Publication: When Prosperity is Not Shared : The Weak Links between Growth and Equity in the Dominican Republic
Loading...
Files in English
1,631 downloads
76 downloads
162 downloads
62 downloads
99 downloads
58 downloads
Published
2014-01
ISSN
Date
2014-04-16
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Dominican Republic has low economic mobility, with less than 2 percent of its people climbing to a higher income group during the decade, compared to an average 41 percent in the Latin America and Caribbean region as a whole. Despite improving access to basic goods and services such as water and education, coverage and quality remain uneven, thus limiting the economic opportunities of many disadvantaged people. This reflects their inability to influence the system to their benefit, a manifestation of weak political agency. This report uses a comprehensive definition of "equity" which entails that citizens must have equal access to opportunities, be able to live in dignity, and have the autonomy and voice to participate fully in their communities and decide on life plans that they have reason to value. This report identifies three broad goals for addressing the underlying causes of economic inequity in the Dominican Republic: (1) promote equitable, efficient, and sustainable fiscal policy; (2) build fair, transparent, and efficient institutions that will improve the provision and quality of public goods and services, expand economic opportunities, increase upward mobility, and better protect economically vulnerable Dominicans; and (3) strengthen access of the poor to labor markets and increase the demand for their labor, so as to make efficient use of human capital and allow the poor to benefit from economic growth. The analysis presented in this study analyzes mobility within generations by measuring directional income movement, that is, the net upward or downward movement in individual incomes over time. Serious analytical efforts should be devoted to understanding the apparent disconnection between macro and micro data that hinders the ability of national statistics to accurately reflect macroeconomic and social progress.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2014. When Prosperity is Not Shared : The Weak Links between Growth and Equity in the Dominican Republic. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17826 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Niger : Investing for Prosperity - A Poverty Assessment(Washington, DC, 2012-10)This report examines poverty trends and distribution of the poor in this larger context, paying particular attention to the most recent past. The report contributes to our understanding of the progress made in combating poverty in three ways. First, it updates our knowledge of poverty outcomes by examining the trends in poverty and vulnerability, as well as the profile and distribution of the poor and vulnerable across the country. Second it looks at the most common shocks, and their scale and influence on the welfare of the population. Third, it highlights the progress the country has made in improving opportunities for acquiring human capital and increasing incomes in rural areas. In this respect the report examines changes in access to education and health and improvements in productivity and income in small holder agriculture. It also explores the potential impact of public investments in agriculture. The report finds that, the biggest achievement in the last decade has been the substantive improvement in opportunities to acquire human capital.Publication Cameroon Social Safety Nets(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-06)This report lays the groundwork for a safety net system that can address the needs of the poor in Cameroon. Cameroon does not have a coordinated system of safety nets; rather, small, isolated interventions which together do not address the needs. Moreover, food and fuel price subsidies which mainly benefit the rich cost around 2 percent of GDP/year much more than total safety net spending. There is a need for a social protection strategy and an effective safety net system to address chronic poverty and food insecurity in Cameroon. This strategy should identify risks and vulnerabilities so they can be addressed by appropriate programs. Investments in human capital and in geographic areas most affected by poverty the North and Far North should be priority.Publication Cameroon : Social Safety Nets(Washington, DC, 2012-06)This report responds to the Government of Cameroon's strong interest in strengthening its social safety net system to support the poorest and most vulnerable households during crises. It is grounded in extensive discussions with government counterparts in a collaborative and inclusive process. The report incorporates detailed comments received from the government as well as important donors and partners through two participatory stakeholder workshops. In addition, it is a part of the World Bank's rapid social response program to support the Government of Cameroon in making its system of safety nets more comprehensive, flexible, and suitable to the country's economic and social conditions. In this context, the objective of this report is to lay the ground for a social safety net system that can address the needs of the poor in Cameroon. The high level of chronic poverty and high levels of malnutrition (especially in the northern regions of the country) call for targeted social safety net program. Therefore, the objective of this report is to: (i) assess the evolution and extent of poverty levels; (ii) provide a detailed, updated inventory of existing social safety net programs; (iii) identify their shortcomings; and (iv) propose suggestions, based on international experience, for improving the coverage, efficiency, relevance and financial sustainability of the most relevant programs to set the basis for a coherent safety net system.Publication Volatility and Inequality as Constraints to Shared Prosperity : Paraguay Equity Assessment(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-01)Isolated by nature, and recovering from a period of historically low growth during the eighties and nineties, Paraguay faced many economic and social challenges at the beginning of the twenty first century. By year 2000, Paraguay GDP per capita was only 50 percent of the Latin American average and 34 percent of its MERCOSUR partners. High poverty and inequality were an inherent characteristic of the country. Yet, between 2003 and 2013, Paraguay has performed substantially well, seeing a reduction in moderate and extreme (monetary) poverty. This is essentially the result of a period of average significant growth combined with a reduction in inequality. This report explores the factors associated to the observed improvements in welfare and inequality, and investigates the challenges facing their sustainability, given the historical structural problems of Paraguay to maintain growth and improve social indicators. The underlying question is indeed whether the growth model and reduction in inequality are consistent with a positive social dynamics, taking a comprehensive definition of equity, which includes sustainable elimination of absolute poverty, enhancing equality of opportunity and strengthening agency for all groups.Publication Poverty Alleviation in Jordan : Lessons for the Future(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-06)This report draws lessons for improving the policy design of poverty alleviation schemes in Jordan. The conclusions herein are based on analyses of trends in consumption poverty in Jordan and assessment of the impact of government programs (including food subsidies and cash transfers) on poverty alleviation in the 1990s. Poverty declined between 1992 and 1997 because inequality declined. Government programs, especially those targeted to the poor like the National Aid Fund, contributed to poverty alleviation. However, poverty continues to be a major policy challenge for Jordan: the poor and near-poor remain vulnerable as a result of the shallowness of poverty in Jordan (many people are concentrated close to the poverty line) and the adverse effects of potential shocks. The report concludes the following: 1) sustainable poverty reduction requires resumption and sustainability of growth; 2) there is a need for a policy response to the vulnerability of the poor and near-poor to economic shocks; 3) the capacity of the National Aid Fund (NAF) needs to be significantly enhanced; and 4) continued priority needs to be placed on human development policies, particularly those affecting the poor.