Journal Issue: World Bank Economic Review, Volume 16, Issue 3
No Thumbnail Available
Volume
16
Number
3
Issue Date
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
1564-698X
Journal
World Bank Economic Review
1564-698X
Journal Volume
Other issues in this volume
Journal Issue Journal Issue
Articles
The Distributional Impacts of Indonesia's Financial Crisis on Household Welfare : A 'Rapid Response' Methodology
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-09) Levinsohn, James; Friedman, Jed
Analyzing the distributional impacts of
economic crises is an ever more pressing need. If
policymakers are to intervene to help those most adversely
affected, they need to identify those who have been hurt
most and estimate the magnitude of the harm they have
suffered. They must also respond in a timely manner. This
article develops a simple methodology for measuring these
effects and applies it to analyze the impact of the
Indonesian economic crisis on household welfare. Using only
pre-crisis household information, it estimates the
compensating variation for Indonesian households following
the 1997 Asian currency crisis and then explores the results
with flexible nonparametric methods. It finds that virtually
every household was severely affected, although the urban
poor fared the worst. The ability of poor rural households
to produce food mitigated the worst consequences of the high
inflation. The distributional consequences are the same
whether or not households are permitted to substitute toward
relatively cheaper goods. Households with young children may
have suffered disproportionately large adverse effects.
Gender Effects of Social Security Reform in Chile
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-09) Cox Edwards, Alejandra
In 1981 Chile replaced a mature
government-run social security system that operated on a
pay-as-you-go basis with a privately managed system based on
individual retirement accounts. The new system is more
fiscally sustainable because pension benefits are defined by
contributions. The minimum pension guaranteed to
beneficiaries with at least 20 years is funded from general
taxes, preserving the tight matching between contributions
and benefits. The new system also eliminates several
cross-subsidies. Men and women with less than secondary
education gain under the new system, but single women with
more education lose. Comparison of the old and the new
systems reveals a complex set of factors that cause gender
effects given constant behavior or change behavior across genders.
Low Schooling for Girls, Slower Growth for All? Cross-Country Evidence on the Effect of Gender Inequality in Education on Economic Development
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-09) Klasen, Stephan
Using cross-country and panel
regressions, this article investigates how gender inequality
in education affects long-term economic growth. Such
inequality is found to have an effect on economic growth
that is robust to changes in specifications and controls for
potential endogeneities. The results suggest that gender
inequality in education directly affects economic growth by
lowering the average level of human capital. In addition,
growth is indirectly affected through the impact of gender
inequality on investment and population growth. Some 0.4-0.9
percentage points of differences in annual per capita growth
rates between East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia,
and the Middle East can be accounted for by differences in
gender gaps in education between these regions.
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.
Density versus Quality in Health Care Provision : Using Household Data to Make Budgetary Choices in Ethiopia
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-09) Collier, Paul; Dercon, Stefan; Mackinnon, John
Usage of health facilities in Ethiopia
is among the lowest in the world; raising usage rates is
probably critical for improving health outcomes. The
government has diagnosed the principal problem as the lack
of primary health facilities and is devoting a large share
of the health budget to building more facilities. But
household data suggest that usage of health facilities is
sensitive not just to the distance to the nearest facility
but also to the quality of health care provided. If the
quality of weak facilities were raised to that currently
provided by the majority of facilities in Ethiopia, usage
would rise significantly. National data suggest that given
the current density and quality of service provision,
additional expenditure on improving the quality of service
delivery will be more cost-effective than increasing the
density of service provision. The budget allocation rule
presented in the article can help local policymakers make
decisions about how to allocate funds between improving the
quality of care and decreasing the distance to the nearest
health care facility.
A Firm's-Eye View of Commercial Policy and Fiscal Reforms in Cameroon
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-09) Gauthier, Bernard; Soloaga, Isidro; Tybout, James
After decades of high trade
restrictions, fiscal distortions, and currency
overvaluation, Cameroon implemented important commercial and
fiscal policy reforms in 1994. Almost simultaneously, a
major devaluation cut the international price of
Cameroon's currency in half. This article examines the
effects of those reforms on the incentive structure faced by
manufacturing firms. Did the reforms create a coherent new
set of signals? Did they reduce dispersion in tax burdens?
Was the net effect to stimulate the production of tradable
goods? The results of applying a cost function decomposition
to detailed firm-level panel data suggest that the reforms
created clear new signals for manufacturers, as effective
protection rates fell by 80 to 120 percentage points. In
contrast, neither the tax reforms nor the devaluation had a
major systematic effect on profit margins. The devaluation
did shift relative prices dramatically in favor of
exportable goods, causing exporters to grow relatively rapidly.