Publication:
The Large-Firm Wage Premium in Developing Economies

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (436.12 KB)
542 downloads
Published
2019-09
ISSN
Date
2019-09-12
Author(s)
Reed, Tristan
Editor(s)
Abstract
Large firms pay higher wages. In developing economies, the large-firm wage premium is comparable to the average gap between male and female wages, or two-thirds of the gap between urban and rural wages. There is substantial variation across countries in the share of the premium that is explained by sorting of human capital into large firms. The average large-firm wage premium declines in national income and has declined over time. Across industries, it is highest in public utilities and commerce. These stylized facts suggest several hypotheses about differences between labor markets in developing and advanced economies.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Reed, Tristan; Tran, Trang Thu. 2019. The Large-Firm Wage Premium in Developing Economies. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8997. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32371 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
  • Publication
    The Macroeconomic Implications of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Options
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-29) Abalo, Kodzovi; Boehlert, Brent; Bui, Thanh; Burns, Andrew; Castillo, Diego; Chewpreecha, Unnada; Haider, Alexander; Hallegatte, Stephane; Jooste, Charl; McIsaac, Florent; Ruberl, Heather; Smet, Kim; Strzepek, Ken
    Estimating the macroeconomic implications of climate change impacts and adaptation options is a topic of intense research. This paper presents a framework in the World Bank's macrostructural model to assess climate-related damages. This approach has been used in many Country Climate and Development Reports, a World Bank diagnostic that identifies priorities to ensure continued development in spite of climate change and climate policy objectives. The methodology captures a set of impact channels through which climate change affects the economy by (1) connecting a set of biophysical models to the macroeconomic model and (2) exploring a set of development and climate scenarios. The paper summarizes the results for five countries, highlighting the sources and magnitudes of their vulnerability --- with estimated gross domestic product losses in 2050 exceeding 10 percent of gross domestic product in some countries and scenarios, although only a small set of impact channels is included. The paper also presents estimates of the macroeconomic gains from sector-level adaptation interventions, considering their upfront costs and avoided climate impacts and finding significant net gross domestic product gains from adaptation opportunities identified in the Country Climate and Development Reports. Finally, the paper discusses the limits of current modeling approaches, and their complementarity with empirical approaches based on historical data series. The integrated modeling approach proposed in this paper can inform policymakers as they make proactive decisions on climate change adaptation and resilience.
  • Publication
    South Africa’s Fragmented Cities: The Unequal Burden of Labor Market Frictions
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2026-01-08) Baez, Javier E.; Kshirsagar, Varun
    Using high-resolution administrative, census, and satellite data, this paper shows that South African cities are characterized by spatial mismatches between where people live and where jobs are located, relative to 20 global peers. Areas within 5 kilometers of commercial centers have 9,300 fewer residents per square kilometer than expected, which is 60 percent below the global median. Poor, dense neighborhoods are most affected. In Johannesburg, a 10-percentile increase in distance from the nearest business hub corresponds to a 3.7-percentile drop in asset wealth (a proxy of household wellbeing) and 4.9-percentile drop in employment. In Cape Town, the declines are 4.0 and 3.7 percentiles, respectively. Employment is 87 percent lower in the poorest decile than the richest in Johannesburg and 61 percent lower in Cape Town. These findings suggest that South Africa’s spatial organization of people and economic activity constrains agglomeration and reinforces inequality. This methodology provides a scalable and standardized data-driven framework to analyze spatial accessibility and agglomeration frictions in complex, data-constrained urban systems.
