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Combining Growth and Gender Diagnostics for the Benefit of Both
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Year: 2019 Publisher: Washington, D.C. : The World Bank,

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Women's economic empowerment is not a new issue; nevertheless, it continues to challenge governments and development assistance agencies. One of the reasons for this hurdle may well be that gender advocates and growth devotees are speaking different languages when there is a huge space for them to collaborate effectively and pursue both agendas simultaneously. This paper outlines a framework for gender-enhanced growth diagnostics that can be used to identify win-win solutions based on policies that target jointly the binding constraints to economic growth and those limiting female economic participation. The welfare gain from such a reform surpasses the gain from a pro-growth reform addressing only the binding constraint to growth or that from a pro-gender reform aimed at closing gender gaps. Using Turkey's country growth diagnostics and data on gender gaps, the paper uses the approach to identify those constraints to women's economic empowerment that align with national growth priorities and may therefore gain greater traction with policy makers.


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Natural Resources and Total Factor Productivity Growth in Developing Countries : Testing A New Methodology
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Year: 2019 Publisher: Washington, D.C. : The World Bank,

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Estimates of total factor productivity growth, a measure of increases in the efficiency of production, have traditionally been based on a two-factor model of labor and fixed capital. Because profits are measured residually in the System of National Accounts, they implicitly include rents on natural resource exploitation, with the result that the contribution of fixed capital to growth in the inputs to gross domestic product is misstated, particularly in resource dependent developing countries. This leads to incorrect measures of total factor productivity growth. Using data on natural resources from the World Bank's Wealth of Nations database and methods combining the Solow growth accounting model with recent work at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, this paper makes new estimates of total factor productivity growth for 74 developing countries over 1996-2014. In the aggregate, including natural resources as a factor of production increases estimated total factor productivity growth across all country income classes and regions of the world when compared with the traditional two-factor approach. In addition, the estimated total factor productivity growth including natural resources is less volatile over time in the great majority of countries compared with the traditional approach. The availability of World Bank data on natural resource quantities and rents for a wide range of countries suggests that natural resources should be included in total factor productivity growth estimation going forward. Further research could focus on the distinctive roles played by different natural resource endowments.


Book
Vanzelf : tegen het effeciëntiedenken en de doelmatigheidscultuur
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ISBN: 9789462922525 9462922527 Year: 2015 Volume: *1 Publisher: Leuven Acco

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Efficiëntie is hét codewoord van onze tijd. Voortdurend weerklinkt de roep om allerlei domeinen van het leven efficiënter te organiseren: overheid, zorg, onderwijs, verkeer... We moeten meer doen met minder. Dat vereist dat we ons liefst zo concreet mogelijke doelen stellen en dat we die dan ook proberen te realiseren. Efficiëntie en doelmatig streven gaan dus hand in hand.In dit boek gaat Yoni Van Den Eede na hoe efficiëntie en doelmatigheid vergaand ons leven zijn gaan bepalen en intussen onze manier van denken domineren. Ze lijken de heilige graal van onze maatschappelijke organisatie geworden. Het zijn haast absolute principes, die op alles en iedereen van toepassing zijn en die zogenaamd overal eenzijdig positieve effecten sorteren.Toch hebben die principes ook een keerzijde. Ze hebben neveneffecten die wel minder tastbaar zijn, maar ons raken in ons diepste, existentiële wezen. Want wat als we voornamelijk vanuit de efficiëntiegedachte betekenis proberen te geven aan ons bestaan? Wie obsessief op doelen, resultaten en trajecten gericht is, vergeet namelijk één zaak: dat vele goeie dingen vanzelf komen, of dat ze slechts moeilijk gestuurd kunnen worden. Betekent dat dan dat we efficiëntie en doelmatigheid volledig moeten uitbannen? Geenszins. Wel moeten we dringend op zoek naar een nieuwe levenskunst.Dit boek maakt deel uit van de reeks Kennismakers. In deze reeks verschijnen boeken van auteurs die kritisch reflecteren op belangrijke maatschappelijke problemen en evoluties van vandaag.


