Download or read book Are Labor Regulations Driving Computer Usage in India s Retail Sotres written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Are Labor Regulations Driving Computer Usage in India s Retail Stores written by Mohammad Amin and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Technology and Labor Regulation written by Mohammad Amin and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A commonly held but untested belief is that the adoption of modern technology such as computers could be endogenous to labor regulations. We test for this belief using micro data at the store level for the retail sector in India. Our results show a strong positive relationship between the severity of labor laws and computer usage confirming the stated belief while for other business regulations, this relationship is negative. We discuss the broader implications of our findings for employment generation, income inequality between the skilled and unskilled and for estimating the productivity enhancing effects of computer usage.
Download or read book Computer Usage and Labour Regulation in India s Retail Sector written by Mohammad Amin and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Customer Market Power and the Provision of Trade Credit written by Neeltje van Horen and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Statistics show that the sale of goods on credit is widespread among firms even when they are capital constrained and thus face relatively high costs in providing trade credit. This study provides an explanation for this by arguing that customers who possess strong market power are able to increase their customer surplus by demanding to purchase the goods on credit. This gain in customer surplus increases with the degree of asymmetric information between buyer and seller with respect to product quality. Therefore, firms that are perceived as risky are especially subject to the market power of the customer and have to sell their goods on credit. Using detailed firm-level data from a large number of firms in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, this study finds evidence consistent with this hypothesis. It finds a strong positive correlation between customer market power and trade credit provision. Furthermore, this relationship is especially strong when the supplier is more risky and in countries with limited financial sector development or a weak legal system.
Download or read book When Do Creditor Rights Work written by Siddharth Sharma and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Are Cash Transfers Made to Women Spent Like Other Sources of Income written by Norbert Rüdiger Schady and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How cash transfers made to women are used has important implications for models of household behavior and for the design of social programs. In this paper, the authors use the randomized introduction of an unconditional cash transfer to poor women in rural Ecuador to analyze the effect of transfers on the food Engel curve. There are two main findings. First, the authors show that households randomly assigned to receive Bono de Desarrollo Humano (BDH) transfers have a significantly higher food share in expenditures than those that were randomly assigned to the control group. Second, they show that the rising food share among BDH beneficiaries is found among households that have both adult males and females, but not among households that only have adult females. Bargaining power between men and women is likely to be important in mixed-adult households, but not among female-only households, where there are no men to bargain with. Finally, the authors show that within mixed-adult households, program effects are only significant in households in which the initial bargaining capacity of women was likely to be weak. This pattern of results is consistent with an increase in the bargaining power of women in households that received BDH transfers.
Download or read book Performance of Manufacturing Firms in Africa written by Hinh T. Dinh and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents empirical analyses of manufacturing firm performance in Africa based on the World Bank Enterprise Survey and on a one-time quantitative survey conducted for the World Bank by the Center for the Study of African Economies of Oxford University.
Download or read book Doing Business 2018 written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifteen in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 190 economies, Doing Business 2018 measures aspects of regulation affecting 10 areas of everyday business activity: • Starting a business • Dealing with construction permits • Getting electricity • Registering property • Getting credit • Protecting minority investors • Paying taxes • Trading across borders • Enforcing contracts • Resolving insolvency These areas are included in the distance to frontier score and ease of doing business ranking. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in these two measures. The report updates all indicators as of June 1, 2017, ranks economies on their overall “ease of doing business†?, and analyzes reforms to business regulation †“ identifying which economies are strengthening their business environment the most. Doing Business illustrates how reforms in business regulations are being used to analyze economic outcomes for domestic entrepreneurs and for the wider economy. It is a flagship product produced in partnership by the World Bank Group that garners worldwide attention on regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. More than 137 economies have used the Doing Business indicators to shape reform agendas and monitor improvements on the ground. In addition, the Doing Business data has generated over 2,182 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals since its inception. Data Notes; Distance to Frontier and Ease of Doing Business Ranking; and Summaries of Doing Business Reforms in 2016/17 can be downloaded separately from the Doing Business website.
Download or read book Industrial and Labor Relations Review written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Institutional Effects as Determinants of Learning Outcomes written by Jesús Alvarez and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper uses the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment student-level achievement database for Mexico to estimate state education production functions, controlling for student characteristics, family background, home inputs, resources, and institutions. The authors take advantage of the state-level variation and representative sample to analyze the impact of institutional factors such as state accountability systems and the role of teachers' unions in student achievement. They argue that accountability, through increased use of state assessments, will improve learning outcomes. The authors also cast light on the role of teachers' unions, namely their strength through appointments to the school and relations with state governments. The analysis shows the importance of good relations between states and unions. Furthermore, it demonstrates that accountability systems are cost-effective measures for improving outcomes.
