Person:
Paci, Pierella

Office of the Vice-President, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network

Fields of Specialization

Poverty; inequality; labor; jobs; gender

Departments

Office of the Vice-President, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network

Last updated: February 5, 2024

Biography

In her 15-year career at the World Bank Group, Ms. Paci has held technical, operational and management positions and she has been instrumental in developing the corporate agenda on jobs, migration, gender and inequality. Prior to joining the World Bank, she was Associate Professor of Economics at City University (London) and Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex (UK). She has written extensively in the areas of labor economics, gender economics, inequality and poverty, jobs, and human development.

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 25

The Growth Elasticity of Poverty: Is Africa Any Different ?
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-02-01) Wu, Haoyu; Atamanov, Aziz; Bundervoet, Tom; Paci, Pierella
On current trends, the future of global poverty reduction will be determined by Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet even during Sub-Saharan Africa’s period of high economic growth — roughly corresponding to the first decade and a half of the 2000s — the extent to which this growth translated into improved living standards for African households was hotly debated. This paper revisits the issue of Sub-Saharan Africa’s relatively low growth elasticity of poverty using a sample of 575 successive and comparable growth spells between 1981 and 2021. The findings confirm that, even controlling for initial differences in poverty, income levels, and inequality, Sub-Saharan Africa consistently had a significantly lower growth elasticity of poverty relative to other regions over this period. The lower growth elasticity of poverty, which has remained unchanged over time, is due to a lower passthrough between growth in gross domestic product per capita (or growth in household final consumption expenditure as measured by national accounts) and growth in household consumption expenditures as measured from surveys. Given the low passthrough of economic growth to households, Africa thus needs higher rates of economic growth than its peer countries in other regions to achieve equal rates of poverty reduction. Given the challenge of achieving this in the current global economic environment, success in reducing global poverty will require a focused effort to strengthen the effect of aggregate economic growth on household welfare in Sub-Saharan Africa. The results suggest that this will require (i) improved provision of basic education services and basic infrastructure, (ii) faster structural transformation, and (iii) a decrease in the occurrence and persistence of violent conflicts.
Minimum Wages and Labor Supply in an Emerging Market: The Case of Mauritius
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-12) Asmal, Zaakhir; Bhorat, Haroon; Kanbur, Ravi; Ranzani, Marco; Paci, Pierella
This paper investigates the effect of multiple minimum wages, known as remuneration orders, on employment and working hours in Mauritius. Using data between 2004 and 2014, the analysis indicates that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wages brings about a slightly positive effect on employment in the covered sector, with an estimated employment elasticity of 0.113, which is within the range of elasticities found in previous studies of employment effects of minimum wages in low- and middle-income countries. The positive employment effect of minimum wages is also associated with a 2.3 percent increase in average working hours for men but a 1.8 percent decline in average working hours for women in the covered sector. In the uncovered sector, the significant positive effect along the intensive margin, estimated at 4.2 percent, is driven by changes in labor supply among men.
Measuring Gender Equality
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-04-18) Sajaia, Zurab; Posadas, Josefina; Paci, Pierella; Lokshin, Michael
Gender equality is a core development objective in its own right and also smart development policy and business practice. No society can develop sustainably without giving men and women equal power to shape their own lives and contribute to their families, communities, and countries. And yet, critical gender gaps continue to exist in all countries and across multiple dimensions. The gender module of the World Bank’s ADePT software platform produces a comprehensive set of tables and graphs using household surveys to help diagnose and analyze the prevailing gender inequalities at the country level and over time. This book provides a step-by-step guide to the use of the ADePT software and an introduction to its basic economic concepts and econometric methods. The module is organized around the framework proposed by the World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development. It covers gender differences in outcomes in three primary dimensions of gender equality: human capital (or endowments), economic opportunities, and voice and agency. Particular focus is given to the analysis and decomposition techniques that allow for further exploring of gender gaps in economic opportunities.
Structural Transformation, Productivity, and Employment in Ghana 1991-2012
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10) Paci, Pierella
Ghana’s recent economic growth was accompanied by significant structural transformation. Over the past two decades Ghana has enjoyed sustained economic growth combined with some degree of transformation away from agriculture. This shift was associated with a considerable increase in the relative share of services. In recent years, the industry share of GDP has also picked up although the growth of employment in that sector has been comparatively slow.
Poverty Reduction in Ghana—Progress and Challenges: Overview
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10) Molini, Vasco; Paci, Pierella
Ghana over the past two decades has enjoyed steady and robust growth, mainly through a modification in its economic structure: as the economy gradually shifted out of agriculture and into services, the country experienced noticeable advances in productivity. Agriculture's share of value added to GDP has declined at a faster rate since 2005, whereas the share of services has remained virtually unchanged. Employment has adjusted in line with the changes in the structure of the economy, with a progressive shift from the country side to urban areas. However, many challenges remain, in particular the fairly high share of the population still living in poverty and the persistent gender gaps in productive activities.
Poverty Reduction in Ghana: Progress and Challenges
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10) Molini, Vasco; Paci, Pierella
Ghana over the past two decades has enjoyed steady and robust growth, mainly through a modification in its economic structure: as the economy gradually shifted out of agriculture and into services, the country experienced noticeable advances in productivity. Agriculture's share of value added to GDP has declined at a faster rate since 2005, whereas the share of services has remained virtually unchanged. Employment has adjusted in line with the changes in the structure of the economy, with a progressive shift from the country side to urban areas. Educational attinmenst have improved, more people moved into cities and improved their household income, and the number of families living in poverty has noticeably decreased. Going forward, to realize its full potential Ghana must continue the stabilization program undertaken in 2014, with a sustained commitment to fiscal discipline. Additional priorities are to continue developing workers' skills, support further structural transformation, and expand the safety nets and income opportunities for large share of the population still living in poverty.