  • Publication
    The Evolution of Local Participatory Democracy in Nepal
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-05) Bhusal, Thaneshwar; Breen, Michael G; Rao, Vijayendra
    Nepal is, according to its constitution, among the world’s most decentralized countries, with a long and complex tradition of local-level public participation. This paper traces the evolution of Nepal’s modern participatory institutions, examining the extent to which they are “induced” by external interventions versus being “organically” rooted in indigenous practices. The paper identifies three broad phases: an initial focus on participation in project implementation; a subsequent phase that expanded citizen engagement; and a third phase of citizen empowerment, culminating in the 2015 federal constitution, which granted unprecedented local autonomy. The analysis yields five key findings. First, over the past 50 years, successive reforms have progressively expanded opportunities for citizens to influence local decision-making. Second, these reforms have integrated traditional participatory mechanisms into formal institutions of local government. Third, although central-level initiatives exist, most participatory platforms continue to operate at the local level. Fourth, the federal constitution has created a new landscape of local democracy, embedding autonomy and accountability. Fifth, although they are still valued in many ethnic and territorial communities, traditional participatory practices are gradually disappearing. The paper concludes by offering policy recommendations to help donor agencies and governments strengthen Nepal’s democratic trajectory. It argues that effective interventions should build on Nepal’s deep participatory traditions while recognizing the constitutional reality of far-reaching local autonomy.
  • Publication
    Institutional Capacity for Policy Implementation: An Analytical Framework
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2026-01-07) Kim, Galileu; Kumar, Tanu; Ramalho, Rita; Russell, Stuart
    State capacity is an important prerequisite for policy implementation, yet at the country level it is difficult to measure, assess, and reform. This paper proposes a focus on institutional capacity: the ability of public institutions to implement the specific policy mandates for which they are responsible. Based on a review of existing literature, the paper defines the different dimensions that compose institutional capacity and groups them into two cross-cutting categories: organizational dimensions (personnel, financial resources, information systems, and management practices) and governance dimensions (transparency, independence, and accountability). The paper proposes measures for organizational and governance dimensions using existing data, shows intra-institutional variation of these measures within countries, and discusses how new data could be collected for better measurement of these concepts. Finally, the paper illustrates how the framework can be used to diagnose the sources of common problems related to weak policy implementation.
  • Publication
    Closing the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship: Overcoming Challenges in Law and Practice for Female Entrepreneurs
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2026-01-07) Behr, Daniela M.; Xi, Yue
    Despite significant strides toward gender equality, women around the world continue to encounter systemic obstacles that hinder their entrepreneurial success. This paper systematically reviews the literature on the barriers female entrepreneurs face and the solutions proposed to overcome these challenges. It discusses institutional factors, financial factors, human capital factors, and social and cultural factors. The literature overview is complemented by a series of stylized facts that illustrate how overcoming some of these existing barriers is correlated with improved women’s entrepreneurship and female labor force participation, drawing on the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law database as well as the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys. The findings underscore the need for creating an enabling environment where women can thrive as entrepreneurs.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Foreign Wage Premium, Gender and Education : Insights from Vietnam Household Surveys
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-04) Fukase, Emiko
    This paper investigates the differential impacts of foreign ownership on wages for different types of workers (in terms of educational background and gender) in Vietnam using the Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys of 2002 and 2004. Whereas most previous studies have compared wage levels between foreign and domestic sectors using firm-level data (thus excluding the informal sector), one advantage of using the Living Standards Surveys in this paper is that the data allow wage comparison analyses to extend to the informal wage sector. A series of Mincerian earnings equations and worker-specific fixed effects models are estimated. Several findings emerge. First, foreign firms pay higher wages relative to their domestic counterparts after controlling for workers personal characteristics. Second, the higher the individual workers' levels of education, the larger on average are the wage premiums for those who work for foreign firms. Third, longer hours of work in foreign firm jobs relative to working in the informal wage sector are an important component of the wage premium. Finally, unskilled women experience a larger foreign wage premium than unskilled men, reflecting the low earning opportunities for women and a higher gender gap in the informal wage sector.
  • Publication
    Asymmetries in the Union Wage Premium in Ghana
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004-05) Blunch, Niels-Hugo; Verner, Dorte
    The article uses a matched employer-employee data set for Ghana and adopts a quantile regression approach that allows the effects of unionization to vary across the conditional wage distribution. It is shown that if there are intrafirm differences in unionization, there does appear to be a premium among poorer paid workers in the formal sector. Although this cannot be given a causal interpretation, it suggests important issues about how unions may affect one part of the labor market.