Download or read book Investment Climate Reforms written by World Bank World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Private firms are at the forefront of the development process, providing more than 90 percent of jobs, supplying goods and services, and representing a significant source of tax revenues. Their ability to grow, create jobs, and reduce poverty depends critically on a well-functioning investment climate--defined as the policy, legal, and institutional arrangements underpinning the functioning of markets and the level of transaction costs and risks associated with starting, operating, and closing a business. The World Bank Group has provided extensive support to investment climate reforms. This evaluation by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) assesses the relevance, effectiveness, and social value of World Bank Group support to investment climate reforms as it relates to concerns for inclusion and shared prosperity. IEG finds that the World Bank Group has supported a comprehensive menu of investment climate reforms and has improved investment climate in countries, as measured by number of laws enacted, streamlining of processes and time, or simple cost savings for private firms. However, the impact on investment, jobs, business formation, and growth is not straightforward. Regulatory reforms need to be designed and implemented with both economic and social costs and benefits in mind; IEG found that, in practice, World Bank Group support focuses predominantly on reducing costs to businesses. In supporting investment climate reforms, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation use two distinct but complementary business models. Despite the fact that investment climate is the most integrated business unit in the World Bank Group, coordination is mostly informal, relying mainly on personal contacts. IEG recommends that the World Bank Group expand its range of diagnostic tools and integrate them in the areas of the business environment not yet covered by existing tools; develop an approach to identify the social effects of regulatory reforms on all groups expected to be affected by them beyond the business community; and exploit synergies by ensuring that World Bank and IFC staff improve their understanding of each other's work and business models.
Download or read book assesment of the economic impacts of climate change on agriculture in zimbabwe written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Innovation Shortfalls written by William Francis Maloney and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a common perception that low productivity or low growth is due to what can be called an "innovation shortfall," usually identified as a low rate of investment in research and development (R&D) when compared with some high innovation countries. The usual reaction to this perceived problem is to call for increases in R&D investment rates, usually specifying a target that can be as high as 3 percent of GDP. The problem with this analysis is that it fails to see that a low R&D investment rate may be appropriate given the economy's pattern of specialization, or may be just one manifestation of more general problems that impede accumulation of all kinds of capital. How can we know when a country suffers from an innovation shortfall above and beyond the ones that should be expected given the country's specialization and accumulation patterns? This is the question the authors tackle in this paper. First, they show a simple way to estimate the R&D gap that can be explained by a country's specialization pattern, illustrating it for the case of Chile. For this country they find that although its specialization in natural-resource-intensive sectors explains part of its R&D gap, a significant shortfall remains. Second, the authors show how a calibrated model can be used to determine the R&D gap that should be expected given a country's investment in physical and human capital. If the actual R&D gap is above this expected gap, then one can say that the country suffers from a true innovation shortfall.
Download or read book Assessing the Economic Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture in Egypt A Ricarbian Approach written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book an empirical economics assessment of impacts of climate change on agriculture in zambia written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book economic benefit of tuberculosis control written by Ramanan Laxminarayan and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Tuberculosis is the most important infectious cause of adult deaths after HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries. This paper evaluates the economic benefits of extending the World Health Organization's DOTS Strategy (a multi-component approach that includes directly observed treatment, short course chemotherapy and several other components) as proposed in the Global Plan to Stop TB, 2006-2015. The authors use a model-based approach that combines epidemiological projections of averted mortality and economic benefits measured using value of statistical life for the Sub-Saharan Africa region and the 22 high-burden, tuberculosis-endemic countries in the world. The analysis finds that the economic benefits between 2006 and 2015 of sustaining DOTS at current levels relative to having no DOTS coverage are significantly greater than the costs in the 22 high-burden, tuberculosis-endemic countries and the Africa region. The marginal benefits of implementing the Global Plan to Stop TB relative to a no-DOTS scenario exceed the marginal costs by a factor of 15 in the 22 high-burden endemic countries, a factor of 9 (95% CI, 8-9) in the Africa region, and a factor of 9 (95% CI, 9-10) in the nine high-burden African countries. Uncertainty analysis shows that benefit-cost ratios of the Global Plan strategy relative to sustained DOTS were unambiguously greater than one in all nine high-burden countries in Africa and in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Russia. Although HIV curtails the effect of the tuberculosis programs by lowering the life expectancy of those receiving treatment, the benefits of the Global Plan are greatest in African countries with high levels of HIV.
