Person:
Angel-Urdinola, Diego F.
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Labor markets,
Employment policy,
Social protection,
Training policies,
Gender,
Minimum wages,
Social safety nets,
Poverty
Degrees
ORCID
External Links
Departments
Global Practice for Social Protection and Labor, The World Bank
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Diego F. Angel-Urdinola is a senior economist in the Human Development Department of the Middle East and North Africa Region at the World Bank, where he conducts applied research and operational work in the areas of social protection, labor markets, gender, and human development. He has contributed to operational research for various developing countries, especially in Latin America, Europe and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and North Africa. He has published articles in various academic and nonacademic publications, including the
Journal of Economic Inequality,
Journal of International Development,
IZA Journal of Labor Policy,
Economics Bulletin, and
Labour, as well as several books and working paper series. He holds a PhD in economics from Georgetown University.
Publication Search Results
1 - 10 of 27
-
Publication
Jobs for Shared Prosperity : Time for Action in the Middle East and North Africa
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-05)In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, when thousands of young women and men fought for the opportunity to realize their aspirations and potential, the question of jobs continues to be crucial in the Middle East and North Africa region. This report uses jobs as a lens to weave together the complex dynamics of employment creation, skills supply, and the institutional environment of labor markets. Consistent with the framework of the 2013 World Development Report on jobs, of which this report is the regional companion, this work goes beyond the traditional links between jobs, productivity, and living standards to include an understanding of how jobs matter for individual dignity and expectations—an aspect that was clearly central to the Arab Spring. Just as important, this report complements the economic perspective with an analysis of political economy equilibrium, with a view to identifying mechanisms that would trigger a reform process. As such, the report has three objectives: First, it seeks to provide an in-depth characterization of the dynamics of labor markets in the Middle East and North Africa and to analyze the barriers to the creation of more and better jobs. It does so by taking a cross-sectoral approach and identifying the distortions and incentives that the many actors—firms, governments, workers, students, education, and training systems—currently face, and which ultimately determine the equilibrium in labor markets. Second, the report proposes a medium term roadmap of policy options that could promote the robust and inclusive growth needed to tackle the structural employment challenge for the region. Third, the report aims to inform and open up a platform for debate on jobs among a broad set of stakeholders, with the ultimate goal of contributing to reach a shared view of the employment challenges and the reform path ahead. -
Publication
The Middle East and North Africa Community of Practice on Employment and Social Safety Nets
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-03)The World Bank is now supporting and facilitating the establishment of the first community of practice in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the area of employment and social safety nets. This community will provide a space where practitioners from MENA to share their operational experience, knowledge, and best practices on how best to improve delivery of social policy. One channel to improve the design and implementation of social programs is to foster south-south knowledge exchanges, which have proven to successfully contribute to reform of social programs and systems in other developing regions. These knowledge exchanges can take various formats; such as study tours, audio-conferences, workshops, and e-platforms. The first meeting was an attempt to gather an initial pool of practitioners in the region to define the topics to be discussed by community and to define the tools that will be employed to help and facilitate knowledge exchanges. A virtual network using the World Bank's collaboration for development platform helped practitioners stay in contact with each other, initiate discussions, ask questions, and share information on regional best practices. -
Publication
Do Subsidized Health Programs in Armenia Increase Utilization among the Poor?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-09)This article analyzes the extent to which the Basic Benefit Package (BBP), a subsidized health program in Armenia, increases utilization and affordability of outpatient health care among the poor. The authors find that beneficiaries of the BBP pay approximately 45 percent less in fees for doctor visits (and display 36 percent higher outpatient utilization rates) than eligible users not receiving the BBP. However, even among BBP beneficiaries the level of outpatient health care utilization remains low. This occurs because the program mainly provides discounted fees for doctor visits, but fees do not constitute the main financial constraint for users. The authors estimate suggest that other non-fee expenditures, such as prescription medicines, constitute a more significant financial constraint and are not subsidized by the BBP. As a result, outpatient health care remains expensive even for BBP beneficiaries. -
Publication
Striving for Better Jobs : The Challenge of Informality in the Middle East and North Africa Region
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-12)This quick note provides an overview of the World Bank report striving for better jobs: the challenge of informality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The report was completed as a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests swept across the Arab world. Millions of young people were chanting 'dignity' and 'social justice' in the region, underlining deep-seated feelings of exclusion and inequality of opportunities. Demanding democracy, human rights, and better governance, young Arabs were also striving to realize their economic aspirations in a region rich in human and physical capital. However, while there has been economic growth for a number of years in MENA countries, this has not led to an adequate number of good jobs and has succeeded, at best, in generating low-quality, informal jobs. -
Publication
The AMAL Program : "Hope" for Unemployed Youth in the MENA Region
