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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Yasser Abdih; Leandro Medina |
| Abstract: | This study estimates the size of the informal economy, and the relative contribution of each underlying factor, for the Caucasus and Central Asia countries in 2008. Using a Multiple Indicator-Multiple Cause model, we find that a burdensome tax system, rigid labor market, low institutional quality, and excessive regulation in financial and products markets are determinant factors in explaining the size of the informal economy, which ranges from 26 percent of GDP in Kyrgyz Republic to around 35 percent of GDP in Armenia. Furthermore, the results show that higher levels of informality increase the levels of self employment and the percentage of currency held outside the banking system. |
| Keywords: | Shadow economy;Central Asia;Tax burdens;Labor markets;Economic models;Cross country analysis;Informal economy; latent variable; Caucasus and Central Asia. |
| Date: | 2013–05–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:13/137&r=cwa |
| By: | Richard A Iles; John M Rose |
| Keywords: | Stated Choice, experimental design, choice task simplification, cognitive burden, Indian primary health care, Attribute nonattendance |
| JEL: | I11 C93 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gri:epaper:economics:201305&r=cwa |
| By: | Herrmann, Benedikt (European Commission); Kritikos, Alexander S. (University of Potsdam, DIW Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Greece's currently planned institutional reforms will help to get the country going with limited economic growth. With an economy based primarily on tourism, trade, and agriculture, Greece lacks an established competitive industry and an innovation-friendly environment, resulting in a low export ratio given the small size of the country and its long-time EU-membership. Instead, Greece exports only its nation's talent, with low returns. To become prosperous, the country must better capitalize on its Eurozone membership and add innovative sectors to its economic structure. Given Greece's hidden assets, such as the attractiveness of the country, a small number of strong research centers and an impressive diaspora in research, finance and business, we envision a Greek "Silicon Valley" and propose a ten point policy plan to achieve that goal. |
| Keywords: | innovation, Greece, growth strategy, entrepreneurship, innovation systems, regulatory environment |
| JEL: | L2 L26 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7606&r=cwa |
| By: | Serkan Degirmenci; Ipek Ilkkaracan |
| Abstract: | Turkish economic growth has been characterized by periodic crises since financial liberalization reforms were enacted in the early 1990s. Given the phenomenally low female labor force participation rate in Turkey (one of the lowest in the world) and the limited scope of the country's unemployment insurance scheme, there appears to be ample room for a female added worker effect as a household strategy against unemployment shocks under economic crises. Using micro data from household labor force surveys for the 2004-10 period, we examine the extent to which an unemployment shock to the primary male earner instigates female members of the household to move from nonparticipant status to labor market participation. This paper differs from the earlier few studies on the added worker effect in Turkey in a number of aspects. First, rather than simply basing the analysis on a static association between women's observed participation status and men's observed unemployment status in the survey period, we explore whether there is a dynamic relationship between transitions of women and men across labor market states. To do this, we make use of a question introduced to the Household Labor Force Survey in 2004 regarding the survey respondent's labor market status in the previous year. This allows us to explore transitions by female members of households from nonparticipant status in the previous year to participant status in the current year, in response to male members making a transition from employed in the previous period to unemployed in the current period. We explore whether and to what extent the primary male earner's move from employed to unemployed status determines the probability of married or single female full-time homemakers entering the labor market. We estimate the marginal effect of the unemployment shock on labor market transition probability for the overall sample as well as for different groups of women, and hence demonstrate that the effect varies widely depending on the particular characteristics of the woman--for example, her education level, age, urban/rural residence, and marital and parental status. We find that at the micro level an unemployment shock to the household increases the probability of a female homemaker entering the labor market by 6-8 percent. The marginal effects vary substantially across different groups of women by age, rural or urban residence, and education. For instance, a household unemployment shock increases by up to 34 percent the probability that a university graduate homemaker in the 20-45 age group will enter the labor market; for a high school graduate the probability drops to 17 percent, while for her counterpart with a secondary education the marginal effect is only 7 percent. Our estimate of the total (weighted) number of female added workers in the crisis years shows that only around 9 percent of the homemakers in households experiencing an unemployment shock enter the labor market. Hence we conclude that, while some households experiencing unemployment shocks do use the added worker effect as a coping strategy, this corresponds to a relatively small share. We attribute this finding to the deeply embedded structural constraints against female labor market participation in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | Labor Supply; Economic Crisis: Turkey |
