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A recent survey of 1,948 retail stores in India conducted by the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys shows that 19 percent of the stores use computers for their business. In some states like Kerala, computer use is as high as 40 percent. Using this data the author finds labor regulation as an important determinant of computer use. His estimates suggest that when faced with burdensome labor regulations, the probability of using a computer rises by over 36 percentage points for an average store. These findings formally confirm a commonly held but untested view that labor regulation may be responsible for the spread of labor saving modern technology.

Downward bias --- Employment --- Labor force --- Labor force participation --- Labor Markets --- Labor regulation --- Labor Regulations --- Labor Relations --- Labor supply --- Regulatory Regimes --- Social Protections and Labor --- Total employment --- Workers

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The labor market performance in Croatia failed to keep pace with the moderately good overall macroeconomic development in the past few years. Youth, the less well-educated, and women face more difficulties in getting a job with a decent salary. A large part of the difference in regional labor market performance is associated with the difference in the human capital endowment. With a stagnant total employment rate, the large disparities in employment and earnings across individual groups and regions have become one of the concerns for the long-term sustainable development of the economy. Using Labor Force Survey (LFS) data from 2002-04, this paper studies the labor market performance in Croatia at the national and regional levels. The results show that both one's individual characteristics (including age, education and gender) and where he or she works plays a role in his or her employment and earnings. Regional differences in employment and earnings are reduced to a large extent when accounting for differences in individual characteristics. The simulations shed light on the effectiveness of the nationwide education policy and regional specific labor market policy, and suggest that improving human capital endowment and adjusting labor market structure are both important to rebalance regional development and enhance total welfare.

Age Groups --- Earning --- Employment Rate --- Employment Service --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Literacy --- Human Capital --- Job --- Labor --- Labor Force --- Labor Force Participation --- Labor Market --- Labor Market Development --- Labor Market Performance --- Labor Market Policy --- Labor Markets --- Labor Organization --- Labor Policies --- Long-Term Unemployment --- Social Protections and Labor --- Total Employment --- Unemployed --- Unemployed Population --- Unemployment Benefits --- Unemployment Rate

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This paper studies the trends and cycles of informal employment. It first presents a theoretical model where the size of informal employment is determined by the relative costs and benefits of informality and the distribution of workers' skills. In the long run, informal employment varies with the trends in these variables, and in the short run it reacts to accommodate transient shocks and to close the gap that separates it from its trend level. The paper then uses an error-correction framework to examine empirically informality's long- and short-run relationships. For this purpose, it uses country-level data at annual frequency for a sample of industrial and developing countries, with the share of self-employment in the labor force as the proxy for informal employment. The paper finds that, in the long run, informality is larger in countries that have lower GDP per capita and impose more costs to formal firms in the form of more rigid business regulations, less valuable police and judicial services, and weaker monitoring of informality. In the short run, informal employment is found to be counter-cyclical for the majority of countries, with the degree of counter-cyclicality being lower in countries with larger informal employment and better police and judicial services. Moreover, informal employment follows a stable, trend-reverting process. These results are robust to changes in the sample and to the influence of outliers, even when only developing countries are considered in the analysis.

Active Labor --- Business Cycle --- Economic Theory and Research --- Exogenous Variable --- Informal Economies --- Informal Economy --- Informal Employment --- Informal Labor Markets --- Informal Sector --- Labor --- Labor Force --- Labor Markets --- Labor Organization --- Labor Policies --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Minimum Wage --- Previous Section --- Productivity Differential --- Productivity Level --- Public Services --- Small Manufacturing --- Social Protections and Labor --- Total Employment --- Worker --- Workers

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The labor market performance in Croatia failed to keep pace with the moderately good overall macroeconomic development in the past few years. Youth, the less well-educated, and women face more difficulties in getting a job with a decent salary. A large part of the difference in regional labor market performance is associated with the difference in the human capital endowment. With a stagnant total employment rate, the large disparities in employment and earnings across individual groups and regions have become one of the concerns for the long-term sustainable development of the economy. Using Labor Force Survey (LFS) data from 2002-04, this paper studies the labor market performance in Croatia at the national and regional levels. The results show that both one's individual characteristics (including age, education and gender) and where he or she works plays a role in his or her employment and earnings. Regional differences in employment and earnings are reduced to a large extent when accounting for differences in individual characteristics. The simulations shed light on the effectiveness of the nationwide education policy and regional specific labor market policy, and suggest that improving human capital endowment and adjusting labor market structure are both important to rebalance regional development and enhance total welfare.

Age Groups --- Earning --- Employment Rate --- Employment Service --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Literacy --- Human Capital --- Job --- Labor --- Labor Force --- Labor Force Participation --- Labor Market --- Labor Market Development --- Labor Market Performance --- Labor Market Policy --- Labor Markets --- Labor Organization --- Labor Policies --- Long-Term Unemployment --- Social Protections and Labor --- Total Employment --- Unemployed --- Unemployed Population --- Unemployment Benefits --- Unemployment Rate

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July 2000 - Between 1993 and 1997, Vietnam was one of the fastest growing economies, with GDP increasing almost 9 percent a year and the industrial sector expanding roughly 13 percent a year. But did employment also grow at a fast pace? And is Vietnam due for labor-intensive growth? Since Vietnam's adoption of the doi moi or renovation policy in 1986, the country has been undergoing the transition from central planning to a socialist market-oriented economy. This has translated into strong economic growth, led by the industrial sector, which expanded more than 13 percent a year from 1993 to 1997. Vietnamese policymakers are concerned, however, that employment growth has lagged. To address this concern, Belser compares new employment data from the Vietnam Living Standards Survey (VLSS 2), completed in 1997-98, with data from the first household survey undertaken in 1992-93. He shows that in 1993-97, industrial employment grew an average of about 4 percent a year, which is low compared with industrial GDP growth. This slower growth was attributable to the capital-intensive, import-substituting nature of the state sector and foreign investment, which dominate industry. The more labor-intensive, export-oriented domestic private sector is still small, although growing quickly. In the future, growth promises to become more labor-intensive. Before the Asian crisis there were signs of an emerging export-oriented sector. Using previous statistical analysis (Wood and Mayer 1998) as well as factor content calculations, Belser estimates that given Vietnam's endowment of natural and human resources, Vietnam could triple its manufacturing exports and create about 1.6 million manufacturing jobs in export sectors in the near future. After examining Vietnam's labor regulations, Belser concludes that there is no need for basic reform of the labor market. At current levels, minimum wages and nonwage regulations (even if better enforced) are unlikely to inhibit development of the private sector or hurt export competitiveness. But a restrictive interpretation of the Labor Code's provisions on terminating employment could hurt foreign investment, reduce the speed of reform in the state sector, and slow the reallocation of resources to the domestic private sector. This paper - a product of the Vietnam Country Office, East Asia and Pacific Region - was prepared as a background paper for the Vietnam Development Report 2000, Vietnam: Attacking Poverty, a joint report of the Government of Vietnam-Donor-NGO Poverty Working Group. The author may be contacted at pbelser@worldbank.org.

Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Employment --- Employment Growth --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Literacy --- Household Survey --- Human Resources --- International Economics & Trade --- Jobs --- Labor --- Labor Market --- Labor Market Reforms --- Labor Markets --- Labor Policies --- Labor Productivity --- Labor Regulations --- Labor-Intensive Growth --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Minimum Wages --- Private Companies --- Private Sector --- Private Sector Development --- Productivity Gap --- Productivity Growth --- Public Sector Development --- Social Protections and Labor --- Total Employment --- Total Labor Force --- Trade Policy --- Worker --- Workers