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)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 World Bank East Asia and the Pacific Economic Update, October 2024: Jobs and Technology(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-07)East Asia and the Pacific, seen in the context of the world economy, stands out as a paragon of development. Despite the recent ravages of the pandemic and the persistent tensions of geopolitics, the region is growing at stably high rates and the benefits are widely shared. But compared to its own past and potential, the region’s economic performance is less impressive. Growth is still below pre-pandemic rates, except in Indonesia, and output has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels in several countries, especially in the Pacific. This Economic Update highlights three key developments: shifting regional growth dynamics as China’s growth slows, changing trade patterns due to global tensions, and the impact of technologies such as robots, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms on jobs. The report calls for productivity-enhancing structural reforms to strengthen domestic growth drivers through; deeper international trade agreements to foster more open and stable trade regimes; deeper technical, digital, and soft skills while addressing impediments to labor mobility, factor price distortions and expanding social protection for workers in the digital informal economy to boost productivity and employment.Publication Social Gains in the Balance : A Fiscal Policy Challenge for Latin America and the Caribbean(Washington, DC, 2014-02-24)In 2012, the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region continued its successful drive to reduce poverty and build the middle class. The proportion of the region's 600 million people living in extreme poverty, defined in the region as life on less than $2.50 a day, was cut in half between 2003 and 2012 to 12.3 percent. Reflecting the upward mobility out of poverty, households vulnerable to falling back into poverty became the largest group in LAC in 2005, and represent almost 38 percent of the population. However, in the last two years, the share of vulnerable households has started to decline. The middle class, currently 34.3 percent of the population, is growing rapidly and is projected to replace the vulnerable as the largest economic group in LAC by 2016. The Southern Cone region (including Brazil) continued to be the most dynamic region and the main driver of poverty reduction in LAC, while poverty in Central America and Mexico proved more stubborn. About 68 percent of poverty reduction between 2003 and 2012 was driven by economic growth, with the remaining 32 percent arising from decline in inequality. Overall, equality of access to basic childhood goods and services has improved in recent years. Yet access can be further improved, and serious issues remain concerning the quality of those goods and services, particularly in education and housing infrastructure. Moreover, access increases with parental education and income or assets, reflecting low intergenerational mobility in many countries in the region. As with poverty reduction, most of the progress in equality of access since 2000 has come in the Southern Cone and the Andean regions, while many of Central America's countries managed only small improvements. There are also severe differences at the subnational level and between urban and rural areas, highlighting the need to strengthen the capacity of local governments to deliver high quality basic services to all their citizens.Publication Remarks to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11-20)World Bank Group President David Malpass said that while some countries are recovering, the pandemic is still taking a terrible toll, with poverty levels rising sharply. He highlighted on the health emergency response programs in one hundred twelve countries using a fast-track mechanism that is now able to access a further window of twelve billion in funding for vaccine purchases and delivery. He also mentioned that the World Bank is already at work in cooperation with WHO, UNICEF, the Global Fund and GAVI on rapid vaccine deployment readiness assessments for one hundred countries. He spoke about IFC working in coordination with CEPI to invest a further four billion in manufacturing and distribution of vaccines and products that support vaccination programs. He recognized that fragile conflict and violence (FCV) states are most in need, and World Bank's engagement with them. Under his Presidency, the World Bank Group has invested more in climate finance than at any time in its history. He mentioned that IDA is frontloading its financing to make more resources available for the poorest countries. He highlighted on an important step that the G20 call on DSSI beneficiary countries to commit to disclose all public sector financial commitments. The Development Committee that asked the Bank and the IMF to propose more actions to address the unsustainable debt burdens of low- and middle-income countries. He concluded that the fuller transparency is the only way to balance the interests of the people with the interests of those signing the debt and investment contracts.Publication South Asia Development Update, October 2024: Women, Jobs, and Growth(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-10)South Asia’s growth is on track to exceed earlier expectations, in a broad-based upturn. The region is expected to remain the fastest-growing among emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). Several risks could upend this generally promising outlook, including extreme weather events, social unrest, and policy missteps, such as reform delays. But South Asian countries also have considerable untapped potential that could help them further boost productivity growth and employment and adapt to climate change. In particular, with about two-thirds of the region’s working-age women out of the labor force, raising female employment rates to those of men could increase per capita income by as much as one-half. Measures to accelerate job creation, remove obstacles to women working, and equalize gender rights would be more effective if combined with a shift toward social norms that looked more favorably on working women. Also, most South Asian countries rank among the EMDEs least open to global trade and investment. Greater openness could boost women’s employment, spur the growth of firms, and allow the region to take better advantage of the reshaping of global supply chains and trade. Reducing the cost of conducting business could help the region better harness large-scale remittance inflows.