| JEL: | J16 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_774&r=cwa |
| By: | Choy, James (Department of Economics, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Many societies are divided into multiple smaller groups. The defining feature of these groups is that certain kinds of interaction are more likely to take place within a group than across groups. I build a model in which group divisions are enforced through a reputational penalty for interacting with members of different groups. Agents who interact with members of different groups find that they can support lower levels of cooperation in the future. The model explains why agents may be punished by the other members of their group for interacting with members of different groups and why agents are punished for interacting with members of some groups but not others. I test the empirical implication that there should be less cooperation among members of groups that make up a larger percentage of their communities. I discuss the origin and possible future of social division. JEL classification: Cooperation ; Caste ; Social Institution JEL codes: C7 ; O12 ; O17 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1011&r=cwa |
| By: | Cheng Hoon Lim; Rishi S Ramchand; Hong Wang; Xiaoyong Wu |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys institutional arrangements for macroprudential policy in Asia. Central banks in Asia typically have a financial stability mandate, and play a key role in the macroprudential framework. Smaller and more open economies with prudential regulation inside the central bank tend to have institutional arrangements that give the central bank a leading role. In larger and more complex economies where prudential regulation is outside the central bank, the financial stability mandate is usually shared with other agencies and the government tends to play a leading role. Domestic policy coordination is typically performed by a financial stability committee/other coordination body while cross-border cooperation is largely governed by Memoranda of Understanding. |
| Keywords: | Macroprudential Policy;Asia;Central banks;Financial stability;Central bank role;banking, financial stability, institutional arrangements, macroprudential, regulation |
| Date: | 2013–07–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:13/165&r=cwa |
| By: | International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept. |
| Keywords: | Macroprudential Policy;Public enterprises;Debt restructuring;Financial sector;Financial soundness indicators;Statistical annexes;Selected issues;United Arab Emirates; |
| Date: | 2013–07–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfscr:13/240&r=cwa |
| By: | Enrico Spolaore; Romain Wacziarg |
| Abstract: | What obstacles prevent the most productive technologies from spreading to less developed economies from the world's technological frontier? In this paper, we seek to shed light on this question by quantifying the geographic and human barriers to the transmission of technologies. We argue that the intergenerational transmission of human traits, particularly culturally transmitted traits, has led to divergence between populations over the course of history. In turn, this divergence has introduced barriers to the diffusion of technologies across societies. We provide measures of historical and genealogical distances between populations, and document how such distances, relative to the world's technological frontier, act as barriers to the diffusion of development and of specific innovations. We provide an interpretation of these results in the context of an emerging literature seeking to understand variation in economic development as the result of factors rooted deep in history. |
| Keywords: | Long-run growth, genetic distance, intergenerational transmission, diffusion of innovations |
| JEL: | O11 O33 O40 O57 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0775&r=cwa |
| By: | Sebastian Galiani (Washington University in St. Louis); Ricardo Perez-Truglia (Harvard University and Universidad de San Andres) |
| Abstract: | We review the empirical evaluation of three school-management interventions: school decentralization, tracking and contract teachers. We provide stylized models to organize the discussion of the results. We look at the average and distributional effects of the policies and stress the possible importance of complementary interventions aimed at reducing inequality when the programs are cost-effective but engender greater benefits to the best students. We compare the results across non-experimental, quasi-experimental and experimental studies, and argue, not surprisingly, that a solid identification strategy is critical to getting the policy recommendations right. Finally, we identify some problems that future research should address. |
| JEL: | H00 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0147&r=cwa |