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Vishwanath, Tara

Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank

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Macroeconomics, Development, Labor Economics

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Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank

Last updated January 31, 2023

Biography

Tara Vishwanath is a Lead Economist and a Global Lead of the Global Solutions Group for Welfare Implications of Climate, Fragility, and Conflict Risks in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank. Prior to joining the Africa Region, she led the poverty program in Middle East and North Africa and South Asia regions. Before joining the World Bank, she was a professor of economics at Northwestern University and has published widely in leading international economics journals on economic theory, labor economics, and development. She holds a doctorate in economics from Cornell University.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 31

Leveraging Land to Enable Urban Transformation : Lessons from Global Experience

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01) Lozano-Gracia, Nancy ; Young, Cheryl ; Lall, Somik V. ; Vishwanath, Tara

Around the world, in both developed and developing countries, policy makers use a variety of tools to manage and accommodate urban growth and redevelopment. Government officials have three main concerns in terms of land policy: (i) accommodating urban expansion, (ii) providing infrastructure, and (iii) managing density. Together, the planning for infrastructure and urban expansion, land use, and density policies combine to shape the spatial structure of cities. This paper reviews global experience on using land based instruments to accommodate urban development and financing infrastructure. The review suggests that urban transformation is most efficient when land markets are fluid, particularly when they are grounded in strong institutions that (i) assign and protect property rights, (ii) enable independent valuation and public dissemination of land values across uses, and (iii) enable the judicial system to handle disputes that may arise in the process.
Promoting Youth Opportunities and Participation in Morocco

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-06) La Cava, Gloria ; Vishwanath, Tara ; Morgandi, Matteo ; Serajuddin, Umar ; Ivanic, Maros ; Jillson, Irene

This quick note is based on the report of the same name which was prepared just prior to the Arab Spring. The study anticipates the demands for social and economic inclusion articulated by Moroccan young people, especially February 2011. Since then, these demands have been amplified and reached a new level of urgency. This study adopts a mixed method approach combining an innovative quantitative instrument with qualitative and institutional analysis. The goal is to provide policy makers with a nuanced analysis of barriers to employment and active civic participation encountered by young people aged 15 to 29 years so as to tailor youth interventions more effectively. It identifies a wide range of recommendations available to support youth-inclusive activities and policies, and a roadmap for integrated youth investments.
Toward Transparency : New Approaches and Their Application to Financial Markets

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-04) Vishwanath, Tara ; Kaufmann, Daniel

The Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s not only highlighted the welfare consequences of transparency in the financial sector but also linked this relatively narrow problem to the broader context of transparency in governance. It has been observed that objections to transparency, often on flimsy pretexts, are common even in industrialized countries. This article argues that transparency is indispensable to the financial sector and describes its desirable characteristics: access, timeliness, relevance, and quality. The authors emphasize the need to weigh the costs and benefits of a more transparent regulatory policy, and they explore the connection between information imperfections, macroeconomic policy, and questions of risk. The article argues for developing institutional infrastructure, standards, and accounting practices that promote transparency, implementing incentives for disclosure and establishing regulations to minimize the perverse incentives generated by safety net arrangements, such as deposit insurance. Because institutional development is gradual, the authors contend that relatively simple regulations, such as limits on credit expansion, may be the most reasonable option for developing countries. They show that transparency has absolute limits because of the lack of adequate enforcement and argue that adequate enforcement may be predicated on broader reforms in the public sector.
Soft Skills or Hard Cash? The Impact of Training and Wage Subsidy Programs on Female Youth Employment in Jordan

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-07) Groh, Matthew ; Krishnan, Nandini ; McKenzie, David ; Vishwanath, Tara

Throughout the Middle East, unemployment rates of educated youth have been persistently high and female labor force participation, low. This paper studies the impact of a randomized experiment in Jordan designed to assist female community college graduates find employment. One randomly chosen group of graduates was given a voucher that would pay an employer a subsidy equivalent to the minimum wage for up to 6 months if they hired the graduate; a second group was invited to attend 45 hours of employability skills training designed to provide them with the soft skills employers say graduates often lack; a third group was offered both interventions; and the fourth group forms the control group. The analysis finds that the job voucher led to a 40 percentage point increase in employment in the short-run, but that most of this employment is not formal, and that the average effect is much smaller and no longer statistically significant 4 months after the voucher period has ended. The voucher does appear to have persistent impacts outside the capital, where it almost doubles the employment rate of graduates, but this appears likely to largely reflect displacement effects. Soft-skills training has no average impact on employment, although again there is a weakly significant impact outside the capital. The authors elicit the expectations of academics and development professionals to demonstrate that these findings are novel and unexpected. The results suggest that wage subsidies can help increase employment in the short term, but are not a panacea for the problems of high urban female youth unemployment.
Providing Social Protection and Livelihood Support During Post-Earthquake Recovery

