Person:
Del Carpio, Ximena Vanessa
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Migration,
Skills,
Labor market,
Impact of social policies,
Labor regulations,
Minimum wage,
Education,
Health,
Gender
Degrees
External Links
Departments
Europe and Central Asia
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Ximena Vanessa Del Carpio is the World Bank Program Leader in Turkey, Europe and Central Asia region. Under the leadership of the Country Director, she leads the program on Human Development Sectors (including Education, Health, Labor Markets, Social Inclusion, Jobs, Youth and Gender) as well as the Refugee Agenda. Prior to this, Del Carpio was a Senior Economist in the Social Protection and Labor global practice in Europe and Central Asia, and East Asia and Pacific. She also worked in the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group and the Human Development Network where she focused on evaluating the impact of various economic development programs in countries throughout Latin America and Africa. Before joining the World Bank, Del Carpio worked at the RAND Corporation and at the Minority Business Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Del Carpio is originally from Peru, has a PhD in Political Economics from the University of Southern California and holds a dual MBA and Public Policy.
Publication Search Results
1 - 7 of 7
-
Publication
Implications of Minimum Wage Increases on Labor Market Dynamics: Lessons for Emerging Economies
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-04)This paper offers evidence on the relationship between the minimum wage and unemployment and informal employment, and identifies some of the lessons learned on the potential effects of increasing the minimum wage. Most of the evidence suggests that sizable increases in the minimum wage are likely to exacerbate unemployment and the prevalence of informal employment, which could have negative consequences for labor productivity and businesses as a result of reduced investment in employee training and loss of productive workers. This outcome occurs when businesses adopt the main channels available for absorbing increased labor costs. The majority of the empirical evidence suggests that the effects of minimum wage increases on unemployment and the demand for labor are unclear. The outcome depends in large part on the specific characteristics of the labor markets and the degree of compliance with the minimum wage law. Most of those affected by minimum wage increases are less qualified workers. In Latin American and Asia, differences in the effects of minimum wage increases depend largely on the size and type of firms. In countries with high levels of informal employment, minimum wage increases can increase informal employment, since the formal workers who lose their jobs are absorbed by the informal sector of the economy. In general, businesses have five mechanisms for absorbing the added labor costs. Given the characteristics of the labor market in emerging economies, it is likely that businesses faced with increased labor costs will resort to less than optimal channels, which will tend to affect their productivity and the labor market in general. -
Publication
Quality of Management of Firms in Turkey
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019-04-01)This paper examines the quality of management practices in Turkey and its relation to other firm-level characteristics such as firm performance, competition, and type of ownership. A key finding is that management quality is positively correlated with productivity and quality of jobs across subsectors of manufacturing. But the average score of management quality in Turkey is relatively low compared to peer countries. Factors such as firm size, level of human capital of the workforce, export intensity of the firm, openness to international markets, level of hierarchy in decision making, and degree of managerial autonomy are found to be important determinants of managerial practices in Turkey. Thus, improvements in these dimensions, through relevant policies and incentives, can have a positive effect on the quality of firm management going forward.Such improvements in management practices—particularly in the two dimensions whereTurkey scores lowest: monitoring and targeting—can have positive effects on firmperformance and lead to increases in the creation of quality jobs. -
Publication
The Impact of Syrians Refugees on the Turkish Labor Market
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-08)Civil war in Syria has resulted in more than four million refugees fleeing the country, of which 1.8 million have found refuge in Turkey, making it the largest refugee-hosting country worldwide. This paper combines newly available data on the 2014 distribution of Syrian refugees across subregions of Turkey with the Turkish Labour Force Survey, to assess the impact on Turkish labor market conditions. Using a novel instrument, the analysis finds that the refugees, who overwhelmingly do not have work permits, result in the large-scale displacement of informal, low-educated, female Turkish workers, especially in agriculture. While there is net displacement, the inflow of refugees also creates higher-wage formal jobs, allowing for occupational upgrading of Turkish workers. Average Turkish wages have increased primarily as the composition of the employed has changed because of the inflow of refugees. -
Publication
Measuring the Quality of Jobs in Turkey
