There is wide spread concern about a growing gap between top-performing publicly listed firms and the rest of the economy and the implications of this for rising inequality in the U.S.
... See More + Using conventional return calculations, there is indeed a widening gap between star firms (defined as those in top 10 percent of return on invested capital in any year) and the rest of the economy over time, especially in industries that rely on a skilled labor force. However, once measurement error in intangible capital is accounted for, this gap shrinks dramatically and has not been widening over time. While pricing power, as measured by markups, predicts star firm status, a large fraction of star firms have low markups and there is no evidence that star firms are cutting output or investment more than other firms for the same markup. The effect of star status is persistent. Five years later, star firms have higher growth, profits, and Tobin’s Q. A small subset of exceptional firms may pose more pressing policy concerns with much higher returns and the potential to exercise market power in the future.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS8534 JUL 13, 2018
Most manufacturing activities use inputs from the financial and business services sectors. But these services sectors also compete for resources with manufacturing activities, provoking concerns about de-industrialization -- financial services in industrial countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, and business services in developing countries like India and the Philippines.
... See More + This paper examines the implications of services development for the export performance of manufacturing sectors. It develops a methodology to quantify the indirect role of services in international trade in goods and constructs new measures of revealed comparative advantage based on domestic value added in gross exports. The paper shows that the development of financial and business services enhances the revealed comparative advantage of manufacturing sectors that use these services intensively but not that of other manufacturing sectors. It also finds that a country can partially overcome the handicap of an underdeveloped domestic services sector by relying more on imported services inputs. Thus, lower services trade barriers in developing countries can help to promote their manufacturing exports.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS8450 MAY 22, 2018
The free flow of data across borders underpins today's globalized economy. But the flow of personal data outside the jurisdiction of national regulators also raises concerns about the protection of privacy.
... See More + Addressing these legitimate concerns without undermining international integration is a challenge. This paper describes and assesses three types of responses to this challenge: unilateral development of national or regional regulation, such as the European Union's Data Protection Directive and forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation; international negotiation of trade disciplines, most recently in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP); and international cooperation involving regulators, most significantly in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Agreement. The paper argues that unilateral restrictions on data flows are costly and can hurt exports, especially of data-processing and other data-based services; international trade rules that limit only the importers' freedom to regulate cannot address the challenge posed by privacy; and regulatory cooperation that aims at harmonization and mutual recognition is not likely to succeed, given the desirable divergence in national privacy regulation. The way forward is to design trade rules (as the CPTPP seeks to do) that reflect the bargain central to successful international cooperation (as in the EU-US Privacy Shield): regulators in data destination countries would assume legal obligations to protect the privacy of foreign citizens in return for obligations on data source countries not to restrict the flow of data. Existing multilateral rules can help ensure that any such arrangements do not discriminate against and are open to participation by other countries.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS8431 MAY 07, 2018
The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement was the first instance of countries adhering to take a collective action against global warming. More than 190 countries came forward and submitted their contributions in the form of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, reflective of their ability and capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as each country set its own targets and actions.
... See More + For some countries, it meant a significant decline in their emissions by 2030, while others, like China, the United States, and India, decided on a more gradual phasing out extending beyond 2030. This paper estimates the economic impacts of implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement in terms of its implications for welfare, gross domestic product, investments, and trade for major countries and regions. It uses a computable general equilibrium framework to model global, regional, and country impacts. The analysis suggests that the economic impacts will be mostly felt in the European Union if the Paris Agreement is fully implemented. The European Union is likely to suffer a welfare loss of 1.0 to 1.5 percent by 2030. Among non-European countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico will also be affected, with an expected welfare loss of about 1.5 percent. Some of the major emitters, such as China and India, will experience minimal impacts to their welfare, and the United States will experience a welfare loss of only about 0.7 by 2030. The sectoral analysis of production and trade suggests a significant loss to fossil fuel–based sectors, while clean energy sectors can experience significant gains.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS8392 APR 02, 2018
Corporations often have strong incentives to exert influence on the tax code and obtain additional tax benefits through lobbying. For the U.S.
