. Superior enforcement capacity enables international financial institutions to intermediate these savings, currently invested in dollarized foreign assets, back into the local economy. The international financial institutions can offer investment-grade local currency bonds and use the proceeds to dedollarize their own lending to noninvestment-grade countries, thereby reducing financial dollarization and fostering the development of local currency markets.