03. Journals

3,120 items available

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https://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 288

Gender Differences in Informal Labor-Market Resilience
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2022-12-26) Hardy, Morgan; Litzow, Erin; McCasland, Jamie; Kagy, Gisella
This paper reports on the universe of garment-making-firm owners in a Ghanaian district capital during the COVID-19 crisis. By July 2020, 80 percent of both male- and female-owned firms were operational. However, pre-pandemic data show that selection into persistent closure differs by gender. Consistent with a cleansing effect of recessions and highlighting the presence of marginal female entrepreneurs, female-owned firms that remain closed past the spring lockdown are negatively selected on pre-pandemic sales. The pre-pandemic sales distributions of female survivors and non-survivors are significantly different from each other. Female owners of non-operational firms exit to non-employment and experience large decreases in overall earnings. In contrast, persistently closed male-owned firms are not selected on pre-pandemic firm characteristics. Instead, male non survivors are 36 percentage points more likely than male survivors to have another income-generating activity prior to the crisis. Male owners of persistently closed firms fully compensate for revenue losses in their core businesses with earnings from these alternative income-generating activities. Taken together, the evidence is most consistent with differential underlying occupational choice fundamentals for self-employed men and women in this context.
Method Matters: Underreporting of Intimate Partner Violence in Nigeria and Rwanda
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2022-12-08) Cullen, Claire
This paper analyzes the magnitude and predictors of misreporting on intimate partner violence. Women in Nigeria were randomly assigned to answer questions using either an indirect method (list experiment) that gives respondents anonymity, or the standard, direct face-to-face method. Intimate partner violence rates were up to 35 percent greater when measured using the list method than the direct method. Misreporting was associated with indicators often targeted in empowerment and development programs, such as education and vulnerability. These results suggest that standard survey methods may generate significant underestimates of the prevalence of intimate partner violence, and biased correlations and treatment effect estimates.
Refugees and Housing: Evidence from the Mortgage Market
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2022-12-06) Akgündüz, Yusuf Emre; Hacıhasanoglu, Yavuz Selim; Yilmaz, Fatih
This paper investigates the impact of large-scale Syrian refugee inflows on the Turkish housing market. Employing a micro-level data set of the population of mortgaged houses in Türkiye between 2010 and 2017, it identifies the dynamic effects using a difference-in-differences approach. As the regional distribution of Syrian refugees is presumably not exogenous, it is instrumented in the estimations. The instrument is constructed using the distance from Turkish provinces to each Syrian region, while weighting each Syrian region by their population and distance to Türkiye compared to other destination countries. The results show that house prices increased in response to the arrival of Syrian refugees. The effects are mostly driven by low-priced housing and faded after 2014. The results further show that construction permits and sales increased, while the average age of purchased houses declined, indicating an increase in supply that may explain the fading-out effect over time. Finally, the findings provide suggestive evidence that houses that are sold after the arrival of refugees decline in size, which further points to a squeeze in the housing market for natives.
The value of lost output and cost of illness of noncommunicable diseases in the Pacific
(Elsevier, 2022-12-01) Hou, Xiaohui; Burton-Mckenzie, Ethan-John
The Pacific Island Countries face some of the highest rates of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs). This study estimates the economic costs of NCDs for each year from 2015 to 2040, focusing on eleven Pacific Island nations. Data and Methods: two methods were used to estimate the mortality and morbidity costs using a ‘value of lost output’ and ‘cost of illness’ approach respectively. Results: Five results stand out in terms of projected economic costs of NCD mortality and morbidity analyses in the Pacific: (i) the economic burden of NCDs in the Pacific is greater than expected for middle‐income countries; (ii) although cardiovascular disease is the biggest contributor to the mortality burden in the region, diabetes plays a far greater role in the Pacific countries compared to the global average; (iii) the economic burden of NCDs is increasing with time, especially as incomes rise; (iv) the biggest driver of lost output is the potential loss of labor due to early death from NCDs; and (v) the cost of illness due to diabetes is high across the Pacific countries, with highest among the Polynesian countries. NCDs alone can put enormous threat to the small Pacific economies. Targeted interventions to reduce disease prevalence, as outlined in the Pacific NCDs Roadmap, are vital to reduce the long-term costs associated with NCD mortality and morbidity.
Measuring Human Capital in Middle Income Countries
(Elsevier, 2022-12) Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli; Torre, Iván
