Publication: Changing Perceptions of Institutions and Standard of Living in Iraq
Loading...
Published
2021-09
ISSN
Date
2021-09-17
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The history of Iraq over the past decade is a stark example of increasing vertical and horizontal inequalities, preceding and following a period of violent conflict. This paper uses a cross-section of individual-level nationally representative survey data to study relationships around how adults in Iraq report confidence in national institutions, quality of life, and quality of service delivery. The findings show that positive perceptions across these categories declined during ISIS-control and have slowly picked up in recent years. Men are more likely than women in the post-ISIS period to report lower country leadership approval ratings, a weaker standard of living, and depressed job prospects. The analysis finds that self-identified Shias, Kurds, and adults living in Baghdad are significantly more likely to have a poorer quality of life, compared with Sunnis, in the post-ISIS period. Nearly all ethno-religious groups, in all periods, perceive the government to be corrupt.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Ansar, Saniya; Celiku, Bledi; Klapper, Leora; Mansour, Wael. 2021. Changing Perceptions of Institutions and Standard of Living in Iraq. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9773. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36281 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication Intergenerational Income Mobility around the World(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-09)This paper introduces a new global database with estimates of intergenerational income mobility for 87 countries, covering 84 percent of the world’s population. This marks a notable expansion of the cross-country evidence base on income mobility, particularly among low- and middle-income countries. The estimates indicate that the negative association between income mobility and inequality (known as the Great Gatsby Curve) continues to hold across this wider range of countries. The database also reveals a positive association between income mobility and national income per capita, suggesting that countries achieve higher levels of intergenerational mobility as they grow richer.Publication Engineering Ukraine’s Wirtschaftswunder(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-29)As Ukraine emerges from the devastation of war, it faces a historic opportunity to engineer its own Wirtschaftswunder—a productivity-driven economic transformation akin to post-war West Germany. While investment-led growth may offer quick wins, it is efficiency, innovation, and institutional reform that will determine Ukraine’s long-term economic trajectory. Drawing on rich micro-level firm data spanning 25 years, this paper uncovers deep structural distortions that have suppressed creative destruction and productivity in Ukraine. It finds that business dynamism is on the decline, alongside rising market concentration among incumbent businesses, including low productivity state owned enterprises. To inform priorities for reviving business dynamism, this study develops a model of creative destruction drawing on Acemoglu et al. (2018) and Akcigit et al. (2021). The quantitative assessment highlights that policies that discipline entrenched incumbents are the bedrock for reviving business dynamism and engineer Ukraine’s Wirtschaftswunder. Policies targeting specific types of firms have limited efficacy when incumbents run wild.Publication The Macroeconomic Implications of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Options(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-29)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 The Future of Poverty(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-15)Climate change is increasingly acknowledged as a critical issue with far-reaching socioeconomic implications that extend well beyond environmental concerns. Among the most pressing challenges is its impact on global poverty. This paper projects the potential impacts of unmitigated climate change on global poverty rates between 2023 and 2050. Building on a study that provided a detailed analysis of how temperature changes affect economic productivity, this paper integrates those findings with binned data from 217 countries, sourced from the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform. By simulating poverty rates and the number of poor under two climate change scenarios, the paper uncovers some alarming trends. One of the primary findings is that the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide could be nearly doubled due to climate change. In all scenarios, Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to bear the brunt, contributing the largest number of poor people, with estimates ranging between 40.5 million and 73.5 million by 2050. Another significant finding is the disproportionate impact of inequality on poverty. Even small increases in inequality can lead to substantial rises in poverty levels. For instance, if every country’s Gini coefficient increases by just 1 percent between 2022 and 2050, an additional 8.8 million people could be pushed below the international poverty line by 2050. In a more extreme scenario, where every country’s Gini coefficient increases by 10 percent between 2022 and 2050, the number of people falling into poverty could rise by an additional 148.8 million relative to the baseline scenario. These findings underscore the urgent need for comprehensive climate policies that not only mitigate environmental impacts but also address socioeconomic vulnerabilities.Publication Unequal Burdens, Uneven Benefits(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-21)This paper applies a gender lens to the distributional analysis of Peru’s fiscal system using the Commitment to Equity methodology with data from the 2019 Encuesta Nacional de Hogares. The paper examines how taxes and transfers affect households with gender-relevant characteristics, including presence of dependents, care responsibilities, and agricultural reliance. The analysis reveals that while Peru’s fiscal system increases poverty when considering taxes and cash transfers (consumable income), it reduces both poverty and inequality when including the monetized value of education and health services (final income). The findings also show that nuclear, extended, and single-parent households experience poverty increases after fiscal interventions, while elderly and single adult households see reductions in poverty. Agricultural households benefit more due to targeted transfers and lower tax burdens. Policy simulations show that expanding the generosity of existing direct transfers reduces poverty, especially for single mothers and agricultural households, but still falls short in addressing disadvantages faced by families with caregiving responsibilities. The findings underscore the need for a more gender-responsive fiscal agenda.