... See More + financial crisis of 2007-09, this paper shows that lobbying activity intensified, driven by large firms in sectors that depend more on external finance. Using a heterogeneous agent model with financial frictions and endogenous lobbying, the paper studies the aggregate consequences of this rise in lobbying activity. When calibrated to U.S. micro data, the model generates an increase in lobbying that matches the magnitude and the cross-sector and within-sector variation observed in the data. The analysis finds that lobbying for capital tax benefits, together with financial frictions, accounts for 80 percent of the decline in output and almost all the drop in total factor productivity observed during the crisis for the non-financial corporate sector. Relative to an economy without lobbying, this mechanism increases the dispersion in the marginal product of capital and amplifies the credit shock, leading to a one-third larger decline in output. The paper also studies the long run effects of lobbying. Restricting lobbying implies welfare gains of 0.3 percent after considering the transitional dynamics to the new steady state.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS8394 APR 02, 2018
This paper examines the impact of U.S. market access on local labor markets in a developing country, Vietnam. The study finds that following the implementation of the Vietnam–United States bilateral trade agreement in December 2001, manufacturing employment increased in provinces that were more exposed to U.S. tariff cuts.
... See More + In those provinces, employment also increased in many service sectors, reflecting strong spillovers of job gains. The new job opportunities have attracted labor from agriculture, thus reducing agricultural employment. The paper examines three possible channels of job gain spillovers, namely, demand, production, and real estate. Although there is evidence for all three channels, the demand channel is the most important.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS8366 MAR 13, 2018
This report discusses the speech by the World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim at the Fagility Forum 2018 Washington, D.C., United States in March 05, 2018.
... See More + He discusses the World Bank Group (WBG) is strengthening support to address fragility, conflict and violence (FCV), to achieve its goals to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. He focuses on economic growth, jobs, and investments in people to prevent instability and conflict before they begin. He mentioned to remember that these are not just problems for low-income countries. He joined with the UN, the Islamic Development Bank, and others, we’re responding to Jordan’s needs with the Global Concessional Financing Facility – a fund that provides financing at the levels typically reserved for low-income countries to help create jobs and provide education, healthcare, and infrastructure for both Syrian refugees and their Jordanian hosts. He eagerly to hear your ideas about innovative ways we can work together to address drivers of fragility, prevent conflict, reduce violence, and help countries build resilience.
See Less -
This paper presents and discusses the arguments offered by several sovereigns that have joined a trend starting in 2013 whereby sovereign and corporate issuers, especially in Latin America, have gradually replaced a portion of the funding raised in U.S. dollars with euros.
... See More + The trend seems to respond to the divergent monetary policies followed by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and the European Central Bank. The selected country cases state strategic and tactical arguments for increasing their issuance in euros. The strategic reasons relate to internal currency benchmarks and their rationale. In some cases, such substitution is supported by the argument that further diversification in the investor base was needed. This argument was reinforced by the relatively tight conditions in the U.S. dollar market. Tactical arguments refer to the need to open the market to the private sector and raise funding in euros, or the need to access new investors as a preliminary step to attract them to the domestic market. Several countries also admit that the optical effect of lower coupons was a relevant consideration. This paper highlights that it is important that sovereigns avoid making decisions by comparing nominal coupons in both currencies. More important, a formal debt management strategy, including a target for the currency composition, should guide debt managers. Without a strategy, the debt manager cannot tell how the issuance in a particular currency affects the exposure of the debt portfolio to foreign currency risk and helps or not in achieving the debt management objectives.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS8324 JAN 30, 2018
This paper finds that capital and labor incomes in the United States have become more closely associated since the 1980s. This contributed to the well-known increase in the top 1 percent's share of total income, exacerbating rising inequality in capital incomes and earnings.
