This paper investigates the effect of multiple minimum wages, known as remuneration orders, on employment and working hours in Mauritius. Using data between 2004 and 2014, the analysis indicates that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wages brings about a slightly positive effect on employment in the covered sector, with an estimated employment elasticity of 0.113, which is within the range of elasticities found in previous studies of employment effects of minimum wages in low- and middle-income countries.
... See More + The positive employment effect of minimum wages is also associated with a 2.3 percent increase in average working hours for men but a 1.8 percent decline in average working hours for women in the covered sector. In the uncovered sector, the significant positive effect along the intensive margin, estimated at 4.2 percent, is driven by changes in labor supply among men.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8681 DEC 18, 2018
This paper investigates the effect of multiple minimum wages, known as remuneration, on employment and working hours in Mauritius. Using data between 2004 and 2014, the analysis indicates that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wages brings about a slightly positive effect on employment in the covered sector, with an estimated employment elasticity of 0.113, which is within the range of elasticities found in previous studies of employment effects of minimum wages in low- and middle-income countries.
... See More + The positive employment effect of minimum wages is also associated with a 2.3 percent increase in average working hours for men but a 1.8 percent decline in average working hours for women in the covered sector. In the uncovered sector, the significant positive effect along with the intensive margin, estimated at 4.2 percent, is driven by changes in labor supply among men.
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Working Paper (Numbered Series) 133297 DEC 01, 2018
Sixteenth in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 190 economies, Doing Business 2019 covers 11 areas of business regulation.
... See More + Ten of these areas - starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency - are included in the ease of doing business score and ease of doing business ranking. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in these two measures. Doing Business provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. This economy profile presents indicators for Mauritius; for 2019 Mauritius ranks 20.
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Mauritius is often cited as one of the few African success stories, and with good reason. In the aftermath of independence (1968), this small island nation in the Indian Ocean seemed to be bound for economic failure because of its high poverty rate and numerous vulnerabilities, including high population growth, ethnic tensions, substantial unemployment, and an economy greatly dependent on the production of sugar for international markets.
... See More + However, Mauritius was successful in diversifying the economy and accomplishing an unprecedented structural transformation.The Inclusiveness of Growth and Shared Prosperity report (World Bank 2015a) turned the spotlight on the expanding gap of inequality in household incomes that occurred between 2007 and 2012 and on the negative impact on poverty. The report estimates that the incidence of absolute poverty between 2007 and 2012 would have declined twice as quickly had growth been shared more widely and inequality not worsened. Building on these earlier findings, this study investigates the driving forces behind the growing income inequality and identifies policy levers that could mitigate and, in the long run, possibly reverse the upward trend.This study takes a comprehensive approach to the determinants of inequality by including the role of the choices of households and individuals, markets, and institutions. The report is structured as follows. Chapter one sets the stage by presenting stylized facts on the trends in household income inequality between 2001 and 2015, comparing these trends with trends in consumption inequality, and identifying the main culprit behind the rapidly rising inequality in household incomes, that is, household labor income. Chapter two supplies a set of descriptive trends of the two groups of factors, namely, household demographics and labor market forces, that contribute to changes in household laborincome and follows up with a decomposition exercise on changes in household labor income between 2001 and 2015.Because the analysis indicates that an unequal increase in female labor force participation and rising inequality in individual earnings are among the main contributors to the expanding inequality in household labor income, Chapter three takes a deep dive into the issue of gender inequality in the labor market. The chapter illustrates the gender gap in labor market participation, describes the differences in the activities of working women in the labor market relative to men, and concludes with a detailed analysis of gender gaps in wages separately in the public and private sectors. Chapter four resumes the main analysis of the drivers of increasing inequality in individual earnings. The chapter first presents stylized facts about overall inequality in wages and then separates out changes in inequality between and within groups defined by demographic characteristics. The chapter distinguishes the role of changes in prices (or wages) and the role of changes in the composition of the workforce in rising earnings inequality. The second part of the chapter is devoted to the analysis of the role of the main potential drivers of expanding earnings inequality. The possible candidates include the interaction of changes in labor supply and labor demand, giving rise to skills shortages or surpluses, and changes in labor market institutions, namely, remuneration orders (ROs). The chapter concludes with an analysis of an additional source of skills mismatches among the employed population, namely, education mismatches, and advances potential explanations for the coexistence of a substantial skills shortage, over education, particularly among youth, and a large share of highly educated youth among the unemployed.
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Doing Business 2018 is the 15th in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.
... See More + This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Mauritius. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies; for 2018 Mauritius ranks 25. Doing Business measures aspects of regulation affecting 11 areas of the life of a business. Ten of these areas are included in this year's ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in this year's ranking. Data in Doing Business 2018 are current as of June 1, 2017. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms of business regulation have worked, where and why.
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Doing Business 2018 is the 15th in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.
