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 This series was superseded by the World Bank Studies series in 2011 [see Books - Series (active)].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.
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.
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.
Key Development Challenges Around Internal Displacement: A Gender Perspective
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-01) Ortiz, Elena; 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.
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.
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).
World - Climate Services Operational Pathways: Pathways for Transforming Weather, Water, and Climate Services in Mozambique
(Washington, DC, 2022-01-28) World Bank
This study was commissioned by climate investment funds (CIF’s) E and L initiative to distill lessons from CIF’s pilot program on climate resilience (PPCR) support in identifying, designing, and implementing hydrometeorological and climate services investments. It seeks to generate learning and strategic insight into the different operational pathways that can be taken by national hydrological and meteorological services to develop, deliver, and strengthen hydrometeorological and climate services. The outputs from the study comprise of one synthesis report and three country studies for Jamaica, Mozambique, and Nepal. These three countries have been selected for the study due to their different institutional frameworks, hydrometeorological systems, and socio-economic context. They provide diverse in-depth insights in hydrometeorological and climate service development, delivery and use. In this respect, the PPCR-supported Climate Resilience: Transforming Hydrometeorological Services Project was selected as a case study project for Mozambique. It elucidates lessons learned on the process for modernizing hydrometeorological systems and delivering climate services to users. Furthermore, it offers insight into challenges and opportunities for climate services development, delivery, and use in Southern African developing countries. Qualitative methods, including structured interviews and literature review, were used to identify promising pathways to continue to transform weather, water, and climate services in the three case study countries. In Mozambique, the analysis of the data collected revealed six themes regarding critical pathways to transform weather, water, and climate services in the country. These are: harmonizing and integrating data resources; improving hydrometeorological and climate service design and delivery; fostering hydrometeorological and climate services impact through user feedback; building appropriate human capacity; strengthening national coordination; and promoting regional collaboration. The report summarizes key findings.
Opening Opportunities, Closing Gaps: Advancing Gender-Equal Benefits in Clean Cooking Operations
(Washington, DC, 2022) World Bank
At the current rate of ambition, the world will fall short of achieving sustainable development goal 7 (SDG 7) by 2030. Slow progress toward access to clean cooking solutions has significant negative impacts on women (for example, harm to health from disproportionate exposure to household air pollution (HAP); safety hazards and risks to well-being; and the opportunity costs of fuelwood collection, fuel preparation, and inefficient cooking). To accelerate the transition to clean cooking by 2030, the World Bank’s energy sector management assistance program (ESMAP) has established the United States (U.S.) 500 million dollars clean cooking fund (CCF). The success of such initiatives and future programs can be enhanced by gaining a greater appreciation of the gender gaps in clean cooking and heating operations and knowledge about how to bridge them. This report introduces World Bank task teams and other practitioners to the key arguments, opportunities, and practical steps for integrating gender considerations into clean cooking programs. Part one presents the supporting arguments that recognize women as both beneficiaries and agents of change. Part two stimulates task teams to think more broadly about the possible opportunities for advancing gender equality across the value chain, drawing on the rich experience of the World Bank’s active lending portfolio, as well as best-case practices from private-sector initiatives and the literature on clean cooking and gender. Based on lessons from these empirical findings, part three suggests practical steps for tailoring projects to the distinct needs of women and men and thus increasing the likelihood of: (i) reducing gaps in asset ownership and human endowments, and (ii) capitalizing on growth opportunities.
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.
The Behavioral Professional: Improving Decision-Making and Performance in the Public Sector
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022) Lourenço, Joana S.; Vakis, Renos; Zoratto, Laura
Over the past decade, governments, multilateral organizations, and think tanks have been increasingly using behavioral science as an additional tool to understand and tackle complex policy challenges in several sectors. Yet despite this increase in the use of behavioral science for policy design, little attention has been given so far to those individuals responsible for designing and implementing public policies and programs: policy professionals. This note aims to achieve three objectives. first, it highlights recent examples building on work done by the eMBeD team and the World Bank at large on how behavioral bottlenecks can hinder key development goals, from ensuring inclusive and equitable education for all (SDG4) to ensuring good health and well-being (SDG3), among others. Second, the note presents a behavioral framework highlighting the individual, group and institutional contexts that affect policy professionals. Finally, it showcases the relevance of the behavioral approach to a broad range of areas - including public service design, corruption and accountability, service design, access and delivery, civil servants’ performance - by pinpointing common bottlenecks faced, and potential solutions to overcome them.