03. Journals

2,963 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 11

Gender, Informal Employment and Trade Liberalization in Mexico

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2020-06) Yahmed, Sarra Ben ; Bombarda, Pamela

This paper studies how import liberalization affects formal employment across gender. The theory offers a mechanism to explain how male and female formal employment shares can respond differently to trade liberalization through labor reallocation across tradable and nontradable sectors. Using Mexican data over the period 1993–2001, we find that Mexican tariff cuts increase the probability of working formally for both men and women within four-digit manufacturing industries. The formalization of jobs within tradable sectors is driven by large firms. Constructing a regional tariff measure, we find that regional exposure to import liberalization increases the probability of working formally in the manufacturing sector for both men and women, and especially for men. However in the service sectors, the probability of working formally decreases for low-skilled women.
Can Wage Subsidies Boost Employment in the Wake of an Economic Crisis? Evidence from Mexico

(Taylor and Francis, 2020-01-31) Bruhn, Miriam

This paper measures the employment effect of a program in Mexico that granted firms wage subsidies during the recent economic crisis. I use monthly administrative data at the industry level, along with Euclidean distance matching to construct groups of eligible and ineligible durable goods manufacturing industries that display statistically identical preprogram trends in employment. Difference-in-difference results show a positive but not statistically significant effect of the wage subsidies on employment during the program’s eight-month duration. The size of the effect increases to 18 per cent after the program ended and the results indicate that employment after the program recovered faster in eligible industries than in ineligible industries. Additional analysis suggests that the program did not incentivize firms to retain workers with job-specific skills as originally intended. Instead, the payment of subsidy funds, which only happened towards the end of the program, seems to have provided liquidity for hiring back workers.
Exporters, Engineers, and Blue-collar Workers

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2016-04-10) Brambilla, Irene ; Lederman, Daniel ; Porto, Guido

This article investigates differences in the composition of employment between exporting and nonexporting firms. In particular, it asks whether exporting firms hire more engineers relative to blue-collar workers than nonexporting firms. In a stylized partial-equilibrium model, firms produce goods of varying quality and exporters tend to produce higher quality goods, which are intensive in engineers relative to blue-collar workers. Firms are heterogeneous and more productive firms become exporters and have a higher demand for engineers. The article provides causal evidence in support of these theories using the Chilean Encuesta Nacional Industrial Anual (ENIA), an annual census of manufacturing firms. The results from an instrumental variable estimator suggest that Chilean exporters indeed utilize a higher share of engineers over blue-collar workers.
How Endowments, Accumulations, and Choice Determine the Geography of Agricultural Productivity in Ecuador

(Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2006-09-01) Larson, Donald F. ; Leon, Mauricio

Spatial disparity in incomes and productivity is apparent across and within countries. Most studies of the determinants of such differences focus on cross-country comparisons or location choice among firms. Less studied are the large differences in agricultural productivity within countries related to concentrations of rural poverty. For policy, understanding the determinants of this geography of agricultural productivity is important, because strategies to reduce poverty often feature components designed to boost regional agricultural incomes. Census and endowment data for Ecuador are used to estimate a model of endogenous technology choice to explain large regional differences in agricultural output and factor productivity. A composite-error estimation technique is used to separate systemic determinants from idiosyncratic differences. Simulations are employed to explore policy avenues. The findings suggest a differentiation between the types of policies that promote growth in agriculture generally and those that are more likely to assist the rural poor.
Microenterprise Dynamics in Developing Countries : How Similar are They to Those in the Industrialized World? Evidence from Mexico

(Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2006-09-01) Fajnzylber, Pablo ; Maloney, William ; Montes Rojas, Gabriel

