Women and labor market changes in the global economy : growth helps, inequalities hurt, and public policy matters

This report examines the level and changes in female and male participation rates, employment segregation, and female wages relative to male wages across the world economy. It funds sufficient evidence to support the view that labor markets in developing countries are transformed relatively quickly in the sense that gender differentials in employment and pay are narrowing much faster than they did inindustrialized countries. However, the report evaluates the inefficiencies arising from persisting gender differentials in the labor market and finds them to be potentially significant. The estimates also indicate that the resulting deadweight losses are borne primarily by women while men gain mainly in relative terms-there are no real winners from discrimination. The paper concludes that growth benefits women at large, inequalities can have significantly adverse effects on welfare, and market-based development alone can be a weak instrument doe reducing inequality between the sexes. To break the vicious cycle of women's low initial human capital endowments and inferior labor market outcomes compared to men's, the report proposes greater access to education and training for girls and women, enforceable equal pay and equal employment opportunities legislation, a taxation and benefits structure that treats reproduction as an economic activity and women as equal partners within households, and a better accounting of women's work to include invisible production.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Primary Education,Population&Development,Health Economics&Finance

Child labor and school enrollment in Thailand in the 1990s

This report examines the situation of child labor in Thailand in the last decade. It finds that child labor has decreased significantly, for example, the labor force participation rates of those aged 13-14 years has almost halved since 1990. Despite this decline, 1.6 million children below the age of 16 are out of school of whom 1.2 million are between 12 and 14 years. Most of them are from poor families. Many face harsh conditions of employment that adversely affect their physical and mental development and can lock them into poverty in the future thus perpetuating a vicious cycle. Empirical analysis suggests that at younger ages (below 14) direct education costs deter school attendance. As the child gets older, income effects become more important determinants of child labor than the costs of education. This report examines what incentives the household can be provided with to keep children in school, the role of public education, and what can be done in the labor market through additional measures for those children who, notwithstanding the previous two interventions, will continue to be at work. Education subsidies are found to be justifiedfrom a social policy point of view: indeed there is a failure in the market for education/child labor. However, subsidies alone will not reduce child labor/increase education by much. Rather, public support to basic education should continue along with policies that enhance growth and reduce poverty.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Youth and Governance,Street Children,Primary Education,Gender and Education

World Bank lending for labor markets : 1991 to 1996

This report serves as a conceptual background piece for the development of the Social Strategy Paper (SSP). To develop the conceptual underpinnings, the objectives and instruments of strategy papers (SP) are viewed under the rubric of Social Risk Management (SRM). SRM consists of public measures intended to assist individuals, households, and communities in managing income risks in order to reduce vulnerability, improve consumption smoothing, and enhance equity while contributing to economicdevelopment in a participatory manner. To support the approach and its logic, the structure of this note is as follows: Chapter 2 sets the stage and presents global trends, definitions, and outlooks. Chapter 3 presents key issues of SRM, from the reasons for World Bank concern to a typology of strategies and instruments, and ends with the role of the main actors. Chapter 4 focuses on the boundaries of SP/SRM and on three key policy issues to balance equity, efficiency, and political sustainability. Chapter 5 ends with a preliminary list of ways in which the new framework may affect our view of SP and the development of better instruments.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Banks&Banking Reform,Labor Standards,Health Economics&Finance,ICT Policy and Strategies

Family allowances

This paper summarizes key aspects of family allowances programs across the world and presents information on their characteristics in a cross-country comparative context. Family allowances can be universal (paid to all resident families with a specified number of children) or employment-based (whereby workers receive additional pay depending on the size/composition of their family). Their characteristics include eligibility conditions, source of funds, benefit levels, and administration. These characteristics differ not only across economies but also over time in the same country as governments strive to tune unemployment policies to macroeconomic and labor conditions.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Youth and Governance,Gender and Law,Street Children,Population&Development

The cost and benefits of collective bargaining : a survey

Collective bargaining and dispute resolution mechanisms facilitate coordination. Coordination is increasingly seen as an influential determinant of labor market and macroeconomic performance. This paper provides a systematic review of the relevant literature with a specific focus on the role that collective bargaining plays in shaping macroeconomic performance. We focus on comparative studies of labor market institutions in the OECD area that try to disentangle the impact of different institutional approaches to collective bargaining from other determinants of macroeconomic performance.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Labor Management and Relations,Social Protections&Assistance,Labor Standards

The Global Child Labor Problem: What Do We Know and What Can We Do?

