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.
Exibir menos -
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.
Exibir menos -
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.
Exibir menos -
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.
Exibir menos -
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.
Exibir menos -
Documento de Trabalho 137878 MAY 01, 2019
Robayo,Monica; Saavedra Facusse,Trinidad Berenice; De Paz Nieves,CarmenDisclosed
The availability of broadband infrastructure has been found to be an important determinant of a country’s economic and social development. In recognition of this, the European Union (EU) adopted a Digital Agenda for Europe in 2012 that has since been updated by the European 2025 Gigabit Society.
... Exibir mais + The deployment of broadband infrastructure has also come to be a major priority for the Western Balkans region, which consists of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. Infrastructure sharing, an agreement between two or more operators (including utilities from other sectors of the economy, such as electricity) to share various parts of their infrastructure to provide services, is an effective way to lower the costs of deploying broadband communications networks and obtain better connectivity; it also helps to protect the environment, reduce resource consumption, and increase energy efficiency. Given the benefits, the World Bank set up the Balkans Digital Highway initiative to explore and advance infrastructure-sharing opportunities in the Western Balkans region. The initiative carried out a number of pre-feasibility studies to (i) explore opportunities to use the excess capacity on existing fiber optic ground wire networks located alongside power grids operated by transmission system operators (TSOs) in the six Western Balkan countries to generate additional income, (ii) make a technical assessment of the existing excess optical ground wire (OPGW) capacity on the TSOs’ networks, (iii) determine what changes are required in the national telecommunications and energy frameworks within and between countries to operationalize infrastructure sharing, and (iv) develop an action plan to advance infrastructure sharing in the region that addresses the technical, organizational, and regulatory bottlenecks in each country. The review of the policy and regulatory frameworks revealed that all six countries have transposed the relevant EU directives into their energy laws to enable TSOs to engage in infrastructure sharing, andwholesale broadband services (defined as “dark fiber” in the pre-feasibility studies) are not regulated ex ante anywhere in the region. Some countries have legislation to manage dispute resolution in infrastructure sharing and others do not, and in all but Kosovo, electronic communications services are not subject to official procurement procedures, offering potential players more market flexibility. Finally, no limitations on public-private partnerships were found in the legislation of any of the countries, which is useful when a combination of public and private funds is needed. These relatively few legislative obstacles could easily be eliminated to create more uniform conditions for the development of infrastructure-sharing services across the region.
Exibir menos -
This report consolidates the findings and recommendations from studies on climate resilient road assets in Albania, financed through a grant provided by the Global facility for disaster reduction and recovery (GFDRR).
... Exibir mais + The objective of the work is to assist the Albanian authorities in the prioritization of current and future climate, and seismic resilient investments in the road sector. The work has used climate and seismic vulnerability assessments, and proposed mitigation measures to improve climate and seismic resilience of the Albanian road network. The report finds that the investment in resilience and mitigation measures on the Albanian national road network is cost effective and is much less than the estimated annualised cost of the damage and loss that would accrue if mitigation measures are not put in place and maintained.
Exibir menos -
The objective of this report is to analyze the gender norms of Roma and non-Roma men and women in marginalized neighborhoods of Serbia, and assess the impact of these norms on schooling, work, and household decision-making.This report aims to generate and promote the use of evidence on living conditions and human development outcomes among marginalized Roma communities of the Western Balkans and their neighboring non-Roma counterparts and provide evidence-based recommendations for policy and programming.
... Exibir mais + The primary universe for the Regional Roma Survey is: (i) all households in Roma settlements or areas of compact Roma population; and (ii) non-Roma communities living in close proximity to marginalized Roma. The results of the RRS 2017 show that marginalized Roma in Serbia, much like the rest of the Western Balkans, do not have the endowments and assets they need nor the ability to use the assets they have efficiently and intensively to generate economic gains and climb up the socioeconomic ladder. This qualitative report makes three main contributions. First, the gaps between Roma and non-Roma in schools, work places, and household decision making revealed by the RRS 2017 are placed within a structural marginalization or social exclusion framework.Second and most critically, we find a broad range of diversity within the Roma population in Serbia. Unfortunately, Roma are often homogenized in both academic and policy literature.The findings of this report move beyond flattening histories and attributing norms and beliefs to a static and singular “identity” and allegedly common “culture.”Third, the authors find that social norms fluctuate and shift as the wider context shifts – that within Serbia, there is significant variation among the Roma living in three different contexts (urban, post-industrial and agricultural). Using this perspective, they illuminate the mechanisms of change with respect to gender and ethnicity that remain invisible in the RRS 2017 but result in the diverging impacts captured by it.The paper is structured as follows. Section two reviews the literature and current knowledge on marginalized Roma and social exclusion in Serbia, and notes the gaps in the literature. Section three gives a description of the methodology of the study and the sample used for analysis. Section four presents key findings from the study on gender norms in work, schooling, and household decision making. Section five, six, and seven present the three case studies and a detailed overview of the location- and context-specific barriers for Roma versus non-Roma households demonstrating how these three locations – one urban, one post-industrial and one agricultural – offer important insights into the variation in constraints and forms of exclusion of the Roma. Section eight draws on the findings to provide concrete recommendations for policy interventions and concludes.
Exibir menos -
