Person:
Cusolito, Ana Paula
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
SME development,
Productivity and growth,
Firm innovation,
Firm dynamics,
Entrepreneurship,
Innovation,
Trade
Degrees
Departments
Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Ana Paula Cusolito is a Senior Economist currently working for the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice. Her research interests and experience focus on firm-level productivity, innovation, entrepreneurship and trade. More recently, she has been involved in a number of experiments to evaluate programs aimed at promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. She has experience working mainly in the Europe & Central Asia and Latin America regions. Ana Paula’s work has been published at the Journal of Banking and Financial Economics, Journal of Development Economics, IZA Journal of Labor and Development, and Journal of Development Effectiveness. Before working at the World Bank, Ana Paula worked at the Inter-American Development Bank and Government of Argentina. Ana Paula has a Ph.D. in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
Publication Search Results
1 - 10 of 24
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Publication
Toolkit for the Analysis of Current Account Imbalances
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-11)The fluctuating economies and differing experiences of countries before and after the economic crisis of 2008 indicate a complex network of possible influences. Persistent current account deficits and exchange rate misalignments frequently presage disruptive economic trends. The result can be external crises, exchange rate collapses, vulnerability to sudden stops, current account reversals, and economic slowdowns. When a growing number of countries run external deficits, investigation of the causes is warranted. It is crucial to understand the drivers of persistent current account deficits; the relative importance of cyclical and structural factors; conditions that imply external sustainability; sources of sustainable financing for the deficit; and steps governments can take to narrow the imbalance. This toolkit presents a framework that can be used to assess a country's external situation through the lens of the current and financial accounts. The framework is divided into three components: current account outcome analysis, current account diagnostics, and economic policy. -
Publication
The Demand for, and Impact of, Youth Internships: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Yemen
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10)This paper evaluates a youth internship program in the Republic of Yemen that provided firms with a 50 percent subsidy to hire recent graduates of universities and vocational schools. The first round of the program took place in 2014 and required both firms and youth to apply for the program. The paper examines the demand for such a program, and finds that in the context of an economy facing substantial political and economic uncertainty, it appears there is an oversupply of graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and a relative undersupply of graduates in marketing and business. Conditional on the types of graduates firms were looking to hire as interns, applicants were then randomly chosen for the program. Receiving an internship resulted in an almost doubling of work experience in 2014, and a 73 percent increase in income during this period compared with the control group. A short-term follow-up survey conducted just as civil conflict was breaking out shows that internship recipients had better employment outcomes than the control group in the first five months after the program ended. -
Publication
The Additionality Impact of a Matching Grant Program for Small Firms: Experimental Evidence from Yemen
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10)Matching grants are one of the most common types of private sector development programs used in developing countries. But government subsidies to private firms can be controversial. A key question is that of additionality: do these programs get firms to undertake innovative activities that they would not otherwise do, or merely subsidize activities that would take place anyway? Randomized controlled trials can provide the counterfactual needed to answer this question, but efforts to experiment with matching grant programs have often failed. This paper uses a randomized controlled trial of a matching grant program for firms in the Republic of Yemen to demonstrate the feasibility of conducting experiments with well-designed programs, and to measure the additionality impact. In the first year, the matching grant is found to have led to more product innovation, firms upgrading their accounting systems, marketing more, making more capital investments, and being more likely to report their sales grew. -
Publication
Trade Policy Barriers : An Obstacle to Export Diversification in Eurasia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-05)Despite trade liberalization efforts made by Eurasian countries, the export structure of the region shows significant levels of concentration across export destinations. To shed light on this observation, this research analyzes trade policy barriers in Eurasia, East Asia and the Pacific, and the European Union. Using the most recent data from sources including the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, and the World Bank including the Overall Trade Restrictiveness Indices, the Services Trade Restrictions Database, and the Temporary Trade Barriers Database the role of tariffs, non-tariff measures, temporary trade barriers, trade agreements, and trade barriers in services are explored to explain the lack of diversification by destination. Several conclusions can be drawn from the analysis. First, China, Korea, and Japan, as well as the European Union, impose high levels of protection on products of animal origin, which may explain the lack of Eurasian export diversification toward the East Asia and the Pacific and the European Union regions. It also highlights the potential benefits of diversifying the structure of production in Eurasia toward more sophisticated and technologically intensive goods. Second, the East Asia and the Pacific region (especially China) appears to be more protectionist than the European Union, suggesting a greater challenge for Eurasian countries in diversifying exports to the destination. And third, few or no regional trade agreements exist between Eurasian countries and countries in the European Union or East Asia and the Pacific. -
Publication
Spurring Innovation with Matching Grants: Evidence from Yemen
( 2015-11)Matching grants are one of the most common tools used in private sector development programs in developing countries and have been included in more than 60 World Bank projects totaling over US$1.2 billion, funding over 100,000 micro, small and medium enterprises. The Enterprise Revitalization and Employment Pilot (EREP) was designed as a two year pilot project aimed at improving firm capabilities and the employability of recent graduates. The matching grant component provided firms with a matching grant of up to $10,000 as a 50 percent subsidy towards the cost of innovation and business services like finance and accounting systems, website creation, training, marketing, participation in exhibitions, and some associated goods. The program implementation was designed with the lessons of other matching grant programs in mind in order to overcome their problems with take-up: eligibility criteria were kept broad; the application form was not complex and could be done either online or in paper; and the program was well-advertised. -