Book
Gender and Agriculture : Inefficiencies, Segregation, and Low Productivity Traps
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Year: 2013 Publisher: Washington, D.C., The World Bank,

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Women make essential contributions to agriculture in developing countries, where they constitute approximately 43 percent of the agricultural labor force. However, female farmers typically have lower output per unit of land and are much less likely to be active in commercial farming than their male counterparts. These gender differences in land productivity and participation between male and female farmers are due to gender differences in access to inputs, resources, and services. In this paper, the authors review the evidence on productivity differences and access to resources. They discuss some of the reasons for these differences, such as differences in property rights, education, control over resources (e.g., land), access to inputs and services (e.g., fertilizer, extension, and credit), and social norms. Although women are less active in commercial farming and are largely excluded from contract farming, they often provide the bulk of wage labor in the nontraditional export sector. In general, gender gaps do not appear to fall systematically with growth, and they appear to rise with GDP per capita and with greater access to resources and inputs. Active policies that support women's access and participation, not just greater overall access, are essential if these gaps are to be closed. The gains in terms of greater productivity of land and overall production are likely to be large.


Book
Gender and Agriculture : Inefficiencies, Segregation, and Low Productivity Traps
Authors: --- ---
Year: 2013 Publisher: Washington, D.C., The World Bank,

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Women make essential contributions to agriculture in developing countries, where they constitute approximately 43 percent of the agricultural labor force. However, female farmers typically have lower output per unit of land and are much less likely to be active in commercial farming than their male counterparts. These gender differences in land productivity and participation between male and female farmers are due to gender differences in access to inputs, resources, and services. In this paper, the authors review the evidence on productivity differences and access to resources. They discuss some of the reasons for these differences, such as differences in property rights, education, control over resources (e.g., land), access to inputs and services (e.g., fertilizer, extension, and credit), and social norms. Although women are less active in commercial farming and are largely excluded from contract farming, they often provide the bulk of wage labor in the nontraditional export sector. In general, gender gaps do not appear to fall systematically with growth, and they appear to rise with GDP per capita and with greater access to resources and inputs. Active policies that support women's access and participation, not just greater overall access, are essential if these gaps are to be closed. The gains in terms of greater productivity of land and overall production are likely to be large.


Book
An explanation of the inverted-U relationship between profitability and innovation
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ISBN: 802107423X 8021074981 9788021074989 9788021074231 9788021074231 Year: 2014 Publisher: Brno, [Czech Republic] : Masaryk University,

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The author introduces two models of innovation that are able to explain the inverted-U relationship between profitability and innovation, along with the findings of Aghion et al. (2005) and Hashmi (2005) related to the relationship between profitability and the dispersion of productivity in the industry. The basic model provides a simple and general explanation of the empirical findings. The prospect-theory model provides a more specific explanation of the empirical findings, which includes a behavioral model of managerial decision-making. He shows that both models generate realistic predictions for a wider range of parameter combinations around the specific parameter values.

Postindustrial possibilities
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ISBN: 1282355694 9786612355691 0520910133 0585284687 9780520910133 9780585284682 9781282355699 9780520068131 0520068130 9780520069886 0520069889 0520068130 0520069889 Year: 1990 Publisher: Berkeley University of California Press