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-12) Vishwanath, Tara ; Yu, Xiaoqing

Providing basic income and employment support is an essential component of the government efforts to rebuild the province of Sichuan from the devastation caused by the earthquake. The primary objective of such policies is to protect the most vulnerable households in the affected communities. These policies can also have benefits in terms of rejuvenating local economic activities by creating purchasing power in affected areas, as well as rebuilding severely damaged basic infrastructure by integrating select reconstruction activities with social protection programs. This note focuses on two main approaches: cash transfer and public works programs. After the South Asia earthquake in 2005, Pakistan used a cash transfer program to protect the vulnerable and help regenerate local economies. To illustrate how a public works program can be a flexible instrument for providing short-term income support while at the same time contributing to the recovery of essential public infrastructure, the experience of several countries is introduced. Building on these country experiences, the note discusses key lessons relevant for China.
Jordan Now : New Work Opportunities for Women

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-10) Vishwanath, Tara ; Krishnan, Nandini

Improving women's access to economic opportunities remains an important development challenge for the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). Although impressive strides have been made region-wide in improving women's educational and health outcomes, the region's low female labor force participation rates are not commensurate with these achievements. The youth, especially young women, are very vulnerable, facing significantly higher rates of unemployment. Productive use of this increasingly well educated portion of the labor force promises faster and more sustained economic growth for the region as a whole. In this context, MENA countries are looking at various policies and programs to change this situation. This quick note looks at a pilot program in Jordan which is attempting to tackle this challenge.
Gender in the Middle East and North Africa : Progress and Remaining Challenges

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-03) Vishwanath, Tara ; Krishnan, Nandini

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has made impressive strides in reducing gender gaps in human development. The ratio of girls to boys in primary and secondary education is 0.96, women in the region are more likely than men to attend university, maternal mortality is around 200 deaths per 100,000 live births (compared to a world average of 400 deaths), and fertility rates have decreased in the past decade. Although gender gaps in school completion rates still exist in some MENA countries, most countries are well on their way to achieving gender parity in key human development indicators.
Ex-Post Impact Evaluation of an Export Promotion Matching Grant : Tunisia's Second EMAF

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-05) Gourdon, J. ; Marchat, J.M. ; Sharma, S. ; Vishwanath, T.

Among the root causes of the current political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are the large numbers of unemployed but increasingly educated youth. For the region to achieve stability, it will have to ensure a more inclusive and faster growth path and find enough jobs for this cohort. Exports will play a key role in moving in this direction and this fast brief examines the impact of Matching Grants (MG) in supporting exports. This quick note is another addition to this body of work and presents results from one of the first ex-post Impact Evaluation (IE) of an active export promotion MG in a middle income country, Tunisia. This IE was undertaken in preparation of a lending operation. Finally, it must be noted that with the matching process, the untreated group with high propensity score will be more used for comparison than those with low propensity score so this will give more weight to firms that were 'targeted' by second Export Market Access Fund (EMAF). Hence it is key to see if the firms especially targeted by second EMAF would have done better or worse without the support.
Testing the Importance of Search Frictions, Matching, and Reservation Prestige through Randomized Experiments in Jordan

(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-09-01) Groh, Matthew ; McKenzie, David ; Shammout, Nour ; Vishwanath, Tara

Unemployment rates for tertiary-educated youth in Jordan are high, as is the duration of unemployment. Two randomized experiments in Jordan were used to test different theories that may explain this phenomenon. The first experiment tested the role of search and matching frictions by providing firms and job candidates with an intensive screening and matching service based on educational backgrounds and psychometric assessments. Although more than 1,000 matches were made, youth rejected the opportunity to even have an interview in 28 percent of cases, and when a job offer was received, they rejected this offer or quickly quit the job 83 percent of the time. A second experiment built on the first by examining the willingness of educated, unemployed youth to apply for jobs of varying levels of prestige. Youth applied to only a small proportion of the job openings they were told about, with application rates higher for higher prestige jobs than lower prestige jobs. Youth failed to show up for the majority of interviews scheduled for low prestige jobs. The results suggest that reservation prestige is an important factor underlying the unemployment of educated Jordanian youth.
Testing Job Matching Services for Unemployed Educated Youth in Jordan

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-09) Groh, Matthew ; McKenzie, David ; Shammout, Nour ; Vishwanath, Tara

This note tests the extent to which search and matching frictions are the cause of high levels of unemployment for educated youth in Jordan, and whether a job matching service can reduce unemployment.