  • Publication
    Civil Conflict and Firm Performance : Evidence from Cote d'Ivoire
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-10) Richmond, Christine; Klapper, Leora; Tran, Trang
    This paper investigates the impact of political instability and civil conflict on firms. It studies the unrest in Cote d'Ivoire that began in 2000, using a census of all registered firms for the years 1998-2003. The analysis uses structural estimates of the production function and exploits spatial variations in conflict intensity to derive the cost of conflict on firms in terms of productivity loss. The results indicate that the conflict led to an average 16-23 percent drop in firm total factor productivity and the decline is 5-10 percentage points larger for firms that are owned by or employing foreigners. These results are consistent with anecdotal evidence of increasing violent attacks and looting of foreigners and their businesses during the conflict. The results suggest increases in operating costs is a possible channel driving this impact. Finally, the paper investigates whether firms responded by hiring fewer foreign workers and finds evidence supporting this hypothesis.
  • Publication
    Impacts of COVID-19 on Firms in Vietnam, Report No. 1
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-09) Tan, Shawn; Tran, Trang
    Vietnam reacted early to the spread of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) by imposing social distancing measures and mobility restrictions, culminating in a national lockdown in April 2020. In order to understand the impact of COVID-19 on Vietnamese firms, the business plus survey (BPS) was implemented to access the various channels of impact of the pandemic on firms, their adjustment strategies, and public policy responses. The first round of the BPS was conducted in June 2020 and collected responses from 499 firms through a mix of phone and in-person interviews. The survey results indicated that the lockdown had a large temporary effect on the operational status of firms.
  • Publication
    Do Innovative Firms Pay Higher Wages? Micro-Level Evidence from Brazil
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10) Soares Martins-Neto, Antonio; Cirera, Xavier
    Several studies have documented a positive and causal relationship product or process innovation -- and labor productivity. Given the links between labor productivity and wages, a likely implication of this positive relationship is that innovation is associated with higher wages of more productive firms. This paper explores the relationship between innovation and wages using Brazil's employer-employee census and a novel measure of innovation derived from the share of technical and scientific occupations of workers in the firm. The results show a robust and positive wage premium associated with innovative firms. The decomposition of this innovation-related wage premium suggests a series of important stylized facts: (i) the innovation wage premium is larger for manufacturing but also positive and significant for agriculture and services; (ii) it is larger for large firms, but also positive and significant for all firm size categories including micro firms; and (iii) it is larger for medium- and low-skill occupations, although this depends on the use of firm fixed effects. More importantly, the paper explores the causality between innovation and wages and finds empirical support for the ideas that “self-selection”—firms that innovate already pay higher wages before becoming innovators -- and increases in wages associated with starting innovation activity, which are persistent for three years after firms start innovating.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Fall 2025: Jobs and Prosperity
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-07) Cusolito, Ana Paula; Izvorski, Ivailo; Kasyanenko, Sergiy; Lokshin, Michael M.; Torre, Iván
    Economic growth in Europe and Central Asia eased to 2.4 percent in 2025, reflecting a sharp slowdown in the Russian Federation. Outside Russia, growth momentum remains broadly resilient, supported by private consumption, infrastructure spending, and a gradual recovery in trade. While a modest pickup is expected in 2026–27, growth is likely to remain well below the 2000–19 average. In this slow-growth environment, downside risks dominate, with the potential for setbacks in reforms posing a significant threat to investor confidence, private sector dynamism, and job creation.  The region's labor market shows signs of resilience but faces deep-rooted structural challenges. Since the start of transition from planned to market in the early 1990s, employment has grown faster than the region's population, driven by rising labor force participation and a shift out of agriculture. Yet most new jobs are in low-productivity services, and productivity growth has stalled. Demographic pressures — aging, shrinking workforces, and emigration —add to the strain. Structural bottlenecks, including weak competition, limited access to finance, and outdated skills systems, constrain firm growth and innovation. The report calls for a three-pillar reform agenda: invest in foundational infrastructure for jobs, strengthen the business environment, and mobilize private capital. Targeting five priority sectors—manufacturing, agribusiness, tourism, healthcare, and energy—can help turn growth into better jobs and shared prosperity.