This paper develops an indicator that measures the level of human capital to address the specific education and health challenges faced by middle income countries. We apply this indicator to countries in Europe and Central Asia, where productive employment requires skills that are more prevalent among higher education graduates, and where good health is associated to low levels of adult health risk factors. The Europe and Central Asia Human Capital Index (ECA-HCI) extends the World Bank's Human Capital Index by adding a measure of quality-adjusted years of higher education to the original education component, and it includes the prevalence of three adult health risk factors—obesity, smoking, and heavy drinking—as an additional proxy for latent health status. The results show that children born today in the average country in Europe and Central Asia will be almost half as productive as they would have had they reached the benchmark of complete education and full health. Countries with good basic education outcomes do not necessarily have good higher education outcomes, and high prevalence of adult health risk factors can offset good education indicators. This extension of the Human Capital Index could also be useful for assessing the state of human capital in middle-income countries in general.
Syrian Refugee Inflows, Health-Care Access, and Childhood Vaccination in Turkey
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2022-11-14) Erten, Bilge; Keskin, Pinar; Omurtak, Miray; Ozen, Ilhan Can
This study explores the impact of the arrival of Syrian refugees in Turkey on access to health-care resources and subsequent changes in infectious disease rates among native children. Employing a distance-based instrument, it finds that native children living in regions that received large inflows of Syrian refugees experienced an increase in their risk of catching an infectious disease compared to children in less affected regions. In contrast, there is no evidence of significant changes in the incidences of noninfectious diseases such as diabetes, cancer, or anemia. The findings also reveal that the number of health-care professionals and hospital beds per capita declined in provinces that received large refugee inflows. This study also documents a decrease in native children’s probability of being fully vaccinated in provinces that received large refugee inflows. Although contact with potentially infected refugees may increase disease spread among natives, the migration-induced supply constraints in health-care access may also worsen health outcomes in host countries.
Centring Rights-Based Access to Self-Care Interventions
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-11-11) Ferguson, Laura; Narasimhan, Manjulaa
Ensuring sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is fundamental to the success of the Sustainable Development Goals and a range of other global commitments. As such, innovations that can help promote SRHR, including self-care interventions, offer exciting opportunities to improve health and rights simultaneously. While self-care is not new conceptually, the growing number of evidence-based technologies, medicines and products that can be accessed outside of the formal health sector point to the role lay people play as active participants in their own health care.
The Promise and Limitations of Information Technology for Tax Mobilization
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2022-10-20) Okunogbe, Oyebola; Santoro, Fabrizio
Tax revenue in many low- and middle-income countries is inadequate for funding investments in public goods and human capital. With high levels of informality and limited state capacity, many tax authorities have difficulty determining the true tax base and collecting taxes efficiently and equitably. Tax authorities are increasingly adopting new technologies to improve administrative processes, reduce taxpayer compliance costs, and enhance their overall effectiveness. This paper reviews the recent literature on the use of technology for tax administration. It highlights the potential of technology to improve tax collection by helping to identify the tax base, monitor compliance, and facilitate compliance. It also identifies possible limitations to the use of technology arising from inadequate infrastructure and connectivity, lack of adoption or resistance by taxpayers and tax collectors, lack of institutional mainstreaming, and an unsupportive regulatory environment.
Legal Bans, Female Genital Cutting, and Education: Evidence from Senegal
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2022-10-17) García-Hombrados, Jorge; Salgado, Edgar
A law that banned the practice of female genital cutting (FGC) in Senegal in 1999 reduced its prevalence and increased educational investments in girls. These results are not driven by mechanisms like health, broader changes in empowerment, or child marriage. Suggestive evidence indicates that results could be driven by some parents of future brides reacting to the increase in the cost of FGC caused by the law by abandoning this practice and investing in their daughter’s education to compensate for smaller bride prices among uncut women.
Water wars, conflict and cooperation - how the virtual water concept helped change the discourse
(Taylor & Francis, 2022-10-17) Jägerskog, Anders; Lundqvist, Jan
Professor Tony Allan used to remind his students that for new ideas or scientific concepts to take hold – no matter how right they are – usually takes decades and, sometimes, longer (Allan 2001, 2011). Building on the work of Kuhn (1962) showing how slowly scientific paradigms change, and inspired by French philosophers such as Foucalt and Bourdieu, he highlighted how prevailing discourses are entrenched and, therefore, sanctioned through a process in which power – in all its forms – underpins the basic tenets of the discourse.