Documentos de trabajo del Banco Mundial

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/39402

Report Series: World Bank Working Papers

World Bank Working Papers present the results of economic, financial, or technical research; country experience or analysis; operational evaluations; or detailed background or case studies. These are typically works in progress, published to stimulate public discussion of ongoing research. These books tend to be short, ranging typically between 64 and 128 pages in length. This series was superseded by the World Bank Studies series in 2011 [see Books - Series (active)]. Smaller, chapter-sized articles can be found in the Policy Research Working Papers collection.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 219

Environmental Implications of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022-07) Lee, Soohyang; Park, Jinhee
Two-thirds of central banks in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region have started researching or testing the implementation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). At the same time, the region accounts for one-third of world CO2 emissions and is vulnerable to climate risks. As the Group of 7 (G7), European Central Bank (ECB), and Bank of England (BoE) have stated in their public statements, it is increasingly important to consider environmental impact when designing CBDC. However, only a few brief studies have been done on this subject, which will be crucial for the region. This Note explores the environmental implications of CBDC by comparing technical mechanisms and energy consumption within its distributed structure. It also illustrates differences in ecological footprint between CBDC and other payment methods (cryptocurrency, cash, and card networks). As the legitimacy of CBDC is backed by the trust of central banks, CBDC does not need to prove its legitimacy through its technological structure. Therefore, CBDC does not require the energy-intensive consensus or mining mechanisms used by a cryptocurrency, so its energy consumption is lower (comparable to that of a credit card system). CBDC can be designed to use various systems, such as Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), or a mixture of both. Careful deliberation to meet the objectives and implications will be important as CBDC can be a catalyst for financial innovation.
Key Development Challenges Around Internal Displacement: A Gender Perspective
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-01) Klugman, Jeni
At the end of 2020, there were over 48 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) displaced by conflict and another seven million displaced by natural disasters, more than double the number of refugees. The challenges facing IDPs are often less visible than those facing refugees, although accumulating evidence does point to systematic disadvantages, especially for women and girls. This paper charts the extent to which national and international policies and programs address gender in displacement settings. Our review finds that while there has been important progress, major shortcomings persist in addressing the gendered dimensions of internal displacement at the international and country levels. Commitments on paper have not consistently translated to change in practice. Gender gaps in livelihoods, social protection, durable solutions, gender-based violence, health, and education as major challenges requiring increased attention.
A Novel Tobacco Market Diversification: Unsmoking Rich Countries while Smoking Low-and-Middle Income Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-04-27) Marquez, Patricio V.
In this working paper, an exploration of available data and information is conducted and findings presented, to support the view that the dichotomous business model and related harm reduction narrative promoted nowadays by the tobacco industry, merits scrutiny by the international community. The promotion of e-cigarettes as welfare enhancing in rich countries, particularly because they are posited to help adult smokers quit, tends to obfuscate a dire reality. The same tobacco industry that promotes (e-cigarettes as harm reduction in rich countries, derives the bulk of its profits by selling cigarettes in lower income countries.
Structured Lesson Plans for Literacy Instruction: A Compendium of Global Resources - A Collection of Early-Grade Teaching and Learning Materials in 40+ Languages
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-03-31) World Bank
Literacy is the cornerstone of education, and a driver of human economic, social, and civic wellbeing. Despite its importance, far too many children fail to become literate. The World Bank uses a measure called learning poverty to indicate when a child cannot read and understand an age-appropriate text by age ten. The best available data showed that more than two-thirds of children in low- and middle-income countries suffer learning poverty. The World Bank is committed to helping countries achieve the learning target: to cut learning poverty by at least half by 2030. Achieving better outcomes in literacy requires a comprehensive effort in many domains. One of the most important is ensuring that students and teachers have and use high-quality instructional materials, especially textbooks, for reading instruction. As countries and systems review their literacy teaching and learning materials, they will want to compare them to the materials from other countries and systems. The purpose of the compendium is to allow such reviews and comparisons by grouping a critical mass of structured pedagogy lesson plans and related materials in one place.
Investing in Digital Hydrometeorological Data for the Developing World
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-03) Thorpe, Alan; Rogers, David P.
Addressing many of the global challenges facing humankind requires the availability, access, and use of huge volumes of digital hydrometeorological (hereafter “hydromet”) data needed to inform decision-making to save lives and infrastructure as well as to exploit the associated economic opportunities. The global challenges include the world’s increasing vulnerability to weather, climate, and water stresses, and they are especially acute in developing countries. This technical note outlines the opportunities and requirements for developing countries to be able to benefit from the digital hydromet data revolution.
Assessing Incentives to Increase Digital Payment Acceptance and Usage: A Machine Learning Approach
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-01-18) Allen, Jeff; Carbo Valverde, Santiago; Chakravorti, Sujit; Rodriguez-Fernandez, Francisco; Pinar Ardic, Oya
