Journal Issue: World Bank Research Observer, Volume 17, Issue 2
No Thumbnail Available
Volume
17
Number
2
Issue Date
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Journal
Journal Volume
Other issues in this volume
Journal Issue
Articles
Trade, Foreign Direct Investment, and International Technology Transfer : A Survey
(World Bank, 2002-09-01) Saggi, Kamal
What role does trade play in
international technology transfer? Do technologies
introduced by multinational firms diffuse to local firms?
What kinds of policies have proved successful in encouraging
technology absorption from abroad and why? Using these
questions as motivation, this article surveys the recent
trade literature on international technology transfer,
paying particular attention to the role of foreign direct
investment. The literature argues that trade necessarily
encourages growth only if knowledge spillovers are
international in scope. Empirical evidence on the scope of
knowledge spillovers (national versus international) is
ambiguous. Several recent empirical plant-level studies have
questioned earlier studies that argued that foreign direct
investment has a positive impact on the productivity of
local firms. Yet at the aggregate level, evidence supports
the view that foreign direct investment has a positive
effect on economic growth in the host country.
Income Risk, Coping Strategies, and Safety Nets
(World Bank, 2002-09-01) Dercon, Stefan
Poor rural and urban households in
developing countries face substantial risks, which they
handle with risk-management and risk-coping strategies,
including self-insurance through savings and informal
insurance mechanisms. Despite these mechanisms, however,
vulnerability to poverty linked to risk remains high. This
article reviews the literature on poor households use of
risk-management and risk-coping strategies. It identifies
the constraints on their effectiveness and discusses policy
options. It shows that risk and lumpiness limit the
opportunities to use assets as insurance, that entry
constraints limit the usefulness of income diversification,
and that informal risk-sharing provides only limited
protection, leaving some of the poor exposed to very severe
negative shocks. Public safety nets are likely to be
beneficial, but their impact is sometimes limited, and they
may have negative externalities on households that are not
covered. Collecting more information on households
vulnerability to poverty through both quantitative and
qualitative methods can help inform policy.
Deregulating the Transfer of Agricultural Technology : Lessons from Bangladesh, India, Turkey, and Zimbabwe
(World Bank, 2002) Gisselquist, David; Nash, John; Pray, Carl
Many transition and developing economies
have reduced direct public involvement in the production and
trade of seed and other agricultural inputs. This trend
creates opportunities for farmers to realize improved access
to inputs, including technology from international private
research. Unfortunately, input regulations often derail
these opportunities by blocking private entry and the
introduction of private technology. This study looks at the
experience in Bangladesh, India, Turkey, and Zimbabwe to see
whether regulations make a difference in agriculture and
input industries in developing economies. In all countries,
companies and farmers responded to regulatory reforms by
introducing and adopting more new technology and by
expanding the production, trade, and use of inputs. The
increased use of private technology has brought higher
yields and incomes, allowing farmers and consumers to reach
higher levels of welfare. These results challenge
governments to open their regulatory systems to allow market
entry and the introduction of private technology through
seeds and other inputs.
The Gender Implications of Public Sector Downsizing : The Reform Program of Vietnam
(World Bank, 2002-09-01) Rama, MartÃn
Using data from Vietnam, this article
describes several types of analysis that can be conducted
before launching a major downsizing operation to identify
possible gender effects. It draws several conclusions about
Vietnam s downsizing reforms. First, although women s
prospects of obtaining salaried jobs following displacement
from state-owned enterprise worsened as a result of recent
reforms, they are likely to improve in the near future.
Second, reforms are associated with a sharp decline in the
gender gap in earnings, both in and outside the state
sector. Third, overstaffing is greatest in sectors in which
most employees are men, such as construction, mining, and
transportation; it is much less prevalent in sectors in
which women dominate the work force, such as footwear,
textiles, and garments. Fourth, training, and assistance
programs to help redundant workers reveal no evidence of
strong gender bias. Fifth, severance packages based on a
multiple of earnings are more favorable to men, whereas lump
sum packages favor women.
How Research Can Assist Policy : The Case of Economic Reforms in Uganda
(World Bank, 2002-09-01) Mackinnon, John; Reinikka, Ritva
Research has had a powerful impact on
policy in Uganda, affecting the climate of opinion,
improving the quality of the policy debate, and helping
focus public policy and intervention on poverty reduction.
Uganda s successful use of knowledge and research to help
set public policy priorities demonstrates that even a poor
post conflict country can, in a relatively short period of
time, create an effective information base and feedback
mechanisms for decision making.