... See More + The paper shows that the trend in the association is U-shaped, as the recent increase contrasts with a tendency toward a weakening association until the 1980s. The paper uses data derived from tax records, studies the asymmetries in the association, tests for robustness to alternative income definitions, and discusses the potential role of declining top marginal tax rates.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS8268 DEC 11, 2017
Over the past three decades, a Canadian model of public pension has emerged that combines independent governance, professional in-house investment management, scale, and extensive geographic and asset-class diversification.
... See More + This report aims to document the emergence and evolution of this Canadian model, distilling practical lessons for stakeholders in emerging economies working to improve their pension arrangements and retirement systems. Although a growing body of literature exists on the Canadian model of pension organization, this report is unique in two respects: its emphasis on the evolutionary journey of Canadian pension organizations (as opposed to their current state) and its in-depth focus on Canadian pension funds that have received less attention than some of their peers.
See Less -
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 Canada. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies; for 2018 Canada ranks 18. 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.
See Less -
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 United States. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies; for 2018 United States ranks 6. 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.
See Less -
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 San Marino. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies; for 2018 San Marino ranks 93. 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.
See Less -
This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank at 2017 annual meetings. He discusses on the following topics: actions needed to grow the economies and compete in what will be a more complex, demanding, and digitized future; and three ways to end extreme poverty by 2030, and boost shared prosperity among the poorest 40 percent around the world: accelerating inclusive, sustainable economic growth; building resilience to shocks and threats; and investing more and more effectively in people.
... See More +See Less -
This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank at 2017 annual meetings. He discusses on the following topics: actions needed to grow the economies and compete in what will be a more complex, demanding, and digitized future; and three ways to end extreme poverty by 2030, and boost shared prosperity among the poorest 40 percent around the world: accelerating inclusive, sustainable economic growth; building resilience to shocks and threats; and investing more and more effectively in people.
... See More +See Less -
This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank at 2017 annual meetings. He discusses on the following topics: actions needed to grow the economies and compete in what will be a more complex, demanding, and digitized future; and three ways to end extreme poverty by 2030, and boost shared prosperity among the poorest 40 percent around the world: accelerating inclusive, sustainable economic growth; building resilience to shocks and threats; and investing more and more effectively in people.
... See More +See Less -
This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank at 2017 annual meetings. He discusses on the following topics: actions needed to grow the economies and compete in what will be a more complex, demanding, and digitized future; and three ways to end extreme poverty by 2030, and boost shared prosperity among the poorest 40 percent around the world: accelerating inclusive, sustainable economic growth; building resilience to shocks and threats; and investing more and more effectively in people.
... See More +See Less -
This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank at 2017 International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings.
... See More + He points on the following topics: discussions with finance ministers and central bankers from 189 members countries will help to improve the lives of the people, so there is need to set the agenda for the world’s economy in the coming year. Countries need to build resilience against the overlapping challenges faced today, including the effects of climate change, natural disasters, conflict, forced displacement, famine, and disease. He introduced the Human Capital Project to help grow economies and create the political space for leaders to make critical investments.
See Less -
This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank at 2017 International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings.
... See More + He points on the following topics: discussions with finance ministers and central bankers from 189 members countries will help to improve the lives of the people, so there is need to set the agenda for the world’s economy in the coming year. Countries need to build resilience against the overlapping challenges faced today, including the effects of climate change, natural disasters, conflict, forced displacement, famine, and disease. He introduced the Human Capital Project to help grow economies and create the political space for leaders to make critical investments.
See Less -
This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank at 2017 International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings.
... See More + He points on the following topics: discussions with finance ministers and central bankers from 189 members countries will help to improve the lives of the people, so there is need to set the agenda for the world’s economy in the coming year. Countries need to build resilience against the overlapping challenges faced today, including the effects of climate change, natural disasters, conflict, forced displacement, famine, and disease. He introduced the Human Capital Project to help grow economies and create the political space for leaders to make critical investments.
See Less -