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Entrepreneurship and Firm Formation Across Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-08)The World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey measures entrepreneurial activity around the world. The database includes cross-country, time-series data on the number of total and newly registered businesses for 84 countries. This paper finds significant relationships between entrepreneurial activity and indicators of economic and financial development and growth, the quality of the legal and regulatory environment, and governance. The analysis shows the importance of electronic registration procedures to encourage greater business registration. These results can guide effective policymaking and deliver new capabilities for identifying the impact of reforms.Publication Global Findex Database 2017(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-04-19)The Global Findex database is the world's most comprehensive set of data on how people make payments, save money, borrow and manage risk. Launched in 2011, it includes more than 100 financial inclusion indicators in a format allowing users to compare access to financial services among adults worldwide -- including by gender, age and household income. This third edition of the database was compiled in 2017 using nationally representative surveys in more than 140 developing and high-income countries. The database includes updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services. It features additional data on Fintech and digital financial services, including the use of mobile phones and internet technology to conduct financial transactions. Global Findex data is utilized to track progress toward the World Bank's goal of Universal Financial Access by 2020 and the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. The data also is a source for the G20 Financial Inclusion Indicators and a benchmark for policymakers seeking to expand access to and use of financial services. Lastly, this report discusses opportunities to expand access to financial services among the unbanked, and ways to promote greater use of digital financial services among the underbanked.Publication Incentivizing Calculated Risk-Taking : Evidence from an Experiment with Commercial Bank Loan Officers(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-07)This paper uses a series of experiments with commercial bank loan officers to test the effect of performance incentives on risk-assessment and lending decisions. The paper first shows that, while high-powered incentives lead to greater screening effort and more profitable lending, their power is muted by both deferred compensation and the limited liability typically enjoyed by loan officers. Second, the paper presents direct evidence that incentive contracts distort judgment and beliefs, even among trained professionals with many years of experience. Loans evaluated under more permissive incentive schemes are rated significantly less risky than the same loans evaluated under pay-for-performance.Publication Financial Inclusion and Economic Development(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-09)This paper reviews the impact of financial inclusion on economic development outcomes. It highlights the benefits of financial inclusion, including greater savings, improved resilience to economic shocks, and higher levels of economic empowerment, among others. It looks deeper into both the effects of financial inclusion on marginalized groups, like women and the poor, while also examining the impacts of different types of financial instruments, like digital payments and financial accounts. The paper further explores the role that government payment programs and regulatory actions can play in inducing greater financial inclusion, highlighting the need for more policies, products, and incentives to promote greater adoption of financial services for sustainable development.Publication Making It Easier to Apply for a Bank Account(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-09)This paper draws on new individual-level survey data from India to study the costs of opening an account and the efficiency of the account application process. The data show a recent increase in account ownership, especially by women and poor adults. The data also suggest that India's flagship financial inclusion program, the Jan Dhan Yojana scheme, has made it easier to get an account, through lower costs and greater ease of applying. Yet despite the scheme's initial successes, people who wish to apply for an account continue to incur a range of costs. The survey results suggest several recommendations that could improve the account application process and increase ownership and usage of accounts.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication Scaling Up to Phase Down: Financing Energy Transitions in the Power Sector(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-04-20)The Scaling Up to Phase Down approach is a contribution by the World Bank to the ongoing debate on how to accelerate energy transition in low- and middle-income countries (LICs and MICs)—as called for by the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change—while simultaneously widening access to the reliable and affordable energy that underpins countries’ development goals. The approach is intended to be a bridge between the challenges facing World Bank clients who are seeking to transition their power sectors and the development partners supporting their efforts. The energy transition is the process of shifting the global energy system away from the consumption of fossil fuels and toward low-carbon technologies in order to support international goals of limiting climate change. In the next decade, much of this transition will first occur in the power sector because solutions using newer technologies have the potential to become cost competitive with appropriate interventions, and also because the power sector is a powerful pathway for decarbonizing other sectors—most notably transport, buildings, and industry. The power sector is therefore the focus of this report. The power sector transition will advance energy efficiency and decarbonize the energy supply by expanding renewable energy and strengthening electricity networks in order to integrate renewable energy, demand-side management, and end-use electrification. In LICs and MICs, this transition aims to meet the rapidly growing demand for energy in a way that supports inclusive development consistent with net-zero global emissions by mid-century, and builds resilience to the changing climate. A just transition in the power sector should address the needs of workers and communities who are affected by the shift away from fossil fuels; provide modern energy access to millions of people; and protect vulnerable customers from unaffordable energy prices. For the first time, the World Bank has outlined a vision for how the international community can support LICs and MICs to overcome critical barriers that are paralyzing the power sector transition. Drawing on findings of the first set of Country Climate and Development Reports produced by the World Bank, and decades of engagement with energy sector development, this approach distills understanding of the unique challenges that LICs and MICs face in undertaking this transition at the scale and pace required to meet their development and climate needs. The approach may help both World Bank clients and development partners in preparing a roadmap to catalyze and sustain a virtuous cycle that unleashes urgently needed investment in power sector transition. Chapter 1 explains that the capital-intensive nature of clean energy investments, combined with the lack of access to affordable capital, have a disproportionate and distorting effect on the power sector transitions of LICs and MICs. Even where renewable energy has the potential to provide a more affordable energy supply and improve energy security and health, the up-front capital costs that must be borne leave LICs and MICs locked into using costly fossil fuels. Chapter 2 discusses additional barriers to the scaling up of clean energy and the concomitant phasing down of coal. The commitment of governments will be essential in order to foster the policies, regulations, and institutions needed to prepare a pipeline of projects that can attract private capital. This chapter argues that concessional finance is essential in order to overcome the barriers to investments of private capital at the necessary levels. Chapter 3 discusses how public and concessional support must be deployed with a disciplined approach in order to scale up clean energy and energy efficiency. Chapter 4 explains the need to phase down the use of unabated coal, and the instruments to do so in a manner that manages losses and protects the most vulnerable. Chapter 5 concludes the paper with a discussion of how larger and sustained volumes of concessional capital could be more effectively structured within country-based programmatic approaches and technology demonstration partnerships in order to scale up the financial resources and political momentum for transitioning the power sector.