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While it is often acknowledged that we live in a "postindustrial" age, our economic concepts have lagged far behind our postmodern sensibility. In this incisive new work, the well-known sociologist, Fred Block, sheds obsolete and shopworn economic analysis by presenting a bold, sweeping reconceptualization of the economy. Postindustrial Possibilities provides a fresh understanding of the dynamics of postindustrial change while offering a roadmap for future economic thinking.Block takes as his point of departure the tired concepts of neo-classical economics which, while still dominant, fall short as tools for comprehending contemporary economic forces. In Block's mind, the failure to revise the concepts of industrial economics means that the reality of today's economy is increasingly understood as "through a glass darkly." Intent on reinvigorating thinking in this area, Block masterfully critiques the central categories of neo-classical economics, such as the market, labor, and capital.Block argues that the neo-classical tradition has obscured the fact that capitalist prosperity has been built not on "free markets" but rather on systematic constraints on market freedom. He further suggests that measurements of capital have become increasingly problematic and that the concept obscures the critical sources of productivity within organizations. In his far-reaching analysis of the Gross National Product, Block shows that there is a growing divergence between the factors that determine people's well-being and trends in measured GNP.Postindustrial Possibilities sets forth a new intellectual paradigm that might be called "Qualitative Growth." One of its primary foci is a shift toward improved product quality and greater priority for various non-commodity satisfactions such as leisure, interesting work, economic security and a safe and clean environment. It also promotes a recognition that greater economic efficiency rests not on infusions of capital but on cooperative labor relations and on institutional reform.Wide-ranging, intellectually vibrant and lucid, Postindustrial Possibilities will engender controversy and debate. It is an enormous contribution that social scientists and policymakers will need to come to terms with.


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Public Expenditure and Growth
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Year: 2007 Publisher: Washington, D.C., The World Bank,

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Given that public spending will have a positive impact on GDP if the benefits exceed the marginal cost of public funds, the present paper deals with measuring costs and benefits of public spending. The paper discusses one cost seldom considered in the literature and in policy debates, namely, the volatility derived from additional public spending. The paper identifies a relationship between public spending volatility and consumption volatility, which implies a direct welfare loss to society. This loss is substantial in developing countries, estimated at 8 percent of consumption. If welfare losses due to volatility are this sizeable, then measuring the benefits of public spending is critical. Gauging benefits based on macro aggregate data requires three caveats: a) considering of the impact of the funding (taxation) required for the additional public spending; b) differentiating between investment and capital formation; c) allowing for heterogeneous response of output to different types of capital and differences in network development. It is essential to go beyond country-specificity to project-level evaluation of the benefits and costs of public projects. From the micro viewpoint, the rate of return of a project must exceed the marginal cost of public funds, determined by tax levels and structure. Credible evaluations require microeconomic evidence and careful specification of counterfactuals. On this, the impact evaluation literature and methods play a critical role. From individual project evaluation, the analyst must contemplate the general equilibrium impacts. In general, the paper advocates for project evaluation as a central piece of any development platform. By increasing the efficiency of public spending, the government can permanently increase the rate of productivity growth and, hence, affect the growth rate of GDP.


Book
Trade Remedies and Non-Market Economies : Economic Implications of the First US Countervailing Duty Case On China
Authors: ---
Year: 2008 Publisher: Washington, D.C., The World Bank,

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In 2007, the United States Department of Commerce altered a 23-year old policy of not applying the countervailing duty law to non-market economies, and initiated eight countervailing and antidumping duty investigations on Chinese imports. The change brings heated debate on trade remedy policies and issues of non-market economies. This study focuses on the first countervailing duty case on imported coated free sheet paper from China and analyzes the implications of this test case for United States-China bilateral trade, and industrial policies in transitioning market economies. The paper also provides a brief review of the economics of subsidies, World Trade Organization rules on subsides and countervailing measures, and United States countervailing duty laws applied to non-market economies. While recently acceded countries should review their domestic development policies from the perspective of economic efficiency and comply with the World Trade Organization rules, it is also important to further clarify the issues of non-market economies under the multilateral trading system, and pay keen attention to the rules negotiations in the current World Trade Organization Doha Development Round.


Book
Financial Transactions Tax : Panacea, Threat, Or Damp Squib ?
Authors: ---
Year: 2010 Publisher: Washington, D.C., The World Bank,

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Attempts to raise a significant percentage of gross domestic product in revenue from a broad-based financial transactions tax are likely to fail both by raising much less revenue than expected and by generating far-reaching changes in economic behavior. Although the side-effects would include a sizable restructuring of financial sector activity, this would not occur in ways corrective of the particular forms of financial overtrading that were most conspicuous in contributing to the crisis.

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