Improving the efficiency and equity of public spending and strengthening revenue mobilization remains a priority in all Western Balkan countries.
... Exibir mais + Public sector wage bills and pensions constitute the largest share of public spending in the region. Tighter controls on wage bills, reducing tax expenditures, and better targeting of social benefits would open space for more public investment, improve equity, and enable the build-up of fiscal buffers to mitigate rising risks. As outlined in this report, fiscal rules can help anchor spending and fiscal sustainability. However, their credibility in the region needs to be restored after they have been repeatedly breached in some countries. Fiscal management reforms are needed as a part of broader structural reforms that help increase the region's export competitiveness. This includes strengthening state institutions that protect the rule of law and private sector competition to unleash productivity growth and innovation by enabling a level playing field between firms. Together, these reforms would help unlock stronger, more equitable, and more sustainable growth, ensuring faster convergence with EU income levels. A strong commitment to sound macro-fiscal policy and structural reforms was always important—rising uncertainties have made it an imperative.
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This paper examines the effect of fertility on parental labor force participation in a developing country in the Balkans, with particular attention to the intervening role of childcare provided by grandparents in extended families.
... Exibir mais + To address the potential endogeneity in the fertility decision, the analysis exploits the Albanian parental preference for having sons combined with the siblings' sex-composition instrument as an exogenous source of variation. Using a repeated cross-section of parents with at least two children, the analysis finds a positive and statistically significant effect of fertility on parental labor supply for parents who are more likely to be younger, less educated, or live in extended families. The IV estimates for mothers show that they increase labor supply, especially hours worked per week and the likelihood of working off-farm. Similarly, fathers' likelihood of working off-farm and having a second occupation increase as a consequence of further childbearing. The heterogeneity analysis suggests that this positive effect might be the result of two plausible mechanisms: childcare provided by non-parental adults in extended families and greater financial costs of maintaining more children.
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Documento de trabalho sobre pesquisa de políticas WPS8931 JUL 01, 2019
This report provides an update of the poverty assessment for Kosovo that was published in April 2017. It is intended to be a concise and timely summary that highlights the key aspects of poverty and inequality in Kosovo, including trends and a detailed poverty profile.
... Exibir mais + As is the case with previous poverty analysis, it focuses on absolute poverty. That is, compares living standards over time using an absolute poverty line that remains fixed over time, only adjusted for inflation, which is useful when evaluating the effects of policies and programs on the incidence of poverty. This absolute poverty approach is different from the relative poverty approach employed in EU countries, in which the poverty threshold changes when the median income of the country increases, and therefore is not fixed in real terms. Both the absolute and the relative approach provide useful and complementary information. The report focuses on the dynamics of absolute consumption poverty in Kosovo during the 2012-2017 period. Consumption is used as the measure of individual well-being or welfare. Household consumption is calculated as the total value of a household’s expenditure on food and nonfood items as recorded in the Household Budget Survey (HBS), a nationally representative survey conducted each year, including imputed values of any home-produced food items that were consumed by the household. In keeping with past practices in Kosovo, expenditures on consumer durable items and rent are excluded from the consumption measure. Consumption based living standards are assessed against a poverty threshold that is held fixed in real terms over time and space; the monetary value of the poverty line is updated annually to account for changes in prices1. Consumption is sometimes preferred to other monetary measures such as income, since it shows current actual material standard of living, tend to reflect long-term average wellbeing since it smoothes out irregularities, and it is less understated than income, given that it is easier to recall. The standard of living associated with a given value of total household consumption depends greatly on the size and demographic composition of the household. Therefore, household consumption is divided by the number of adult equivalents in the household to arrive at the welfare measure, which is consumption per adult equivalent.
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The European Commission’s Directorate General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations approached the World Bank to develop an evidence base and to deliver policy advice and technical assistance for supporting the effective reintegration of (Roma) returnees in the Western Balkans: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Serbia.
... Exibir mais + This synthesis report presents the results of that research. This report documents the main socio-economic factors that drive migration from the Western Balkans to the EU. Returnees emphasize that they migrate to escape poverty, lack of housing, unemployment, the lack of or insufficient access to social security, and a consistent struggle and inability to provide a basic standard of living for themselves and their families. Poverty, discrimination, and historic marginalization reinforce one another and constitute strong push factors. Estimates suggest a substantial number of returnees belong to the Roma minority and that Roma are over-represented in migration and returnee flows. In addition, Roma and ethnic minorities have had to contend with systemic economic and social exclusion and institutional discrimination. Roma communities lack access to basic infrastructure and social services, are more likely to be underemployed, and have limited earning potential due to low incomes from unskilled jobs in the formal and informal sectors.
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The Western Balkans is home to the most polluting power plants in Europe, and its transport and energy infrastructure require updates. Not surprisingly, countries such as Kosovo, are suffering from severe urban air pollution and traffic congestion as a result of high dependence on fossil fuels in the energy matrix, inefficient transport system and aging vehicle fleets.
... Exibir mais + These substantially harm public health, productivity and efficiency in urban mobility. Kosovo is implementing the EU enacted Stabilization Tracking Mechanism programme, aiming to gradually integrate its national policies on legal, economic and social matters with the EU. On 6 February 2018, the European Commission published its expansion plan to cover up to six Western Balkan countries including Kosovo with potential accession as members of the EU after 2025. This is relevant for vehicle emissions as it entails implementation of EU vehicle emission and fuel standards. The development objective of this project is to support the government of Kosovo and City of Pristina to develop strategies to reduce emissions and pollutions from transport perspective, such as modernization and better management of public and private vehicle fleets, and to scope for components and activities to be considered as part of potential Develop Policy Financing or Investment Project Financing by the World Bank The layout of the report includes the following sections: Chapter second realizes a rapid assessment of vehicle pollution for Kosovo including vehicle emission trends. Chapter third list in a summarized manner major instruments to reduce transportation emissions. Based on the problem and solution description policies are selected which are assessed in further detail to curb vehicle emissions in Kosovo. These policies or interventions were selected based on on-going plans and activities and interest from the Government. They include usage of low-emission buses (chapter fourth), fiscal instruments to promote low-emitting vehicles (chapter fifth) and implementation of in-service vehicle emission testing.
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Roma women are one of the most deprived groups in Europe, as they suffer a double layer of exclusion: as women, and as members of Europe´s largest ethnic minority.
... Exibir mais + Although there are no reliable data on the Roma population in the Western Balkans, available estimates suggest that the share of national populations represented by Roma ranges between 1.7 percent in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 9.6 percent in North Macedonia. Over half of these are women. This report is intended to be a concise and timely summary that highlights the key aspects of gender equality among marginalized Roma communities in the Western Balkans. The goal of the report is to strengthen the knowledge base and evidence to understand the key determinants of gender gaps among the Roma population. For that the report offers a summary diagnostic of the most important barriers that female Roma face, in particular, accessing education and employment; further, it explores the ways in which Roma women’s employment and educational outcomes are constrained above and beyond the constraints faced by Roma males.
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Documento de Trabalho 137878 MAY 01, 2019
Robayo,Monica; Saavedra Facusse,Trinidad Berenice; De Paz Nieves,CarmenDisclosed
