Journal Issue: World Bank Economic Review, Volume 38, Issue 2
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Volume
38
Number
2
Issue Date
2024-05
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
1564-698X
Journal
World Bank Economic Review
1564-698X
Journal Volume
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Articles
Removing Barriers to Entry in Medicine
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2024-01-03) Aqeel, Fatima
In 1992, Pakistan equalized
admissions criteria for women and men applying to medical
schools, causing a rapid increase in the female share of
medical graduates. Using birth cohort variation, I find that
equalizing admissions criteria increased employment among
female doctors by 21 percentage points and among doctors
overall by 9 percentage points, even though female doctors
are less likely to be employed than male doctors. Earnings
for male medical graduates increased as lower ability males
were crowded out. The 1992 reform led to increased gender
diversification in a wide range of medical specialties, but
it also concentrated doctors in urban districts where women
prefer to practice.
Agricultural Productivity and Land Inequality
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-12-26) Bequet, Ludovic
How do agricultural productivity
gains affect the distribution of agricultural land
Exploiting three waves of census data from the Philippines
covering 21 years and 17 million plots, this article finds
that municipalities endowed with favorable soil and weather
conditions for genetically modified (GM) corn cultivation
experience a relative increase in landholding inequality.
Agricultural land is decreasing during this period and this
decrease is driven by a decline in the size of large farms.
The introduction of GM corn slows down this process by
keeping more land under cultivation, which contributes to
the documented relative increase in inequality.
Allocative Efficiency between and within the Formal and Informal Manufacturing Sectors in Zimbabwe
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-11-10) Kamutando, Godfrey; Edwards, Lawrence
Resource misallocation has the
potential to reduce aggregate total factor productivity and
undermine industrial development. Aggregate productivity
losses are found to be particularly pronounced in emerging
economies where large market frictions impede efficient
resource allocation. Available estimates, however, almost
entirely exclude firms in the informal sector that in some
countries, such as Zimbabwe, make up a high share of overall
production and employment. The exclusion of informal firms
can result in either an over- or under-estimate of the
aggregate productivity losses from misallocation. This
paper, therefore, uses firm-level survey data to analyze how
market distortions contribute to the misallocation of
resources within and between the formal and informal
manufacturing sectors in Zimbabwe. Applying the approach
developed by Hsieh and Klenow (2009) to firm-level
microdata, the results reveal extensive resource
misallocation in both the formal and informal manufacturing
sector. Market shares of informal firms are found to be low
relative to their productivity, an outcome associated with
relatively large capital market distortions. Misallocation
is also more pronounced among relatively productive firms,
thus exacerbating aggregate losses in total factor
productivity (TFP). Estimates indicate that aggregated gains
in TFP of 151.4 percent can be realized through efficient
resource allocation.
Catch-Up Growth and Inter-industry Productivity Spillovers
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2024-01-30) Bolhuis, Marijn A.
Where and when does export-led growth
work This paper estimates the importance of inter-industry
productivity spillovers for the export-led growth of
developing countries. My empirical strategy is based on a
standard quantitative trade model that features sector-level
gravity in trade flows. Applying the framework to four
decades of trade data, I find clear evidence of spillovers,
which are larger for skill-intensive sectors. The estimates
imply that patterns of sectoral specialization play a
quantitatively important role in accounting for the slow
convergence of labor productivity in tradable sectors.
Quantitative exercises suggest that export-led growth works
for poorer countries with an initial comparative advantage
in manufacturing, as these countries can use foreign demand
from richer countries to reallocate labor towards sectors
with high spillovers.