  • Publication
    The Global Findex Database 2025: Connectivity and Financial Inclusion in the Digital Economy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-16) Klapper, Leora; Singer, Dorothe; Starita, Laura; Norris, Alexandra
    The Global Findex 2025 reveals how mobile technology is equipping more adults around the world to own and use financial accounts to save formally, access credit, make and receive digital payments, and pursue opportunities. Including the inaugural Global Findex Digital Connectivity Tracker, this fifth edition of Global Findex presents new insights on the interactions among mobile phone ownership, internet use, and financial inclusion. The Global Findex is the world’s most comprehensive database on digital and financial inclusion. It is also the only global source of comparable demand-side data, allowing cross-country analysis of how adults access and use mobile phones, the internet, and financial accounts to reach digital information and resources, save, borrow, make payments, and manage their financial health. Data for the Global Findex 2025 were collected from nationally representative surveys of about 145,000 adults in 141 economies. The latest edition follows the 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2021 editions and includes new series measuring mobile phone ownership and internet use, digital safety, and frequency of transactions using financial services. The Global Findex 2025 is an indispensable resource for policy makers in the fields of digital connectivity and financial inclusion, as well as for practitioners, researchers, and development professionals.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Early Impacts of Indonesia’s Investment Reforms
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-07-10) Montfaucon, Angella Faith; Senelwa, Victor Kidake; Doarest, Aufa
    The Indonesian government implemented comprehensive investment reforms in 2021 to encourage investment inflows and related positive impacts. Compared to the previous investment regulation in 2016, the new decree removed foreign direct investment restrictions in over 500 business activities. By estimating the difference in difference in difference event study model, this paper empirically assesses the response in (realized and planned) foreign direct investment and realized domestic direct investment to the reforms. The paper also assesses whether there was growth in investments in fully liberalized sectors linked to Sustainable Development Goals as a proxy for the quality of investment. The results suggest that the investment reforms were associated with increases in realized foreign direct investment, realized direct domestic investment, and planned foreign direct investment, especially in fully liberalized sectors, while there was a decline in all three types of investments in the non-liberalized sectors. The results for planned foreign direct investment suggest that the increase in fully liberalized sectors is likely to continue. The results on direct domestic investment suggest a possible crowding-in effect. Among the fully liberalized sectors, the base metal industry was a key driver of growth, and sectors linked to Sustainable Development Goals sectors had mixed results. The findings provide suggestive evidence of the complementary effect of trade reforms, although the analysis does not specify which of the several reforms may have led to the increase. These results are robust when the possible effects of Covid-19 recovery and other macroeconomic factors are controlled for. These results are also robust to alternative event study models. Further analysis would be needed to observe the trajectory in both the quality and quantity of investment going forward, the distributional effects and the needed complementary reforms to ensure sustainable gains beyond the short run.
  • Publication
    Global Economic Prospects, June 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-10) World Bank
    The global economy is facing another substantial headwind, emanating largely from an increase in trade tensions and heightened global policy uncertainty. For emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), the ability to boost job creation and reduce extreme poverty has declined. Key downside risks include a further escalation of trade barriers and continued policy uncertainty. These challenges are exacerbated by subdued foreign direct investment into EMDEs. Global cooperation is needed to restore a more stable international trade environment and scale up support for vulnerable countries grappling with conflict, debt burdens, and climate change. Domestic policy action is also critical to contain inflation risks and strengthen fiscal resilience. To accelerate job creation and long-term growth, structural reforms must focus on raising institutional quality, attracting private investment, and strengthening human capital and labor markets. Countries in fragile and conflict situations face daunting development challenges that will require tailored domestic policy reforms and well-coordinated multilateral support.