This evaluation focuses on the World Bank Group’s support to enhancing industry-specific productivity and competitiveness, and examines the implications of improved industry competitiveness for employment during the last decade.
... See More + The evaluation focuses on activities with explicit objectives to support competitiveness in the industries of manufacturing (including agribusiness), information and communication technology, tourism, and agriculture. The support to economy wide reforms, which in turn might also have an impact on these industries, is beyond the scope of this evaluation. The report draws conclusions on the relevance of the Bank Group’s support to productivity and competitiveness, the design and operational implementation of Bank Group strategies and performance results across different countries including the impact on employment generation.
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This brief studies about the people in Jharkhand, India who are increasingly moving off the farm and into other kinds of work. Overall job creation in the state however lags behind the expansion of the working age population that is not in school.
... See More + Unlike other Low Income states, job growth was negative in the state after 2005. Half the population is still on the farm. Only a tenth of the working adults have salaried jobs, which is among the lowest in the country. There are even fewer job opportunities for women who have withdrawn from the labor force in large numbers.
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Is a five-day workweek followed by a two-day weekend a socially optimal schedule? This paper presents a model in which labor productivity and the marginal utility of leisure evolve endogenously over the workweek.
... See More + Labor productivity is shaped by two forces: restfulness, which decreases over the workweek, and memory, which improves over the workweek. The structural parameters of the model are disciplined using daily variation in electricity usage per worker. The results suggest that increases in the ratio of vacation to workdays lead to output losses. A calibration of the model suggests that a 2-3 day workweek followed by a 1 day weekend can increase welfare.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7598 MAR 14, 2016
Rwanda’s growth rates during the past few years exceeded the growth rates of developing countries, except for in 2013 when Rwanda’s growth decelerated to 4.7 percent.
... See More + Among the 181 economies where 2014 gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate data is available, Rwanda’s growth rate of 7.0 percent is more than twice as high as the average of the 181 economies (3.2 percent), and is ranked 20th globally. Going forward, Rwanda’s growth rates are projected to exceed global growth rates in 2015-2017. This edition focuses on jobs in particular the employment dynamics of the past decade.
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Working Paper (Numbered Series) 103618 FEB 26, 2016
Wage inequality has declined in Mexico since 2000. Using data from Mexican labor surveys for the period between 2000 and 2014, this paper investigates whether the decline was driven by wages declining more sharply for younger or older workers.
... See More + The analysis finds that the wages of older workers declined and the decline was more pronounced in the older cohort. This would seem to support the hypothesis that older workers' skills have become obsolete.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7546 JAN 27, 2016
Campos-Vazquez,Raymundo M.; Lopez-Calva,Luis-Felipe; Lustig,NoraDisclosed
This study analyzes labor market performance in the Philippines from the perspective of workers’ welfare. It argues that pervasive in-work poverty is the main challenge facing labor policy.
... See More + Poverty is primarily due to low earning capacity of the poor and to their limited access to regular and productive jobs. Behind these are the two interrelated root causes of in-work poverty - low education of the poor, and the scarcity of productive job opportunities. The labor market is segmented into good and bad jobs, with the poor working in the latter. They hold jobs that are informal, temporary or casual, and low-paid. Widespread informality means that the poor neither benefit from the minimum wage policy nor from employment protection legislation. They do not benefit from wage growth either, because their bargaining power is weak. Good jobs are so few, especially in rural areas, that even better educated workers are often forced to take unskilled jobs and work as low-paid laborers. The reduction of in-work poverty hinges on removing constraints to gainful employment in both supply side (better education and skills) and demand side (better jobs). It is critical that the young poor have improved access to quality education, and be equipped with skills required in the modern sector of the economy. But in parallel, better jobs need to be created, which can be attained from the growth of the formal and higher value added sector of the economy. The process of structural transformation should be supported by effective labor policy. Labor regulations need to be made simpler and more flexible to facilitate the reallocation of labor from less to more productive activities, and from informal to formal sector. Targeted training programs have the potential to address the problem of low skills among the poor workers, especially the young ones. Such programs should be developed on a pilot basis and expanded if proven to be cost-effective.
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The paper reports on work values in Europe. At the country level we find that job satisfaction is related to lower working hours, higher well-being, and a higher GDP per capita.
... See More + Moving to the micro level, we turn our attention from job satisfaction to analyse empirically work centrality and work value dimensions (without exploring empirically job satisfaction) related to intrinsic and extrinsic values, power and social elements. The results indicate substantial differences between Eastern and Western Europe. Socio-demographic factors, education, income, religiosity and religious denomination are significant influences. We find additional differences between Eastern and Western Europe regarding work-leisure and work-family centrality that could be driven by institutional conditions. Furthermore, hierarchical cluster analyses report further levels of dissimilarity among European countries.
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The purpose of the Ghorashal Unit 4 Repowering Project for Bangladesh is to re-power unit 4 (installed capacity of 210 MW) of GPS. The project involves the re-powering of the current steam plant with a more efficient combined cycle technology.