Social Protection and Foundational Cognitive Skills during Adolescence
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-11-13) Freund, Richard; Favara, Marta; Porter, Catherine; Behrman, Jere
Many low, and middle-income countries
have introduced public works programs (PWPs) to fight
poverty. This paper provides the first evidence that
children from families who benefit from PWPs show increased
foundational cognitive skills. The results, based on unique
tablet-based data collected as part of a long-standing
longitudinal survey, show positive associations between
participation in the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) in
Ethiopia during childhood with long-term memory and implicit
learning, and suggestive evidence for working memory. These
associations appear to be strongest for children whose
households were still PSNP participants in the year of data
collection. Evidence suggests that the association with
implicit learning may be operating partially through
children’s time reallocation away from unpaid labor
responsibilities, while the association with long-term
memory may in part be due to the program’s success in
remediating nutritional deficits caused by early-life
rainfall shocks.
The Rise in Women’s Labor-Force Participation in Mexico
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-09-07) Bhalotra, Sonia; Fernández, Manuel
This study estimates the relative
importance of alternative supply and demand mechanisms in
explaining the rise of female labor-force participation
(FLFP) over the last 55 years in Mexico. The growth of FLFP
in Mexico between 1960 and 2015 followed an S-shaped, with a
considerable acceleration during the 1990s. Using
descriptive decomposition methods and a shift-share design,
the study shows that, put together, supply and demand
factors can account for most of the rise of FLFP over the
entire period, led by increases in women’s education,
declining fertility, and shifts in the occupational
structure of the workforce. However, there is unexplained
variation in the 1990s, when FLFP spiked.
Social Protection amid a Crisis
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-11-23) Alloush, Mo; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; Malacarne, J. G.
This study estimates the effects of
South Africa’s Older Person’s Grant on well-being amid the
COVID-19 pandemic. With household-level data collected
before and during the pandemic, it leverages the
age-eligibility threshold of the grant to estimate its
effects on households in both periods. Prior to the
pandemic, this study finds that grant receipt substantially
improves economic well-being and decreases adult hunger at
the household level. During the first 18 months of the
pandemic, this study finds larger effects on both economic
well-being and hunger than prior to the pandemic. Recipient
households were less likely to report running out of money
for food and hunger among either adults or children. These
results, which are stronger when pandemic-related lockdown
policies are in place and for more vulnerable households,
provide critical insight into the effectiveness of one of
the world’s most well-known cash-transfer programs during a
massive global health crisis.
Digital Training for Micro-Entrepreneurs
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-09-22) Estefan, Alejandro; Improta, Martina; Ordoñez, Romina; Winters, Paul
Previous literature shows minor
impacts of in-person business training in developing
countries, but few papers study the effectiveness of digital
training. A research partnership with a multinational
company operating in the food sector of Guatemala enables
the randomized evaluation of a digital training program
involving the franchise store owners of one of its retail
chains. The training program combined a mobile app offering
access to reproducible video capsules and virtual one-on-one
consulting meetings. The results of the randomized
evaluation reveal significant impacts on knowledge, business
practices, sales, and profits. An examination of the
mechanisms underlying these results reveals that consulting
meetings are crucial in inducing engagement with the app’s
content. Program flexibility, internet access, and initial
sales are also crucial determinants of training effectiveness.
How Much Does the Food Insecurity Experience Scale Overlap with Poor Food Consumption and Monetary Poverty? Evidence from West Africa
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2023-10-12) Lain, Jonathan; Tandon, Sharad; Vishwanath, Tara
The Food Insecurity Experience Scale
(FIES), which combines three food-access dimensions into a
single indicator, is rapidly being incorporated into
national statistical systems. However, there is no
prediction about how one of the incorporated dimensions,
subjective experiences associated with food insecurity,
overlaps with poor food consumption. Using data from West
Africa, this study illustrates that in 4 out of 10
countries, there is a similar prevalence of food insecurity
according to the FIES among segments of the population that
are likely undernourished and segments that are likely not
undernourished. And in 5 out of 10 countries, there is a
relatively large prevalence of food insecurity according to
the FIES in the segments of the population that are least
likely to be undernourished. Combined, the results offer
guidance to policymakers when choosing food-access
indicators and illustrate the importance of using the FIES
along with other food-access measures.