An important step to achieve greater financial inclusion is to increase the acceptance and usage of digital payments. Although consumer adoption of digital payments has improved dramatically globally, the acceptance and usage of digital payments for micro, small, and medium-sized retailers (MSMRs) remain challenging. Using random forest estimation, The authors identify 14 key predictors out of 190 variables with the largest predictive power for MSMR adoption and usage of digital payments. Using conditional inference trees, they study the importance of sequencing and interactions of various factors such as public policy initiatives, technological advancements, and private sector incentives. The authors find that in countries with low point of sale (POS) terminal adoption, killer applications such as mobile phone payment apps increase the likelihood of P2B digital transactions. They also find the likelihood of digital P2B payments at MSMRs increases when MSMRs pay their employees and suppliers digitally. The level of ownership of basic financial accounts by consumers and the size of the shadow economy are also important predictors of greater adoption and usage of digital payments. Using causal forest estimation, they find a positive and economically significant marginal effect for merchant and consumer fiscal incentives on POS terminal adoption on average. When countries implement financial inclusion initiatives, POS terminal adoption increases significantly and MSMRs’ share of person-to-business (P2B) digital payments also increases. Merchant and consumer fiscal incentives also increase MSMRs’ share of P2B electronic payments.
The Role of Coherence in Strengthening Community Accountability for Remote Schools in Indonesia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-04) Hwa, Yue Yi; Lumbanraja, Sharon Kanthy; Riyanto, Usha Adelina; Susanti, Dewi
Incoherence in accountability relationships, or the lack of alignment between the various components of a specific education system, can hamper the quality of education. Such incoherence can be a particular challenge in resource constrained, remote villages where teachers tend to have higher educational capital and social status than the parents and communities whom they serve. We analyzed quantitative and qualitative data from a randomized controlled trial of a social accountability mechanism (SAM) for primary schools in remote Indonesian villages. The intervention had three treatment groups, all of which included the SAM, that engaged village-level stakeholders in a consensus-building process that led to joint service agreements for supporting the learning process. Prior analyses have found that all three treatment groups significantly improved student learning, but the treatment group combining the SAM with teacher performance pay based on camera-monitored teacher attendance led to much larger gains than the SAM-only treatment group or the treatment group combining the SAM with teacher performance pay based on a community-evaluated scorecard. Drawing on a range of quantitative data sources across all treatment group schools (process monitoring, survey, and service agreement indicators) and qualitative data from nine case study schools (interviews and focus group discussions), we show first that the student learning gains across all three treatment groups were accompanied by increases in both the coherence of the accountability relationships between village-level stakeholders and the degree to which these relationships were oriented toward the purpose of cultivating learning. We further show that the treatment group combining the SAM with camera monitored teacher attendance led to greater improvements in the coherence of accountability relationships than the other treatment groups, because the cameras improved both the technical capacity and the social legitimacy of community members to hold teachers accountable. This coherence-focused, relational explanation for the relative effectiveness of the treatment groups has more explanatory power than alternative explanations that focus narrowly on information quality or incentive structure. Our analysis reinforces arguments for ensuring that accountability structures are coherent with the local context, including local social structures and power dynamics.
Assessment of the Labor Market Information System (LMIS) in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic PDR
(Washington, DC, 2022) World Bank
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) has made substantial progress in poverty reduction even though its resource-based development pattern has historically limited the impact of growth on poverty reduction. The objective of the assessment is to support the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MOLSW) in their planned reforms of labor market institutions and systems in Lao; in particular by supporting investments in a comprehensive Labor Market Information System (LMIS) for improved jobseeker data collection and analytics, jobseeker profiling, and assignment to various employment support programs such as vocational trainings and job search assistance. The target audience of this report is the technical staff and management at the department levels as well as the policy makers at the MOLSW, Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) as well as the Ministry of Finance (MOF).
WBG COVID-19 Crisis Response Operational Update: Delivering on the WBG Twin Goals in an Era of Compounding Crises
(Washington, DC, 2022-03-31) World Bank
This note provides an update on the WBG’s COVID-19 Crisis Response, outlined in June 2020 to help developing countries address the impacts of the pandemic while maintaining a line of sight to long-term development goals. It comprises five short sections: (I) the impacts of COVID-19 and compounding crises on developing countries, (II) an update on the WBG’s operational crisis response and priorities moving forward, (III) the critical role of international coordination, (IV) WBG financing framework for GRID, and (V) concluding remarks.
Sustainable Cities Towards A Green, Resilient and Inclusive Recovery: Applying the Sustainable Cities Implementation Framework in Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, and Romania
(Washington, DC, 2022-03) World Bank
Cities are key to unlocking a climate-smart future for all, as they account for more than 50 percent of the global population, about 70 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions and 80 percent of global GDP. Urban centers’ share of emissions is expected to grow as the urban population is projected to increase by 2.3 billion people by 20502. As the world recovers from the COVID-19 crisis, cities will present a huge opportunity to rebuild in a way that is climate friendly and meets some of the world’s ambitious climate targets. Cities are viewed as the source of and the solution to many of today's economic, social, and environmental challenges. This is not only because of the concentration of population and economic assets in urban areas, but also because local authorities perform key functions that impact the quality of life of their residents. From an urban management perspective, the leading resource and knowledge sharing platform is the GEF funded Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (GPSC), hosted by the World Bank. The GPSC states that achieving sustainability requires the balanced accomplishment of outcomes against four pillars, namely (1) robust economic growth, prosperity, and competitiveness across all parts of the city; (2) protection and conservation of ecosystems and natural resources into perpetuity; (3) mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while fostering overall city resilience; and (4) inclusiveness and livability, mainly through the reduction of city poverty levels and inequality. The Urban Sustainability Framework (USF), developed to outline the areas of work and support by the GPSC, offers a very useful representation of both outcomes as well as enabling actions and requirements (such as spatial data and good governance) cities could focus on.