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Following a sharp slowdown over the past two years, a recovery is underway in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the region is expected to strengthen to 2.4 percent in 2017 from 1.3 percent in 2016, slightly below the pace previously projected. The rebound is being led by the region's largest economies. In the second quarter of 2017, Nigeria exited a five-quarter recession and South Africa emerged from two successive quarters of negative growth. Economic activity has also picked up in Angola. Elsewhere, an increase in mining output along with a pickup in the agriculture sector is boosting economic activity in metals exporters. GDP growth is stable in non-resource intensive countries, supported by domestic demand. But the recovery is weak in several important dimensions. Regional per capita output growth is forecast to be negative for the second consecutive year, while investment growth remains low, and productivity growth is falling.

Economic Growth --- Fiscal Adjustment --- Labor Markets --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Skills Development and Labor Force Training --- Social Protections and Labor --- Technical Training

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Personnel management --- 65.012.4 --- 658.38/.39 --- Management. Directorate. Technique and methods of management --- Various other personnel matters. Working hours. Leave. Working conditions. Technical training. Industrial disputes. Strikes etc. --- 658.38/.39 Various other personnel matters. Working hours. Leave. Working conditions. Technical training. Industrial disputes. Strikes etc. --- 65.012.4 Management. Directorate. Technique and methods of management

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Industrial safety --- #TWER:BOEK --- 658.38/.39 --- Industrial accidents --- Industries --- Job safety --- Occupational hazards, Prevention of --- Occupational health and safety --- Occupational safety and health --- Prevention of industrial accidents --- Prevention of occupational hazards --- Safety, Industrial --- Safety engineering --- Safety measures --- Safety of workers --- Accidents --- System safety --- Various other personnel matters. Working hours. Leave. Working conditions. Technical training. Industrial disputes. Strikes etc. --- Prevention --- Industrial safety. --- 658.38/.39 Various other personnel matters. Working hours. Leave. Working conditions. Technical training. Industrial disputes. Strikes etc. --- Various other personnel matters. Working hours. Leave. Working conditions. Technical training. Industrial disputes. Strikes etc

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Interventions aimed at increasing the income generating capacity of the poor, such as vocational training, micro-finance or business grants, are widespread in the developing world. How to target such interventions is an open question. Many programs are self-targeted, but if perceived returns differ from actual returns, those self-selecting to participate may not be those for whom the program is the most effective. The authors analyze an unusual experiment with very high take-up of business grants and vocational skills training, randomly assigned among nearly all households in selected poor rural communities in Nicaragua. On average, the interventions resulted in increased participation in non-agricultural employment and higher income from related activities. The paper investigates whether targeting could have resulted in higher returns by analyzing heterogeneity in impacts by stated baseline demand, prior participation in non-agricultural activities, and a wide range of complementary asset endowments. The results reveal little heterogeneity along observed baseline characteristics. However, the poorest households are more likely to enter and have higher profits in non-agricultural self-employment, while less poor households assigned to the training have higher non-agricultural wages. This heterogeneity appears related to unobserved characteristics that are not revealed by stated baseline demand, and more difficult to target. In this context, self-targeting may reduce the poverty-reduction potential of income generating interventions, possibly because low aspirations limit the poor's ex-ante demand for productive interventions while the interventions have the potential to increase those aspirations. Overall, targeting productive interventions to poor households would not have come at the cost of reducing their effectiveness. By contrast, self-targeting would have limited poverty reduction by excluding the poorest.

Aspirations --- Business grants --- Business in Development --- Cash transfers --- Conditional Cash Transfers --- Education --- Poverty Reduction --- Poverty Reduction Strategies --- Pro-Poor Growth --- Randomized experiment --- Targeting --- Vocational Education & Technical Training --- Vocational training

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As Malaysia continues to strive toward high-income status, accelerating productivity growth has become the country's central economic policy challenge. Productivity growth has become increasingly important as the country's traditional economic engines have slowed. Declining oil and gas output, coupled with the slowing growth of the Malaysian mining sector, has reduced the pace of capital accumulation, while demographic trends are slowing the growth of the labor force. Demographic trends underscore the vital importance of productivity growth to the continued development of the Malaysian economy. Malaysia's demographic transition is inhibiting the expansion of the labor supply, and female labor-force participation is low by the standards of comparable countries. Weakening external demand and intensifying global competition in Malaysia's key export industries confirm the necessity of increasing productivity levels. The report presents an empirical analysis of the role of productivity in the Malaysian economy. It evaluates the country's institutional and policy framework, and identifies key constraints to productivity growth. Using time-series data and cross-country comparisons, the report examines the ways in which infrastructure and institutional quality, market efficiency, innovation, and workforce skills influence productivity in Malaysia. This analysis is designed to inform a productivity-focused economic agenda, and the report concludes by presenting a set of policy recommendations and institutional reforms designed to bolster long-run productivity growth.

Economic Growth --- Economic Theory and Research --- Education --- Equity --- Industrial Economics --- Industry --- Infrastructure --- Innovation --- Labor Market --- Labor Markets --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Productivity --- Skills Development and Labor Force Training --- Social Protections and Labor --- Technical Training --- Vocational and Technical Education