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The informal sector is generally believed to be more vulnerable to various risks due to limited access to social insurance, but little empirical evidence exists to support this statement. This paper examines the relationship between informality and protection from health risks in Yemen. The formal sector, when defined based on pension coverage, largely overlaps with public employment where the better educated, more experienced, and better informed tend to work. The results indicate that, even after accounting for socioeconomic status, water supply and quality conditions, risky behavior patterns, and unobserved heterogeneity, formal sector households have better accessibility and affordability to health service. This may in part explain better health outcomes among formal households, although large heterogeneity across regions (urban/rural) exists. However, the role of the existing health insurance is found to be unclear. The findings reconfirm the importance of policies that promote universal access to health service and a risk pooling avenue delinked from employment types as well as healthy living conditions and lifestyles.
Access To Health Service --- Health Economics & Finance --- Health Insurance --- Health Monitoring & Evaluation --- Health Outcomes --- Health Spending --- Health Systems Development & Reform --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Informality --- Labor Markets --- Safety Nets and Transfers --- Social Protections and Labor
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The informal sector is generally believed to be more vulnerable to various risks due to limited access to social insurance, but little empirical evidence exists to support this statement. This paper examines the relationship between informality and protection from health risks in Yemen. The formal sector, when defined based on pension coverage, largely overlaps with public employment where the better educated, more experienced, and better informed tend to work. The results indicate that, even after accounting for socioeconomic status, water supply and quality conditions, risky behavior patterns, and unobserved heterogeneity, formal sector households have better accessibility and affordability to health service. This may in part explain better health outcomes among formal households, although large heterogeneity across regions (urban/rural) exists. However, the role of the existing health insurance is found to be unclear. The findings reconfirm the importance of policies that promote universal access to health service and a risk pooling avenue delinked from employment types as well as healthy living conditions and lifestyles.
Access To Health Service --- Health Economics & Finance --- Health Insurance --- Health Monitoring & Evaluation --- Health Outcomes --- Health Spending --- Health Systems Development & Reform --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Informality --- Labor Markets --- Safety Nets and Transfers --- Social Protections and Labor
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This paper examines how different types of workers in 17 middle-income countries were affected by labor market retrenchment during the great recession. Impacts on different types of workers varied by country and were only weakly related to the severity of the shock. Among active workers, youth experienced by far the largest adverse impacts on employment, unemployment, and wage employment, particularly relative to older adults. The percentage employment reductions, for example, were greatest for youth in each sector of the economy, as firms reacted to the shock by substituting away from inexperienced workers. Employment rates, as a share of the population, also plummeted for men. Larger drops in male employment were primarily attributable to men's higher initial rate of employment, although men's concentration in the hard-hit industrial sector also played an important role. Within each sector, percentage employment declines were similar for men and women. Added worker effects among women were mild, even among less-educated workers. Differences in labor market outcomes across education groups and urban or rural residence tended to be smaller. These findings bolster the case for targeted support to displaced youth and wage employees. Programs targeted to female and unskilled workers should be undertaken with appropriate caution or empirical support from timely data, as they may not benefit the majority of affected workers.
Communities & Human Settlements --- Financial Crisis --- Great Recession --- Group Comparison --- Labor Market --- Labor Markets --- Labor Policies --- Labor Standards --- Population Policies --- Sectoral Employment --- Social Protections and Labor --- Work & Working Conditions
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This paper provides a synthetic and systematic review on the effectiveness of various entrepreneurship programs in developing countries. It adopts a meta-regression analysis using 37 impact evaluation studies that were in the public domain by March 2012, and draws out several lessons on the design of the programs. The paper observes wide variation in program effectiveness across different interventions depending on outcomes, types of beneficiaries, and country context. Overall, entrepreneurship programs have a positive and large impact for youth and on business knowledge and practice, but no immediate translation into business set-up and expansion or increased income. At a disaggregate level by outcome groups, providing a package of training and financing is more effective for labor activities. In addition, financing support appears more effective for women and business training for existing entrepreneurs than other interventions to improve business performance.
Access to Finance --- Counseling --- Entrepreneurship Programs --- Financial Literacy --- Financing --- Labor Policies --- Meta Regression Analysis --- Microenterprise Development --- Poverty Impact Evaluation --- Primary Education --- Social Development --- Social Protections and Labor --- Training
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Evidence on the effectiveness of workfare as an anti-poverty program in developing countries is weak compared with the relatively well-established role of public works during economic crisis as a social safety net. This paper contributes to evidence building by examining the impact of a large-scale workfare program in Bangladesh, the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest. Taking advantage of the program's distinguishable feature of direct wage transfer to a person's bank account, the paper uses accessibility to local banks as an instrumental variable to identify the program's impacts on rural social assistance beneficiaries. Based on locality-by-time fixed effects models over two rounds of locality panel data, the analysis finds that the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest has contributed to increasing overall household consumption and reducing outstanding loans. In particular, expenditures on quality food and health care have significantly increased, which likely helps individuals continue to engage in income-generating activities in the labor market. However, the implementation costs and poor quality of public assets built through work projects could potentially undermine the program's efficiency. Moreover, further evidence is required on the impacts of work experience through workfare on subsequent labor market outcomes and the value of public assets, to assess the program's effectiveness compared with administratively simpler alternative instruments such as unconditional cash transfers.