... See More + Major significant impacts anticipated from the proposed project activities include inhalation of airborne asbestos fiber during boiler decommissioning, elevated noise level from the operation of heavy equipment, felling of trees during site preparation, and labor camp induced sanitation and social stresses. The major positive impacts of the project are the augmentation of the generation capacity of the electricity and improving the socio-economic condition and lifestyle of the country’s population and reduction in thermal plume in the Shitalakhya River during plant operation. This project will deal with hazardous/special waste like asbestos. Waste water from the decommissioning site will be collected at a sump for temporary storage and treated in central effluent treatment plant (CETP) before final disposal. Special handling of solid hazardous material will be followed for segregating asbestos from insulation and other boiler materials. At first, asbestos containing waste will be segregated from demolished material before disposal. The contractor will establish a means to prevent any visible emissions outside the temporary and on-site asbestos disposal pit during handling, segregation, and final disposal operations. They must maintain the integrity of leak-proof containers and/or packaging at all times during the handling and disposal operations. Minimize the release and exposure of asbestos containing material after placement in the asbestos pit without compaction of the waste prior to application of cover. Finally, in presence of the official of BPDB, the on-site asbestos pit will be covered to ensure complete coverage of the disposed asbestos and prevent re-exposure during continuing disposal operations. During the operation, the worker will follow the guidelines of WBG’s General EHS Guidelines on hazardous materials management.
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Fast growth in Rwanda since the turn of the century has been accompanied by solid poverty reduction. Between 2000 and 2013, gross domestic product (GDP) grew at eight percent per year, resulting in a 170 percent increase in real GDP.
... See More + As the poor almost uniquely depend on labor to generate income, the strong reduction in poverty suggests tangible improvements in employment outcomes over this period. This jobs and employment study focuses on the recent dynamics in Rwanda’s jobs’ landscape. Using data from a variety of sources, mainly the three integrated households living conditions surveys (EICV1, EICV2, and EICV3) and the 2011 establishment census, the report looks at what workers in Rwanda are doing and what they are making, and how this has changed over the past ten to fifteen years. Most of the report focuses on the five years between 2006 and 2011, although at times, the authors will also look at the evolution since 2001. The report concludes with a number of ideas to address Rwanda’s jobs challenge in the near future.
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A number of authors have argued that a worker’s occupation of employment is at least as important as the worker’s industry of employment in determining whether the worker will be hurt or helped by international trade.
... See More + The authors investigate the role of occupational mobility on the effects of trade shocks on wage inequality in a dynamic, structural econometric model of worker adjustment. Each worker in our specification can switch either industry, occupation, or both, paying a time-varying cost to do so in a rational-expectations optimizing environment. We also specify a novel model of offshoring based on task-by-task comparative advantage that collapses to a very simple form for simulation. The authors find that the costs of switching industry and occupation are both high, and of similar magnitude. In simulations we find that a worker’s industry of employment is much more important than either the worker’s occupation or skill class in determining whether or not she is harmed by a trade shock, but occupation is crucial in determining who is harmed by an offshoring shock.
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Environmental and social responsibility is becoming more and more important in today’s global economy. There are thousands of environmental and social codes and standards in the world today.
... See More + The codes and standards define the rules and the objectives. But the challenge is in the implementation. An environmental and social management system (ESMS) helps companies to integrate the rules and objectives into core business operations, through a set of clearly defined, repeatable processes. This Handbook is intended to be a practical guide to help companies develop and implement an environmental and social management system, which should help to improve overall operations. In the current economic climate, companies are under pressure to perform or even just survive. New initiatives are often met with resistance as people struggle to keep up with their day-to-day responsibilities. Some people think that an environmental and social management system must be big, complicated and expensive. But that is not really true. To be effective, a management system needs to be scaled to the nature and size of the company. For more publications on IFC Sustainability please visit www.ifc.org/sustainabilitypublications.
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Drawing on a new set of nationally representative, internationally comparable household surveys, this paper provides an overview of key features of structural transformation—labor allocation and labor productivity—in four African economies.
... See More + New, micro-based measures of sector labor allocation and cross-sector productivity differentials describe the incentives households face when allocating their labor. These measures are similar to national accounts-based measures that are typically used to characterize structural changes in African economies. However, because agricultural workers supply far fewer hours of labor per year than do workers in other sectors, productivity gaps disappear almost entirely when expressed on a per-hour basis. What look like large productivity gaps in national accounts data could really be employment gaps, calling into question the prospective gains that laborers can achieve through structural transformation. These employment gaps, along with the strong linkages observed between rural non-farm activities and primary agricultural production, highlight agriculture's continued relevance to structural change in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7234 APR 06, 2015
The STEP survey instruments include: (i) a background questionnaire developed by the WB STEP team; and (ii) a reading literacy assessment developed by Educational Testing Services (ETS).
... See More + All countries adapted and translated both instruments following the STEP Technical Standards: two independent translators adapted and translated the Background Questionnaire and Reading Literacy Assessment, while reconciliation was carried out by a third translator. The survey instruments were both piloted as part of the survey pretest. The adapted background questionnaires are provided in English as external resources. This paper includes the following headings: file description; variable list; variable description; and external resources.