A rich panel data set from Mexico is used to study the patterns of entry, exit, and growth of microenterprises and to compare these with the findings of the mainstream theoretical and empirical work on firm dynamics. The Mexican self-employment sector is much larger than its counterpart in the United States, which is reflected in higher unconditional rates of entry into the sector. The evidence for Mexico points to the significant presence of well-performing salaried workers among the likely entrants into self-employment, as opposed to the higher incidence of poorer wageworkers among the entrants into the U.S. self-employment sector. Despite these differences, however, the patterns of entry, survival, and growth with respect to age, education, and many other covariates are very similar in Mexico and the United States. These strong similarities suggest that mainstream models of worker decisions and firm behavior are useful guides for policymaking for the developing-country microenterprise sector. Furthermore, they suggest that, as a first approximation, the developing-country microenterprise should probably be viewed as they are in the advanced countries as offering potentially desirable job opportunities to low-productivity workers.
Child Labor and School Achievement in Latin America

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2006-01) Gunnarsson, Victoria ; Orazem, Peter F. ; Sanchez, Mario A.

Child labors effect on academic achievement is estimated using unique data on third and fourth graders in nine Latin American countries. Cross country variation in truancy regulations provides an exogenous shift in the ages of children normally in these grades, providing exogenous variation in the opportunity cost of children's time. Least squares estimates suggest that child labor lowers test scores, but those estimates are biased toward zero. Corrected estimates are still negative and statistically significant. Children working 1 standard deviation above the mean have average scores that are 16 percent lower on mathematics examinations and 11 percent lower on language examinations, consistent with the estimates of the adverse impact of child labor on returns to schooling.
Trade Liberalization and Industry Wage Structure : Evidence from Brazil

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004-09) Pavcnik, Nina ; Blom, Andreas ; Goldberg, Pinelopi ; Schady, Norbert

Industry affiliation provides an important channel through which trade liberalization can affect worker earnings and wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers. This empirical study of the impact of the 1988-94 trade liberalization in Brazil on the industry wage structure suggests that although industry affiliation is an important component of worker earnings, the structure of industry wage premiums is relatively stable over time. There is no statistical association between changes in industry wage premiums and changes in trade policy or between industry-specific skill premiums to university graduates and trade policy. Thus trade liberalization in Brazil did not significantly contribute to increased wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers through changes in industry wage premiums. The difference between these results and those obtained for other countries (such as Colombia and Mexico) provides fruitful ground for studying the conditions under which trade reforms do not have an adverse effect on industry wage differentials
Children's Working Hours and School Enrollment : Evidence from Pakistan and Nicaragua

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003-05) Rosati, Furio Camillo ; Rossi, Mariacristina

Although much of the literature on child labor looks at the decision on whether to send a child to school or to work (or both), little attention has focused on the number of hours worked. This article analyzes the determinants of school attendance and hours worked by children in Pakistan and Nicaragua. A theoretical model of children's labor supply is used to simultaneously estimate the school attendance decision and the hours worked, using a full model maximum likelihood estimator. The model analyzes the marginal effects of explanatory variables, conditioning on latent states, that is, the propensity of the household to send the child to work or not. These marginal effects are in some cases rather different across latent states, with important policy implications.
Gender, Time Use, and Change : The Impact of the Cut Flower Industry in Ecuador

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-09) Newman, Constance

This article uses survey data from Ecuador to examine the effects of women's employment on the allocation of paid and unpaid labor within the household. The reader compares a region with high demand for female labor with a similar region in which demand for female labor is low. The comparison suggests that market labor opportunities for women have no effect on women's total time in labor but increase men's time in unpaid labor. The increase in men's time in unpaid work reflects women's increased bargaining power in the home.
The Allocation and Impact of Social Funds : Spending on School Infrastructure in Peru

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-05) Paxson, Christina ; Schady, Norbert R.

Between 1992 and 1998 the Peruvian Social Fund (foncodes) spent about US dollar 570 million funding micro projects throughout the country. Many of these projects involved constructing and renovating school facilities. This article uses data from foncodes, the 1993 population census in Peru, and a 1996 household survey conducted by the Peruvian Statistical Institute to analyze the targeting and impact of foncodes investments in education. A number of descriptive and econometric techniques are employed, including nonparametric regressions, differences in differences, and instrumental variables estimators. Results show that foncodes investments in school infrastructure have reached poor districts and poor households within those districts. The investments also appear to have had positive effects on school attendance rates for young children.