A Checklist to Avoid Pilot Failures : Lessons from a Set of Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiatives
(Taylor and Francis, 2014-10-09) Johansson de Silva, Sara; Paci, Pierella; Posadas, Josefina
Pilot programs have gained significance in donor-supported development interventions because of the growing emphasis on measuring impact. The Results-based initiatives (RBI) were conceived as pioneering pilots expected to acquire rigorous evidence on effective interventions to foster women’s economic empowerment. However, they fell short of providing clear or generalizable conclusions on women’s economic empowerment due to design and implementation problems. The RBI nevertheless offer important lessons on common traps in pilot design and implementation. This article synthesizes 10 lessons from the RBI as a checklist to avoid pilot failure, intended for practitioners in any area of development.
Working toward Better Pay : Earning Dynamics in Ghana and Tanzania
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014-05-29) Falco, Paolo; Kerr, Andrew; Paci, Pierella; Rijkers, Bob
Improving access to productive employment is a key policy challenge, especially in low-income countries (LICs), where the only asset in abundance is labor. Building on ongoing research on earnings mobility, this study uses unusually rich longitudinal data from Ghana and Tanzania to identify engines of, and barriers to, earnings and earnings mobility. It examines the role of individual characteristics such as gender, age, and skills and characteristics of the job, but it also focuses on the role of job switches for example, moves into and out of self-employment. It zooms in particularly on the drivers of transitions between low-paying and high-paying jobs, and addresses questions such as whether being low paid is a transitory or permanent phenomenon, and whether it has a scarring effect on an individual's employment prospects. The extent to which earnings dynamics differ for women and young adults is also discussed in detail. The cross-country comparison of earnings dynamics and labor market transitions helps shed light on the institutional factors that promote labor market mobility and entrepreneurship. The report is organized as follows: chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two presents a brief review of related literature. Chapter three gives a descriptive overview of the labor markets in the two countries. Chapter four examines the determinants of earnings levels. Chapter five examines determinants of earnings growth. Chapter six focuses on low-pay and high-pay transitions and analyzes whether the experience of being in a low-paying job undermines an individual's future earnings prospects. Chapter seven discusses key policy implications.
Working through the Crisis : Jobs and Policies in Developing Countries during the Great Recession
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014) Banerji, Arup; Paci, Pierella; Robalino, David; Banerji, Arup; Newhouse, David; Paci, Pierella; Robalino, David
This book looks back both at how the Great Recession affected employment outcomes in developing countries and at how governments responded. The chapters bring together a unique compilation of data and analysis from very different sources, including an inventory of policies implemented during the crisis among countries in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. The overall story is that the impacts of the crisis varied considerably. The effect depended on the size of the original shock, the channels through which it was manifested, the structure of institutions in the country -- especially labor institutions -- and the specific policy responses undertaken by countries in response to the shock. While these factors led outcomes to differ across the countries studied, a few common patterns emerged. In terms of impacts, overall adjustments involved reductions in earnings growth rather than employment growth, although the quality of employment was also affected. Youth were doubly affected, being more likely to both experience unemployment and reduced wages. Men seemed to have been more strongly affected than women. In most countries where data are available, there were no major differences between skilled and unskilled workers or those living in urban or rural areas. In terms of policy responses, this crisis was characterized by a high prevalence of active interventions in the labor market and the expansion of income protection systems, as well as countercyclical stimulus. Countercyclical stimulus measures in a number of countries, when timed well and sufficiently large to mitigate the shock, were effective in reducing adverse employment effects. Specific sectoral stimulus policies also had positive effects when well-targeted. But social protection and labor market policy responses were often ad-hoc and not in line with the types of adjustments that were taking place. As a result, these policies and programs did not necessarily reach those who needed them the most and typically were biased toward formal sector workers. In retrospect, there is a sense that developing countries were not well prepared to deal with the effects of the Great Recession, suggesting room for important reforms to social protection and labor policies moving forward.
Lessons Learned and Not Yet Learned from a Multicountry Initiative on Women's Economic Empowerment
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014) Johansson de Silva, Sara; Paci, Pierella; Posadas, Josefina
The Results-Based Initiatives (RBI), launched in 2007, were a pioneering attempt to provide comprehensive, coherent, and rigorous evidence on effective interventions to foster the economic empowerment of women. The RBI comprised five small pilots with built-in impact evaluation designed to identify what works best in promoting better outcomes for women as entrepreneurs, wage earners or farmers, under different country contexts. The program was an innovative experiment in an important policy area. While there is a clear rationale for policy interventions to help remove constraints to women’s economic empowerment, knowledge of what interventions work best in different settings remains limited. When the RBI were conceived, rigorous evidence in this area was close to nonexistent because no systematic impact evaluations had been carried out in developing countries. However, the RBI fell short of meeting several of their ambitious objectives. This study highlights lessons from the RBI with respect to both the impact of the interventions and dos and don’ts in the design and implementation of pilots. Regarding the impact on economic opportunities, the interventions did not generally increase women’s earnings, with the exception of the Peru pilot. However, women who received training generally appreciated the access to new information and felt their skills and their involvement in business associations and networks had increased. However, it would be wrong to conclude that these interventions were not effective. The lack of robust positive impact may be due to the evaluations being conducted too soon to show fully the long-term effects of the interventions, or to problems in the design, implementation, or measurement of pilot outcomes. In particular, there was a clear need of an “early warning system” to synchronize the corrections in the interventions with the design of the impact evaluation. The RBI were overambitious regarding what could be achieved with a limited budget and a short time frame.