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The economic impact of Ebola survey is a high frequency cell phone survey designed to monitor the socio-economic impacts of the ongoing Ebola crisis in Liberia.
... See More + The survey has been conducted in three rounds from October to December 2014. The sample is based on the nationally representative household income and expenditure survey (HIES) implemented from February to August 2014 by the Liberia institute of statistics and geo-information services (LISGIS). This effort was designed to provide rapid indicators of well-being from households across the country at a time when conducting a traditional face-to-face survey is extremely challenging. The survey was conducted by phone, and attempted to contact all households that participated in the HIES and for which cell phone numbers were recorded. As in the previous two rounds, low response rates hinder the representativeness of the survey. The report begins with an update of the situation in Liberia with regards to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) crisis and response at the time of the third round of data collection (December 2 - 8, 2014). This was followed by updates on employment, prices, food security, and migration. About three-quarters of households indicated that they were worried at some point in the previous week that they will not have enough to eat. Around two-thirds of households responded that they were not able to purchase enough rice to meet their needs in the previous two weeks, and nearly 80 percent of those cited a lack of money as the main reason.
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Environmental and social responsibility is becoming more and more important in today’s global economy. There are thousands of environmental and social codes and standards in the world today.
... See More + The codes and standards define the rules and the objectives. But the challenge is in the implementation. An environmental and social management system (ESMS) helps companies to integrate the rules and objectives into core business operations, through a set of clearly defined, repeatable processes. This handbook is intended to be a practical guide to help companies develop and implement an (ESMS), which should help to improve overall operations. If a company has existing management systems for quality or health and safety, this handbook will help to expand them to include environmental and social performance. For more publications on IFC Sustainability please visit www.ifc.org/sustainabilitypublications.
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In Croatia, initial steps to reform the railway sector date back to the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, with the formation of Croatian railways as a holding company.
... See More + To help with further reforms of the Croatian railway sector, over the period 2011-2013, the World Bank was engaged in dialogue with the Croatian Government and the Croatian railway companies which resulted in a Croatian railway policy note. The poverty and social impact analysis (PSIA) is an analysis of the intended and unintended consequences of policy reforms on the wellbeing or welfare of different social groups, with particular focus on the poor and vulnerable. PSIA offers a set of analytical and process tools that: (a) determine distributional impacts to improve the analytical underpinnings of policy making; and (b) engage appropriate stakeholders in the policy-making process. The report is divided into following sections: first section gives executive summary. The introduction provides information on the economic situation in Croatia, including unemployment rates and pensions, the situation of the railway sector, and data on the restructuring process of the Croatian railways companies in second section. The third section contains the results obtained from the group discussions and in-depth interviews which are divided into four parts: the circumstances upon leaving the railway companies, after leaving, transferring to a new workplace, and the broader impacts on the community, including the impacts of closed and reduced lines. The last part of the section contains recommendations based on the obtained results.
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The development objective of the Emergency Education System Stabilization Project (EESSP) for Lebanon is to ensure equitable access to educational opportunities in the public system, improve the quality of teaching and learning environment, and strengthen national education systems and monitoring.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) notifying the public of the works through appropriate notification in the media and or at publicly accessible sites (including the site of the works); (2) spraying water during pneumatic drilling and wall destruction dust shall be suppressed by ongoing water spraying and or installing dust screen enclosures at site; (3) ensuring that during operations the engine covers of generators, air compressors, and other powered mechanical equipment are closed, and equipment is placed as far away from residential areas as possible; (4) establishing appropriate erosion and sediment control measures such as hay bales and or silt fences to prevent sediment from moving off site and causing excessive turbidity in nearby streams and rivers; (5) ensuring that proper attention is given to sanitary services for schools occupants and students; and (6) identifying waste collection and disposal pathways and sites for all major waste types expected from demolition and construction activities.
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Agricultural and other physically demanding sectors are important sources of growth in developing countries but prevalent diseases such as malaria adversely impact the productivity, labor supply, and choice of job tasks among workers by reducing physical capacity.
... See More + This study identifies the impact of malaria on worker earnings, labor supply, and daily productivity by randomizing the temporal order at which piece-rate workers at a large sugarcane plantation in Nigeria are offered malaria testing and treatment. The results indicate a significant and substantial intent to treat effect of the intervention -- the offer of a workplace-based malaria testing and treatment program increases worker earnings by approximately 10 percent over the weeks following the offer. The study further investigates the effect of health information by contrasting program effects by workers' revealed health status. For workers who test positive for malaria, the treatment of illness increases labor supply, leading to higher earnings. For workers who test negative, and especially for those workers most likely to be surprised by the healthy diagnosis, the health information also leads to increased earnings via increased productivity. Possible mechanisms for this response include selection into higher return tasks within the plantation as a result of changes in the perceived cost of effort. A model of the worker labor decision that allows health expectations partly to determine the supply of effort suggests that, in endemic settings with poor quality health services, inaccurate health perceptions may lead workers to suboptimal labor allocation decisions. The results underline the importance of medical treatment, but also of access to improved information about one's health status, as the absence of either may lead workers to deliver lower effort in lower return jobs.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7120 NOV 01, 2014
