Regional approaches to better standards systems

Developing countries face an increasing need to upgrade the standards of their domestic markets and of their exports. This paper examines different approaches available to them for upgrading their standards and conformity assessment procedures. It focuses particularly on those followed within the context of regional trade agreements (RTAs), as these are yielding promising results. Based on interviews performed in Latin America and on previous literature, the paper draws common features of a RTA standard and conformity assessment upgrading and harmonization process, identifies some of its main challenges, and suggests principles that developing countries could follow in such a process.Trade and Regional Integration,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Regulation,Standards and Technical Regulations,Administrative&Regulatory Law

How do differing standards increase trade costs? The case of pallets

The pallet is a platform used for storing, handling, and transporting products. There are hundreds of different pallet sizes around the world. The case of pallets is examined to illustrate the impact of multiplicity of standards on trade costs. We select this case because pallets are used all around the world, pallet standards are not too sophisticated, and data on the impact of pallet standards are to some extent available. The paper examines why there are so many different pallet sizes, the associated trade costs and the reasons why countries have not harmonized pallet sizes to eliminate such costs. It then presents options for exporters to mitigate the adverse effects of standards multiplicity while complying with destination markets'standard requirements. The range of options is limited in the case of exporters from less developed countries because of the lack of rental and exchange pallet markets. To mitigate the costs of this multiplicity of standards, the World Bank's strategy should be divided in two directions: to develop awareness of costs related to the multiplicity of standards and to support actively harmonization at the global level (within International Organization for Standardization) and at the regional level (within regional cooperation agreements).Health Economics&Finance,Common Carriers Industry,Environmental Economics&Policies,Transport and Trade Logistics,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance,Transport and Trade Logistics,Economic Theory&Research,Common Carriers Industry,Environmental Economics&Policies

The Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty: Some Causes and Policy Implications

The purpose of this report is to investigate the effects of family background factors in determining the intergenerational transmission of poverty in Latin America, drawing on a review of recent studies and empirical work done for this study. Based on the findings of this investigation, the report discusses policy implications and government programs to break the ITP process. The empirical results are based on a sample of Peruvian families that were interviewed in 1985 and 1994 and on the analysis of sixteen countries' cross-sectional data sets obtained from sample surveys in those countries.Poverty, Income, Consumption & Saving, Education, intergenerational transmission of poverty (ITP), intergenerational transmission of poverty, poverty and inequality, family background factors and poverty

Escaping the Poverty Trap in Latin America: The Role of Family Factors

Much like an inherited trait, poverty trends to pass from parent to child. How prevalent is this "curse of the poor," why do some escape it, and how can we help improve the odds? This study sets out to gauge the extent of this "Intergenerational transmissHousehold behavior and family economics, education, welfare and poverty, urban, rural and regional economics, household analysis

Getting things in proportion : essays on the development and application of Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty: Some Causes and Policy Implications

The purpose of this report is to investigate the effects of family background factors in determining the intergenerational transmission of poverty in Latin America, drawing on a review of recent studies and empirical work done for this study. Based on the findings of this investigation, the report discusses policy implications and government programs to break the ITP process. The empirical results are based on a sample of Peruvian families that were interviewed in 1985 and 1994 and on the analysis of sixteen countries' cross-sectional data sets obtained from sample surveys in those countries.

Escaping the Poverty Trap in Latin America: The Role of Family Factors.

Much like an inherited trait, poverty trends to pass from parent to child. How prevalent is this "curse of the poor," why do some escape it, and how can we help improve the odds? This study sets out to gauge the extent of this "Intergenerational transmission of poverty" (ITP) in 16 Latin American countries, analyze certain factors affecting it, and raise policy considerations. Among the various a priori determinants of ITP, the study focuses o­n "family factors" - those more closely related to characteristics of the household, such as mother¿s schooling, than to its economic and social environment. The empirical results indicate that the prevalence of ITP in Latin America is strong and that family factors play an important role in the educational achievement of poor children - and hence o­n their expected lifetime income. Regressions for 16 Latin American countries show that children in poverty with fewer siblings, more educated parents, higher household income, and living in urban areas are significantly more likely to complete secondary education. Completion of secondary education is taken as the threshold level of schooling at or above which a child of poverty should have a fair chance of escaping the poverty cycle in the 21st century. Results for the subset of countries with the required data further show that children of the poor born to single adolescent mothers, or who did not attend a preschool program, or were undernourished, are less likely to complete secondary education than children of the poor without the corresponding attributes. Moreover, supplementary data reviewed for this study, but that could not be adequately indexed for the regressions, tend to support findings by other researchers pointing to two additional family factors affecting educational performance among children from poor households: domestic violence and ethnicity. Study results suggest that poverty-reduction strategies take into account family factors much more than is commonly the case, especially in complement to the supply of education and other basic social services that are so greatly emphasized today. As corollary, we recommend that such social services should, whenever possible, focus o­n the undereducated households in poverty, rather than o­n their members individually, to improve their children¿s education outcomes and thereby increase their chances of breaking out of the cycle of intergenerational poverty

Determinants of Market Integration and Price Transmission in Indonesia

This paper investigates the determinants of price differences and market integration among Indonesian provinces, using data from retail cooking oil, rice and sugar markets during the period 1993-2007, and from wholesale maize and soybean markets during the period 1992-2006. The authors measure the degree of integration using co-integration techniques, and calculate average price differences. They use regression analysis to understand the drivers of price differences and market integration. For rice and sugar, they find wide market integration and low price differences, in the range of 5-12 percent. For maize, soybeans and cooking oil, they find less integration and higher price differences (16-22 percent). Integration across provinces is explained by the remoteness and quality of transport infrastructure of a province. Price differences across provinces respond to differences in provincial characteristics such as remoteness, transport infrastructure, output of the commodity, land productivity and income per capita