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-08)To respond to high unemployment rates among youth (often educated entrants to the labor market), many countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have designed and implemented programs that aim to enhance youth employability. However, a recent study revealed that despite significant investments, many youth programs in MENA lack the necessary features that make these types of programs successful. This note describes a new approach to youth employment programs in MENA through the recently implemented AMAL (Arabic for 'Hope') program in Tunisia. AMAL is the first large-scale publicly financed comprehensive youth program in the region. If well-implemented and carefully evaluated, AMAL could become a building block for a comprehensive reform of youth employment programs in the region. This note starts with an overview of international best practices for the design/implementation of youth programs. The note provides a brief description of youth programs in Tunisia and mainly of the AMAL program, highlighting some of its main challenges and opportunities. The World Bank supported the Interim Government of Tunisia in the design and implementation of the AMAL program through the Governance and Opportunities Development Policy Loan (DPL), a multi-sector program of reforms that supports the post-revolution transition period. -
Publication
Key Characteristics of Employment Regulations in the Middle East and North Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-04)This Fast Brief provides a general background on the main features of labor regulations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. This is part of an effort to understand employability constraints in MENA and to this end a World Bank team gathered information on labor legislation and other legal acts concerning labor regulations in the region. All this rendered more urgent with the ongoing social and political turmoil in the region. Within the broader scope of labor regulations, and in order to assure regional comparability, the information that was collected focused on key issues associated with commencing or terminating employment and during the period of employment (including maternity benefits). This Brief is to provide policymakers and international organizations with a regional analysis of how labor regulation affects labor market outcomes in the region and to inform governments on strategic approaches to employment creation through labor policy and associated reforms. This activity comes as a response to regional priorities in the context of the Arab World Initiative (AWI): one of the six strategic themes of the AWI focuses explicitly on employment creation as a top priority. -
Publication
Striving for Better Jobs : The Challenge of Informality in the Middle East and North Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-08-26)Economic growth has been sustained for many years pre-crisis in the region, but this has not resulted in the creation of an adequate number of jobs and has succeeded, at best, in generating low-quality, informal jobs. The report addresses one margin of exclusion: informal employment and the vulnerabilities and lack of opportunities associated with it. The report analyzes the constraints that prevent informal workers from becoming formal and discusses policy options to effectively address these constraints. This report looks at informality through a human development angle and focuses particularly on informal employment. Informality is a complex phenomenon, comprising unpaid workers and workers without social security or health insurance coverage, small or micro-firms that operate outside the regulatory framework and large registered firms that may partially evade corporate taxes and social security contributions. The first section provides a detailed profile of informal workers in the region. The second section describes the characteristics of informality in micro-firms that operate outside the regulatory framework and in larger firms that do not fully comply with social security contribution requirements and tax obligations. The third section presents informality and the firm. The fourth section focuses on informality: choice or exclusion? The fifth section discusses policy options for effectively expanding coverage of health insurance and pension systems and promoting the creation of better quality jobs. -
Publication
Labor Markets and School-to-Work Transition in Egypt: Diagnostics, Constraints, and Policy Framework
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-07)Despite substantial improvements in labor market outcomes in recent years (in raising employment and participation and in lowering unemployment), unemployment rates in Egypt remain exceedingly high among youth2 entering the labor market for the first time. A slow school-to-work transition remains the main reason behind high unemployment rates. The youth unemployment rate in Egypt, at 24 percent in year 2006, is high for international standards- though similar to those in North Africa. Moreover, youth entering the labor market for the first time account for about 82 percent of the countrys unemployed workers. -
Publication
Morocco: Social Protection and Labor Diagnostic
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-05-26)Main macroeconomic indicators in Morocco (notably economic growth, inflation) are expected to remain appropriate in the short-medium term. Despite negative impacts in the economy due to developments in the Eurozone, in particular sovereign debt crises in Spain and Italy, among other countries, economic growth in Morocco has been positive averaging 4.3 percent per year between years 2010 and 2013. Morocco has displayed important progress in the Bank’s twin objectives of reducing poverty and promoting shared prosperity. Inequality and vulnerability remain important challenges. Despite some notable progress on key human development indicators, Morocco still lags behind in health and education achievements. One of the key challenges for Morocco is that economic growth has not achieved enough employment growth to the needs of a saturated labor market. To achieve faster economic growth, Morocco will need a structural transformation of its economy, with a focus on broadening economic opportunities. Low employment rates in Morocco are largely explained by very low rates of participation of women in the labor force. Most employment creation in Morocco happens in the services and construction sectors, while the agriculture and manufacturing sectors (as these sectors become more productive and substitute labor by capital) actually suffer from net job destruction of approximately 35 thousand jobs per year. -
No Thumbnail AvailablePublication
Do Subsidized Health Programs in Armenia Increase Utilization among the Poor?
( 2008)This article analyzes the extent to which the Basic Benefit Package (BBP), a subsidized health program in Armenia, increases utilization and affordability of outpatient health care among the poor. We find that beneficiaries of the BBP pay approximately 45 % less in fees for doctor visits (and display 36 % higher outpatient utilization rates) than eligible users not receiving the BBP. However, even among BBP beneficiaries the level of outpatient health care utilization remains low. This occurs because the program mainly provides discounted fees for doctor visits, but fees do not constitute the main financial constraint for users. Our estimates suggest that other non-fee expenditures, such as prescription medicines, constitute a more significant financial constraint and are not subsidized by the BBP. As a result, outpatient health care remains expensive even for BBP beneficiaries.