Consumption --- Poverty --- Public Works --- Social Assistance --- Workfare
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This multisectoral Jobs Diagnostic provides a comprehensive overview of Pakistan's job market, with the aim of informing key policy areas. It investigates a host of factors associated with labor outcomes, such as the general macroeconomic environment and job-specific conditions, workers' education and skill levels, labor market segmentation and disparities, structural transformation, and workers' mobility. It highlights issues related to job creation, quality, and access by looking at past and present trends in the labor market. It also provides a global and regional comparison of key dimensions of the job market, in an effort to assess Pakistan's position. Finally, it highlights a prioritized set of interventions to address key priorities on the jobs agenda that will focus on quantity, quality, and inclusiveness of jobs.
Business Environment --- Emigration --- International Migration --- Job Creation --- Labor Market --- Labor Markets --- Poverty Reduction --- Productivity --- Skills Development and Labor Force Training --- Social Protections and Labor --- Urbanization --- Vocational and Technical Education
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This paper examines how different types of workers in 17 middle-income countries were affected by labor market retrenchment during the great recession. Impacts on different types of workers varied by country and were only weakly related to the severity of the shock. Among active workers, youth experienced by far the largest adverse impacts on employment, unemployment, and wage employment, particularly relative to older adults. The percentage employment reductions, for example, were greatest for youth in each sector of the economy, as firms reacted to the shock by substituting away from inexperienced workers. Employment rates, as a share of the population, also plummeted for men. Larger drops in male employment were primarily attributable to men's higher initial rate of employment, although men's concentration in the hard-hit industrial sector also played an important role. Within each sector, percentage employment declines were similar for men and women. Added worker effects among women were mild, even among less-educated workers. Differences in labor market outcomes across education groups and urban or rural residence tended to be smaller. These findings bolster the case for targeted support to displaced youth and wage employees. Programs targeted to female and unskilled workers should be undertaken with appropriate caution or empirical support from timely data, as they may not benefit the majority of affected workers.
Communities & Human Settlements --- Financial Crisis --- Great Recession --- Group Comparison --- Labor Market --- Labor Markets --- Labor Policies --- Labor Standards --- Population Policies --- Sectoral Employment --- Social Protections and Labor --- Work & Working Conditions
Choose an application
This paper provides a synthetic and systematic review on the effectiveness of various entrepreneurship programs in developing countries. It adopts a meta-regression analysis using 37 impact evaluation studies that were in the public domain by March 2012, and draws out several lessons on the design of the programs. The paper observes wide variation in program effectiveness across different interventions depending on outcomes, types of beneficiaries, and country context. Overall, entrepreneurship programs have a positive and large impact for youth and on business knowledge and practice, but no immediate translation into business set-up and expansion or increased income. At a disaggregate level by outcome groups, providing a package of training and financing is more effective for labor activities. In addition, financing support appears more effective for women and business training for existing entrepreneurs than other interventions to improve business performance.
Access to Finance --- Counseling --- Entrepreneurship Programs --- Financial Literacy --- Financing --- Labor Policies --- Meta Regression Analysis --- Microenterprise Development --- Poverty Impact Evaluation --- Primary Education --- Social Development --- Social Protections and Labor --- Training
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This Jobs Diagnostic presents the characteristics and constraints of the labor market in Bangladesh, identifies the objectives of the jobs agenda, and proposes a policy framework to progress toward them. This multisectoral diagnostic assesses the relationships between supply- and demand-side factors that interact to determine job creation, quality, and inclusion outcomes. Understanding the factors that influence jobs outcomes requires a holistic approach capturing issues such as access to markets, inputs, capital, technology, skills, and matching of supply and demand. Standard labor analysis tends to miss crucial aspects of the demand side of job creation, while growth diagnostics have no direct link to jobs. The Jobs Diagnostic thus intends to provide the comprehensive evidence base to support the development of a national jobs strategy that focuses on policies to foster an environment for more, better, inclusive jobs in Bangladesh.
Demographics --- Economic Growth --- Enterprise Development & Reform --- Improving Labor Markets --- Job Creation --- Labor Market --- Labor Markets --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Poverty Reduction --- Private Sector Development --- Social Protection and Risk Management --- Social Protections and Labor --- Spatial analysis
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Since the mid-1990s, Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced unprecedented levels of high economic growth. A key question follows: What accounts for the turnaround of the growth performance in the mid-1990s? The answer can provide insight into whether the recent growth spurt in Sub-Saharan Africa is merely temporary or the beginning of a sustainable takeoff. This paper examines the sources of growth of 32 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in a growth accounting framework. The findings suggest that the recent growth spurt is largely associated with an increase in the share of working-age population, capital accumulation, and total factor productivity, unlike previous periods. Resources play a role by attracting capital inflows, particularly from foreign direct investment and shifting labor away from agriculture. However, the growth prospects for Sub-Saharan Africa seem promising beyond resources, with steady progress in decreased fertility, increased foreign direct investment, political stability, and structural transformation.
Demographic Transition --- Economic Growth --- Economic Theory & Research --- Emerging Markets --- Foreign Direct Investment --- Growth Accounting --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Population Policies --- Poverty Reduction --- Private Sector Development --- Total Factor Productivity
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