Journal Issue: World Bank Economic Review, Volume 37, Issue 2
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Volume
37
Number
2
Issue Date
2023-05
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
1564-698X
Journal
World Bank Economic Review
1564-698X
Journal Volume
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Articles
The Learning Crisis of Developing Country Elites
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-02-27) Pritchett, Lant; Viarengo, Martina
How much of the learning crisis can
be addressed through inclusion, the equalization of grade
attainment and learning outcomes across groups (e.g.,
girls/boys, rural/urban, poor/rich), and how much of the
learning crisis requires improvement in the country’s system
of basic education to improve learning outcomes across the
board This study uses the data from the seven countries who
participated in Program for International Student Assessment
(PISA) for Development (PISA-D) to show that for most
countries and subjects the average learning outcome for the
advantaged (male, urban, native-born, speakers of assessment
language), and elite (95th percentile in PISA measured
socio-economic status) students was below the Sustainable
Development Goal (SDG) minimum learning level target of PISA
level 2. Even if every child in these countries were fully
included had the same distribution of learning outcomes as
the advantaged, SES elite, public school children, 80
percent of all children would still fall short of proposed
global minimum levels of learning.
Do Women Contribute More Effort than Men to a Real Public Good?
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-01-23) Alger, Ingela; Juarez, Laura; Juarez-Torres, Miriam; Miquel-Florensa, Josepa
This study presents evidence from a
lab-in-the-field experiment, conducted in eight small, rural
villages in Mexico, in which subjects choose to exert real
effort to fund real health centers in their own and other
localities. The results show that women are more willing
than men to exert effort to fund the health center in
another locality, relative to the one in their locality.
This gender gap is mostly due to women who have some trust
in the way the government spends taxes, and to those who
benefit from a government program that tar gets women and
fosters healthcare use. These results also suggest that
women might be aware of their higher willingness to exert
effort for a public good that does not benefit them
directly, compared to men, because they seem to reduce their
individual effort the more female their environment is.
Cash Transfers, Trust, and Inter-household Transfers
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-01-24) Evans, David K.; Kosec, Katrina
Institutionalized conditional cash
transfer (CCT) programs may affect pre-existing, informal
safety nets such as inter-household transfers and trust
among community members. This study reports on a randomized
controlled trial used to test the impact of CCTs on various
measures of trust and informal safety nets within
communities in Tanzania. It provides evidence that the
introduction of a CCT program increased program
beneficiaries’ trust in other community members and their
perceived ability to access support from other households
(e.g., childcare). Although CCTs reduced the total size of
transfers to beneficiary households in the community in the
short run (after 1.75 years of transfers), that reduction
had disappeared 2.75 years after transfers began. Taken
together, this evidence suggests that formal CCT programs do
not necessarily crowd out informal safety nets in the longer
term, and they may in fact boost trust and support across households.
Mobile Broadband, Poverty, and Labor Outcomes in Tanzania
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-02-06) Bahia, Kalvin; Castells, Pau; Cruz, Genaro; Masaki, Takaaki; Sanfelice, Viviane; Rodriguez Castelan, Carlos
What are the impacts of expanding
mobile broadband coverage on poverty, household consumption,
and labor-market outcomes in developing countries Who
benefits from improved coverage of mobile internet To
respond to these questions, this paper applies a
difference-in-differences estimation using panel household
survey data combined with geospatial information on the
rollout of mobile broadband coverage in Tanzania. The
results reveal that being covered by 3G networks has a large
positive effect on total household consumption and poverty
reduction, driven by positive impacts on labor-market
outcomes. Working-age individuals living in areas covered by
mobile internet witnessed an increase in labor-force
participation, wage employment, and non-farm
self-employment, and a decline in farm employment. These
effects vary by age, gender, and skill level. Younger and
more skilled men benefit the most through higher labor-force
participation and wage employment, while high-skilled women
benefit from transitions from self-employed farm work into
non-farm employment.
The Labor-Supply Consequences of Having a Child in China
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-02-24) Wang, Shing Yi
Combining eight years of panel data
with an event study approach, this study shows that rural
Chinese women’s labor supply falls following the birth of a
child. In contrast, men’s labor supply does not fall after
birth. Furthermore, a woman’s labor supply falls more
following the birth of a son than a daughter. Following the
birth of a son relative to a daughter, household cigarette
consumption declines, and a mother’s leisure time, her prob
ability of school enrollment, and her participation in
decision-making increase. There are no increases in other
investments in boys complementary to mothers’ time, such as
food expenditures, breastfeeding, or immunizations. These
results are consistent with the idea that mothers are
rewarded more for having a son, leading them to have more
leisure and work less.
Time for Clean Energy? Cleaner Fuels and Women’s Time in Home Production
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-01-11) Afridi, Farzana; Debnath, Sisir; Dinkelman, Taryn; Sareen, Komal
In much of the developing world,
cooking accounts for the largest share of women’s time in
home production. Does relying on solid fuels drive this time
burden This study revisits a clean energy information
experiment in rural India to assess the time savings’
potential of cleaner cooking technologies. Treatment
villages were randomly assigned to receive information about
negative health effects of cooking with solid fuels and
about public subsidies for cleaner liquid petroleum gas
(LPG). Time-use data indicate that primary cooks spend
almost 24 hours cooking each week. Cleaner fuel use is
correlated with about 140 minutes less cooking time each
week. Yet households only reduce their weekly cooking time
by about 35 minutes in response to the randomized clean
energy information nudge. Factors limiting the impact of
clean energy nudges on the choice of home production
technologies and time use are discussed and an avenue for
future research is suggested.
Trade Shocks, Population Growth, and Migration
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-02-27) Fernández Guerrico, SofÃa
This paper examines the effect of
trade-induced changes in Mexican labor demand on population
growth and migration responses at the local level. It
exploits cross-municipality variation in exposure to a
change in trade policy between the United States and China
that eliminated potential tariff increases on Chinese
imports, negatively affecting Mexican manufacturing exports
to the United States. Municipalities more exposed to the
policy change, via their industry structure, experienced
greater employment loss. In the five years following the
change in trade policy, more exposed municipalities
experience increased population growth, driven by declines
in out-migration. Conversely, 6 to 10 years after the change
in trade policy, exposure to increased trade competition is
associated with decreased population growth, driven by
declines in in-migration and return migration rates, and
increased out-migration. The sluggish regional adjustment is
consistent with high moving costs and transitions across
sectors in the short term.
The Double Dividend of a Joint Tariff and VAT Reform
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-02-06) Yousefi, Kowsar; Vesal, Mohammad
This paper provides empirical
evidence on a novel complementarity between VAT and trade
taxes. Downstream domestic firms require VAT receipts from
importers to claim VAT on purchases, increasing incentives
for honest reporting of imports. Trade gap, the difference
between mirror and domestic trade reports in Iran at 6-digit
HS disaggregation, is used to measure this complementarity.
Iran introduced VAT in 2008 and, since then, has increased
its rate from 3 to 9 percent. Difference-in-differences
estimates show that a 1 percentage point increase in the VAT
rate reduces the trade gap by about 2 percent. Consistent
with the compliance mechanisms for VAT, a smaller effect for
consumer products that have a shorter value chain is
observed. Findings suggest that replacing tariffs with VAT
results in a double dividend. Tax revenue might increase due
to better tariff compliance and a broader VAT base.