... See More + This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Mauritius. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies; for 2018 Mauritius ranks 25. Doing Business measures aspects of regulation affecting 11 areas of the life of a business. Ten of these areas are included in this year’s ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in this year’s ranking. Data in Doing Business 2018 are current as of June 1, 2017. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms of business regulation have worked, where and why.
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The book aims at assessing the overall potential of the Ocean Economy (OE) to contribute to Mauritius' development, at identifying key sectoral and cross-cutting challenges to be overcome in order to seize that potential; and at evaluating ways to ensure the OE's longer-term sustainability, addressing in particular environmental and climate change concerns.
... See More + While the book discusses specific projects in selected sectors, this is intended only to illustrate opportunities and challenges (including in terms of resource mobilization); an appraisal of the technicaland financial feasibility of individual projects would go beyond the scope of this work and would have to be conducted as part of separate follow-on activities. This book reflects data and information available as of March 31, 2017.
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Working Paper 120633 OCT 01, 2017
Howells,Mark Idwal; Strzepek, Kenneth M.; Emanuel,Kerry Andrew; Kelleher,Kieran; Willwerth, Jacqueline; Kelly Ph.D, Tim; Neumann, James E.; Alfstad, Thomas; Farrell,Sheila; Beejadhur,Yuvan A.; Smith, JoannaDisclosed
The book aims at assessing the overall potential of the Ocean Economy (OE) to contribute to Mauritius' development, at identifying key sectoral and cross-cutting challenges to be overcome in order to seize that potential; and at evaluating ways to ensure the OE's longer-term sustainability, addressing in particular environmental and climate change concerns.
... See More + While the book discusses specific projects in selected sectors, this is intended only to illustrate opportunities and challenges (including in terms of resource mobilization); an appraisal of the technicaland financial feasibility of individual projects would go beyond the scope of this work and would have to be conducted as part of separate follow-on activities. This book reflects data and information available as of March 31, 2017.
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Working Paper 120633 MAR 31, 2017
Beejadhur,Yuvan A.; Kelleher,Kieran; Kelly Ph.D, Tim; Howells,Mark Idwal; Alfstad, Thomas; Farrell,Sheila; Smith, Joanna; Neumann, James E.; Strzepek, Kenneth M.; Emanuel,Kerry Andrew; Willwerth, JacquelineDisclosed
This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Mauritius. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator.
... See More + Doing Business 2017 is the 14th in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2016 Mauritius ranks 42. Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labor market regulation. Doing Business 2017 presents the data for the labor market regulation indicators in an annex. The report does not present rankings of economies on labor market regulation indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2016 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January–December 2015).
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The Country Opinion Survey in Mauritius assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Mauritius perceive the WBG.
... See More + It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Mauritius on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Mauritius; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Mauritius; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Mauritius; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Mauritius.
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This Southwest Indian Ocean Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (SWIO RAFI) seeks to provide a solid basis for the future implementation of disaster risk financing through the improved understanding of disaster risk to participating island nations.
... See More + The SWIO RAFI included the collection of existing hazard and exposure data, and the creation of new hazard and exposure data, that were used in the development of risk assessment and risk profiles for The Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Zanzibar. In addition to the information in the risk profiles, the hazard and exposure data and the results of risk analysis will be collated and stored on open data geospatial risk information platforms, or GeoNodes, in each country and will be available to a wide range of end-users. The results will be available in the form of geospatial files, text files, and detailed final reports and can be used for sector specific development planning and implementation.
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The purpose of this report is to facilitate cross-learning among World Bank Group programs in small states. It selectively discusses the World Bank Group’s strategic and operational approaches and the substantive development issues addressed in small state programs that the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) assessed under the clustered Country Program Evaluation.
... See More + Based on this discussion, the report highlights specific considerations for effective future World Bank Group engagement in small states. Along with this report, the clustered country program evaluation (CPE) includes two regional program evaluations covering the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) during fiscal year (FY) 06–14, and Pacific Island countries (PICs) during FY05-15. It also includes more selective reviews of World Bank Group programs in four African states: Cabo Verde (FY05-14), Djibouti (FY05–15), Mauritius (FY07–15), and the Seychelles (FY07-15). Since the findings and suggestions going forward are based on a small and non-representative sample of country programs, they are not necessarily applicable to other small states. Given its selective coverage, the report highlights specific aspects of World Bank Group engagement with small states. It does not fully summarize the underlying country reports or compare World Bank Group program and country performance. Reading this report together with the underlying reports will provide a more comprehensive treatment.
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After nearly two decades of strong economic growth, in 2005 the economy was in difficulties. The loss of trade preferences in textiles in 2005, the anticipation of prospective reform to the European Union’s sugar protocol for 2006-10, and higher international oil prices had contributed to a slow-down in growth, rising unemployment and widening fiscal and current account deficits.