Publication
A Firm-Level Productivity Diagnostic for Kenya’s Manufacturing and Services Sector
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-01)This technical note implements a firm-level productivity diagnostic using the census of manufacturing firms and a large services survey in Kenya. By using a number of stylized productivity indicators, we aim to identify the ability of Kenyan firms to grow. The information presented in this diagnostic will help to conduct evidence-based policy-making. Specifically, implementing firm-level productivity diagnostics provide the necessary information for (i) improving the targeting of economic policies, (ii) enhancing their effectiveness, (iii) making more accurate predictions of the effects of industry shocks and policy reforms on the economy, and (iv) understanding the behavior of macroeconomic variables by tracking the evolution of variables at the firm-level. This note shows that there is a lot of heterogeneity in firms’ attributes and performance, and this can potentially be attributed to the presence of economic distortions that affect the efficient allocation of resources across firms, with the manufacturing sector showing a lackluster performance compared to the services sector. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of locating productivity at the center of the competitiveness agenda as a key instrument for employment creation and poverty reduction. -
Publication
Inclusive Global Value Chains: Policy Options for Small and Medium Enterprises and Low-Income Countries
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-08-22)This report's focus is making global value chains (GVCs) more inclusive. To achieve inclusiveness is by overcoming participation constraints for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and facilitation access for Low Income Developing Countries (LIDCs). The underlying assumption is that most firms in LIDCs are SMEs. Even larger firms in LIDCs are likely to face similar challenges to SMEs, including a less supportive domestic operating environment and weaker institutions that lead to higher fixed costs and challenges to compete on the international markets. The two major points of this report are (1) participation in GVCs is heterogeneous and uneven, across and within countries, and (2) available data and survey-based evidence suggest that SMEs’ participation in GVCs is mostly taking place through indirect contribution to exports, rather than through exporting directly. The report makes the case that policy action, at the national and multilateral level, can make a difference in achieving more inclusive GVCs through: a holistic approach to reform spanning trade, investment, and domestic policies countries and investments in expanding the statistical base and analysis of GVCs and in sharing knowledge on best practices on enabling policies and programs. The report elaborates on three broad areas of recommendations: (1) establishing a trade and investment action plan for inclusiveness defining clear and achievable objectives on trade and investment policy and identifying the necessary complementary domestic policy actions; (2) complementing trade, investment, and domestic policy actions by providing the needed political leadership and support to enhance collaboration across the sectors, and establishing global platforms for sharing best practices; and (3) providing political support for the establishment of a multi-year plan to expand and upgrade the statistical foundation necessary to increase the capacity of all countries to identify and implement policies that can contribute to stronger, more inclusive and sustainable growth and development, globally. -
Publication
Faraway or Nearby?: Domestic and International Spillovers in Patenting and Product Innovation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-09)The diffusion of knowledge plays a central role in endogenous growth theories. Simply put, in these models new knowledge can be generated from preexisting knowledge. In other words, existing knowledge is a pure public good, which can benefit any economic agent anywhere. More generally, endogenous growth theories rely on a broad set of assumptions that have not been tested sufficiently, especially for developing economies. The scope and nature of knowledge spillovers is, however, important for policy, because the presumed positive spillovers can justify government intervention (if the spillovers are localized) or laissez faire (if the spillovers are international). This paper empirically assesses the scope and direction of knowledge spillovers in national patenting and, separately, product innovation by firms. The first set of exercises tests whether the cumulative knowledge specifications of the knowledge production function can explain international patterns of patenting or whether own research and development is necessary to produce patents. The second set of exercises analyzes whether firm product-quality upgrading and the introduction of new products depend on product innovation within industries, within or across countries. The evidence supports the view that existing stocks of knowledge, domestic and foreign, enhance national innovation and entrepreneurship in the form of product innovation. More specifically, the evidence suggests that within-country and international knowledge spillovers are positive, but international spillovers can be negative for firms that are far from innovative firms in terms of productivity. The results depend on the concept of “distance” between countries and firms. -
Publication
Productivity Revisited: Shifting Paradigms in Analysis and Policy
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-10-25)The stagnation of productivity in the developing world, and indeed, across the globe, over the last two decades dictates a rethinking of productivity measurement, analysis, and policy. This volume presents a 'second wave' of thinking in three key areas of productivity analysis and its implications for productivity policies. It calls into question the measurement and relevance of distortions as the primary barrier to productivity growth; urges a broader concept of firm performance that goes beyond efficiency to quality upgrading and demand expansion; and explores what it takes to generate an experimental and innovative society where entrepreneurs have the personal characteristics to identify new technologies and manage risk within an entrepreneurial ecosystem that facilitates them doing so. It also reviews arguments surrounding industrial policies. The authors argue for an integrated approach to productivity analysis that incorporates both the need to reduce economic distortions and generate the human capital capable of identifying the opportunities offered to follower countries and upgrade firm capabilities. Finally, it offers guidance on prioritizing policies when there is uncertainty around diagnostics and limited government capability. -
Publication
The Demand for, and Impact of, Youth Internships: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Yemen
(Springer, 2016-01-18)This paper evaluates a youth internship program in Yemen. We examine the demand for the program and find an oversupply of graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and a relative undersupply of graduates in marketing and business. Conditional on the types of graduates firms were looking to hire, applicants were then randomly chosen for the program. Receiving an internship resulted in an almost doubling of work experience in 2014 and a 73 % increase in income. A follow-up survey shows that internship recipients had better employment outcomes than the control group in the first 5 months after the program.