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-12)This paper introduces a new Job Quality Index that measures the quality of jobs in Turkey over the last decade. While the main focus is on wage employment – which in 2016 accounts for nearly 73 percent of all workers – the paper also discusses job quality of the self-employed and unpaid family workers. Based on a comprehensive definition of what constitutes a good job, the index consists of 6 dimensions covering aspects such as adherence to Labor Law regulations, working conditions, adequate linkage between wage and job, productive usage and adaptability of skills, career opportunities and employment resilience. The quality of wage employment improved at the aggregate level from 2009 until 2016; with sharper improvements in job quality between 2009 and 2012. Improvements are largely the result of compositional changes toward more formal sector wage jobs; yet the distribution of job quality remains widespread, across economic sectors, occupational categories and geographic locations. The paper delves deep into each dimension of a good job and highlights the main drivers of good (and bad) jobs in Turkey and identifies the types of reforms that are needed to enable workers to benefit from increasing growth while adapting to changing labor market conditions. Lastly, the findings from this paper show that by measuring job quality policymakers can identify what jobs should be incentivized to ensure that job growth is accompanied by job quality. -
Publication
Turkey Jobs Diagnostic
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019)The main challenge for achieving a country’s development goals is the creation of more, better and inclusive jobs, as economic growth needs to be accompanied by job growth if the poor are going to benefit to any significant extent. Turkey’s rapid economic growth since the early 2000s has been studied by the World Bank and others, highlighting the role of comprehensive reforms that promoted the country’s integration into the global economy, facilitated structural change, and catalyzed job creation. Therefore, the objective of this report is to present a comprehensive Jobs Diagnostic for Turkey with a view to promoting inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction. The report also aims to lay the evidence base to support policy dialogue in the country and provide input for the development of a national jobs strategy for the delivery of more, better, and inclusive jobs in Turkey. Understanding the factors that influence the creation of more, better and inclusive jobs essentially requires a multisectoral approach. Therefore, this jobs diagnostic aims to assess the relationships between supply- and demand-side factors. -
Publication
Global Migration of Talent and Tax Incentives: Evidence from Malaysia's Returning Expert Program
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-11)This paper presents the first evidence on the efficacy of a major program designed to encourage the return migration of high-skilled individuals. The Malaysian Returning Expert Program targets high-skilled Malaysians abroad and provides them with tax incentives to return. At several eligibility thresholds, the probability of acceptance into the program increases discontinuously. Using administrative data on applicants, the analysis is able to identify the impact of acceptance to the Returning Expert Program on the probability of returning to Malaysia. The fuzzy regression discontinuity design estimates suggest that program approval increases the return probability by 40 percent for applicants with a preexisting job offer in Malaysia. There is no significant treatment effect for those who apply without a job offer. The estimated migration elasticity with respect to the net-of-tax rate, averaged across all applicants, is 1.2. Fiscal cost-benefit analysis of the Returning Expert Program finds a modest net fiscal effect of the program, between minus $6,900 and plus $4,200 per applicant, suggesting that the program roughly pays for itself. -
Publication
The Impacts of COVID-19 on Informal Labor Markets: Evidence from Peru
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05)This paper provides new evidence on the impacts of the COVID-19 economic crisis on a labor market with a high prevalence of informality. The analysis uses a rich longitudinal household survey for Peru that contains a host of individual and job outcomes before and during the first months of the lockdown in 2020. The findings show that workers who had jobs in non-essential and informal sectors were significantly more likely to become unemployed. In contrast to developed countries, having a job amenable to working from home is not correlated with job loss when controlling for informal status. This is consistent with the high level of labor market segmentation observed in Peru, where high-skilled occupations are disproportionately concentrated in the formal sector, which was also better targeted by policies aimed at supporting firms and job protection during the crisis. In addition, the findings show that women were more likely to lose their jobs because female-dominated sectors are more intensive in face-to-face interactions and thereby more affected by social distancing measures. Increased childcare responsibilities also help explain the worse impacts on women in rural areas. Finally, workers who depended on public transportation before the crisis were more likely to lose their jobs during the early months of the pandemic.