... See More + A new government was elected in 2005 which implemented a series of bold economic reforms (such as the elimination of the export processing zone (EPZ) regime, a progressive liberalization of the foreign trade and investment regime and simplification of labor laws) to redress the macro-economic imbalances and enhance competitiveness to facilitate efficient restructuring of the economy. This was achieved in large measure. Good policies also allowed the government to deal effectively with the global financial crisis of 2008. Following elections in 2010, a new (and fragile) coalition government was elected which emphasized fiscal stimulus and the pace of reforms slowed. Following a period of political instability, a new government was elected in 2014 with an overwhelming majority. However, as fiscal pressures mount, a sense of policy drift continues, threatening the gains achieved in recent years. The World Bank Group supported the government’s reform efforts throughout the evaluation period. Support was provided largely in the form of development policy loans (DPLs), complemented by analytic work and technical assistance (TA) for capacity building in various parts of the government. The World Bank’s strategy was aligned with the government’s priorities during 2005-10, but it failed to adapt when the appetite for reforms waned after a new coalition government took office following elections in 2010. The World Bank’s strategy was flexible and the program underwent significant changes to respond to changing government priorities and unfavorable external conditions. The World Bank’s program addressed the twin challenges of building resilience (macro-economic and social) and enhancing competitiveness that are common to other small states. Perhaps the World Bank could have been more selective in its areas of interventions.
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This economy profile for Doing Business 2016 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for Mauritius. To allow for useful comparison, the profile also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator.
... See More + Doing Business 2016 is the 13th edition in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2015 Mauritius ranks 32. A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and over time. Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labor market regulation. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2015 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period from January to December 2014).
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This Country Data Report summarizes the data from the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project for Mauritius. The WGI report six aggregate governance indicators for over 200 countries and territories over the period 1996-2014, covering: i) voice and accountability, ii) political stability and absence of violence, terrorism, iii) government effectiveness, iv) regulatory quality, v) rule of law, and vi) control of corruption.
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Mauritius is a high middle-income country with low levels of poverty and inequality. The headcount poverty level was 6.9 percent in 2012; measured by the international standard of United States (U.S.) $2 per day (PPP), poverty was less than 1 percent.
... See More + On inequality, Mauritius also fared well compared to its peer middle-income countries. On the negative side, Mauritius’ growth has not been equally shared, despite the general improvement in welfare. The economy’s polarization was associated with a structural transformation from labor-intensive industries to services and knowledge-intensive industries. Inclusiveness remains the main challenge for the current growth pattern. When Mauritius will be able to become a high-income country will depend on its ability to improve the labor force’s skill set, develop infrastructure, and further improve the business environment to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and generate domestic investment. Reduction in inequality and boost of shared prosperity will require more growth and a more pro-poor pattern of growth. An increase in female labor force participation, reduction of high youth unemployment rates, improving the efficiency of the social protection system will reduce growing skills mismatch facilitating inclusive growth and eradicating poverty in Mauritius.
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Working Paper 90006 SEP 01, 2015
Sulla,Victor; Munoz Moreno,Rafael; Da Maia,Carlos Chadreque Penicela; Klapper,Leora; Van Oudheusden,Peter; Guven,Melis U.; Nikitin,Denis; Polodoo, Virendra; Randriankolona,Patrick Leon; Mazza,Jacopo; Heleniak,Timothy E.Disclosed
Training funds are used to incentivize training in developing countries, but the funds are based on payroll taxes that lower the return to training.
... See More + In the absence of training funds, larger, high-wage and more capital intensive firms are the most likely to offer training unless they are liquidity constrained. If firms are not liquidity constrained, the fund could lower training investments. Using an administrative dataset on the Mauritius training fund, we find that the firms most likely to train pay more in taxes than they gain in subsidies. The smallest firms receive more benefits than they pay in taxes.
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Journal Article 100252 JAN 01, 2015
Kuku, Oluyemisi; Orazem, Peter F.; Rojid,SawkutDisclosed
This economy profile for Doing Business 2015 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for Mauritius. To allow for useful comparison, the profile also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator.
... See More + Doing Business 2015 is the 12th edition in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2015 Mauritius ranks 28. A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and over time. Doing Business measures regulations affecting 11 areas of the life of a business known as indicators. Ten of these areas are included in this year's ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures labor market regulation, which is not included in this year's ranking. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2014 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period from January to December 2013).
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The Country Opinion Survey for FY2012 in Mauritius assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Mauritius perceive the WBG.
... See More + It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Mauritius on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Mauritius; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Mauritius; 3) overall impressions of the WBGs effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Mauritius; and 4) their perceptions of the WBGs future role in Mauritius.
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This regional profile presents the Doing Business indicators for economies in Small Island States. It also shows the regional average, the best performance globally for each indicator and data for the following comparator regions: Caribbean States, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, and Southern African Development Community.
... See More + The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2013, except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January to December 2012. Regional Doing Business reports capture differences in business regulations and their enforcement across countries in a single region. They provide data on the ease of doing business, rank each location, and recommend reforms to improve performance in each of the indicator areas. The report sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. The data set covers 47 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 25 in East Asia and the Pacific, 25 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 20 in the Middle East and North Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 31 OECD high-income economies. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.
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