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 34

Preferential Resource Spending under an Employment Guarantee: The Political Economy of MGNREGS in Andhra Pradesh

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2018-10) Sheahan, Megan ; Liu, Yanyan ; Barrett, Christopher B. ; Narayanan, Sudha

Are ostensibly demand-driven public works programs with high levels of safeguards nonetheless susceptible to politi al influence?We investigate this conjecture using expenditure data at the local level from India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Focusing on one state where accountability and transparency mechanisms have been employed and implementation efforts have been widely applauded, we find no evidence of partisan-influenced spending before the 2009 election and find that the political leaning of a mandal played only a small part in fund distribution after the 2009 election. Most variation in public works expenditures is explained by the observed needs of potential beneficiaries, as the scheme intended.
Extending a Lifeline or Cutting Losses?: The Effects of Conflict on Household Receipts of Remittances in Pakistan

(Elsevier, 2017-11) Ghorpade, Yashodhan

The author examines the causal effects of long-term exposure to conflict, measured at the micro level, on households’ receipt of remittances, among households residing in areas affected by the 2010 floods in Pakistan. Using a dataset of 7802 households, representative of all flood-affected areas of Pakistan in 2010, IV estimation is employed to overcome the endogeneity of conflict exposure and remittance receipts, and control for a range of confounding factors. Contrary to the literature from country-level case studies, it is found that long-term exposure to conflict reduces households’ likelihood of receiving any remittances at all, as well as the average amounts of remittances received. However for households in the lowest food consumption expenditure quintile, conflict has a positive effect on the likelihood of remittance receipts, which provides evidence for the existence of heterogeneous effects as well as a significant micro–macro gap in understanding the causal effects of conflict on remittance receipts.
Remittances and Vulnerability in Developing Countries

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2017-02) Bettin, Giulia ; Presbitero, Andrea F. ; Spatafora, Nikola L.

This paper examines how international remittances are affected by structural characteristics, macroeconomic conditions, and adverse shocks in recipient economies. We exploit a novel, rich panel data set, covering bilateral remittances from 103 Italian provinces to seventy-nine developing countries over the period 2005–2011. We find that remittances are negatively correlated with the business cycle in recipient countries and in particular increase in response to adverse exogenous shocks, such as large terms-of-trade declines. This effect is stronger where the migrant communities have a larger share of newly arrived migrants. Finally, we show that recipient-country financial development is negatively associated with remittances, suggesting that remittances help alleviate credit constraints.
Asymmetric Information about Migrant Earnings and Remittance Flows

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2017-02) Seshan, Ganesh ; Zubrickas, Robertas

We examine asymmetric information about migrant earnings and its implications for remittance behavior using a sample of Indian households with husbands working overseas in Qatar. On average, wives underreport their husbands’ income and underreporting is more prevalent in households with higher earning migrants. The discrepancy in earning reports is strongly correlated with variation in remittances: greater underreporting by wives is associated with lower remittances. We develop an exchange model of remittances with asymmetric information and costly state verification. The optimal remittance contract prescribes a threshold for remittances that invites verification only if unmet. The model's predictions closely match our empirical findings.
Financial Inclusion, Productivity Shocks, and Consumption Volatility in Emerging Economies

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2016-01) Bhattacharya, Rudrani ; Patnaik, Ila

How does access to finance impact consumption volatility? Theory and evidence from advanced economies suggests that greater household access to finance smooths consumption. Evidence from emerging markets, where consumption is usually more volatile than income, indicates that financial reform further increases the volatility of consumption relative to output. This puzzle is addressed in the framework of an emerging economy model in which households face shocks to trend growth rate, and a fraction of them are financially constrained, with no access to financial services. Unconstrained households can respond to shocks to trend growth by raising current consumption more than the rise in current income. Financial reform increases the share of such households, leading to greater relative consumption volatility. Calibration of the model for pre- and post–financial reform in India provides support for the model’s key predictions.
Learning versus Stealing : How Important Are Market-Share Reallocations to India's Productivity Growth?

(Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2013-06) Harrison, Ann E. ; Martin, Leslie A. ; Nataraj, Shanthi

Recent trade theory emphasizes the role of market-share reallocations across firms (“stealing”) in driving productivity growth, whereas previous literature focused on average productivity improvements (“learning”). We use comprehensive, firm-level data from India’s organized manufacturing sector to show that market-share reallocations were briefly relevant to explain aggregate productivity gains following the beginning of India’s trade reforms in 1991. However, aggregate productivity gains during the period from 1985 to 2004 were largely driven by improvements in average productivity. We show that India’s trade, FDI, and licensing reforms are not associated with productivity gains stemming from market share reallocations. Instead, we find that most of the productivity improvements in Indian manufacturing occurred through “learning” and that this learning was linked to the reforms. In the Indian case, the evidence rejects the notion that market share reallocations are the mechanism through which trade reform increases aggregate productivity. Although a plausible response would be that India’s labor laws do not easily permit market share reallocations, we show that restrictions on labor mobility cannot explain our results.
Evaluating Program Impacts on Mature Self-help Groups in India

(Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2013-06) Deininger, Klaus ; Liu, Yanyan

Despite the popularity and the unique nature of women's self-help groups in India, evidence on the economic impact of these groups is scant. On the basis of two rounds of surveys of 2,517 households, we use a strategy of double differences and propensity score matching to assess the economic effects of a program that promoted and strengthened self-help groups in Andhra Pradesh in India. Our analysis finds that longer exposure to the program has a positive impact on consumption, nutritional intake, and asset accumulation. Our investigation into the heterogeneity of these effects suggests that even the poorest households are able to benefit from the program.
A Timeline of Development Economics at the World Bank

( 2011-09) Zoellick, Robert

A Timeline of Development Economics at the World Bank, adapted from "Democratizing Development Economics," a speech by World Bank President Robert Zoellick at Georgetown University, September 29, 2010.
Producing Home Grown Solutions : Think Tanks and Knowledge Networks in International Development

( 2011-09) Datta, Ajoy ; Young, John

Mainstream international development discourse has long heralded the importance of home grown solutions and national ownership of development policies. Ownership has been seen as the missing link between the significant development aid inflows from the North and poverty reduction outcomes in the South. You only have to look to international agreements such the 2002 Monterrey Consensus or the2005 Paris Declaration for evidence of this.
Co-Creating Development

( 2011-09) Ramaswamy, Venkat

We are now in a new age of stakeholder engagement. Thanks to the World Wide Web, social media, and advances in mobile and interactive communications and information technologies, networked individuals around the globe are no longer passive and docile recipients of dispensed instructions and development assistance. They are active participants and collaborators in the value creation process, and cocreators of solutions with a wide range of private-public-social enterprises.