The problem of child labor has gone beyond being viewed as a matter of regional and intra-national concern to one of international debate and possible global 'persuasion' and policy intervention. It is argued in this paper that, in crafting policy for mitigating this enormous problem of our times, it is important to acquire a proper theoretical and empirical understanding of the phenomenon. What gives rise to child labor and what are its consequences? What are the interventions that we can think of in order to end child labor without hurting children? A well-meaning but poorly designed policy can exacerbate the poverty that these laboring children face and even bring them to starvation. The present paper surveys the large and rapidly growing literature on this subject, focusing mainly on the new literature that uses the best of modern economic theory and econometrics. We then go on to discuss some of the broad policy implications of these new findings and hope that this will contribute to better-informed discussion and policy design in this area.

The World Bank and children : a review of activities

This paper reviews Bank interventions that supported the welfare of children in the last decade. Though the Bank has always addressed children's development, and protection through its focus of broader economic development, and social protection, it has recently intensified its efforts to directly address children's issues in the context of a broader international effort to improve the general welfare of children and, more specifically, to reduce child labor. This paper focuses on Human Development projects with an objective relating to children, or that are expected to have an indirect, but non-trivial impact on children. In the last decade (FY1990-2000), the Bank financed close to 635 Human Development projects, of which 302 projects, fully or partially supported child welfare, development and protection - and the focus of these interventions is discussed in this paper.Street Children,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education,Children and Youth,Youth and Governance

Latin American women's earnings and participation in the labor force

Using historical census data and the latest household surveys, the authors investigate changes in female employment in Latin America, the factors that determine women's participation in the labor force, and the reasons for the gap between men's and women's earnings. The authors find, to their surprise, that despite worsened economic conditions since the 1970s, women's participation in the labor force has increased significantly since the 1950s. One explanation may be that women benefitted disproportionately from expansion of the public sector. The factors that have most affected women's decisions to join the work force have been education and family conditions. Creating opportunities for women's education and employment when such factors are absent will improve efficiency and reduce poverty. Other policy based factors that can affect women's participation in the work force include the availability of family planning services and child-care facilities. Women's participation in the labor force can also be affected by improving family law and tax regulations that create hardships for women, especially in the Caribbean. In all of the countries studied, women are rewarded less than men and gender differences in human capital endowments account for an average of about a third of the observed difference in earnings - prima facie evidence of discrimination. On the other hand, women appear to be rewarded more proportionate to their human capital endowments than men are.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education,Population&Development,Health Economics&Finance,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems

Active labor market programs: a review of the evidence from evaluations

The study reports evidence based on recent evaluation of active labor market programs, in developed countries, as well as on developing, and transition economies. While a number of unresolved technical issues, and a variety of data problems in specific surveys, and administrative information, tend to affect reliability for guiding public policy, some generalizations about active labor programs can be made. These programs reveal that public works programs can help disadvantaged groups, providing poverty/safety nets, but are ineffective instruments, in the pursue of permanent employment, whereas, job search assistance has positive impacts, and is cost-effective, although this assistance does not seem to improve employment, nor wages. In addition, training for long-term unemployed, may be helpful under an improving economy, but cost-effectiveness is usually disappointing, and, retraining has proven to be more expensive, and ineffective than job search assistance. Likewise, youth training provides no positive impact on employment prospects, and cannot be a substitute to education systems failures. Micro-enterprise development, and wage subsidy programs are usually associated with displacement effects, unlikely to have positive impacts. Modest programs, sound impact evaluation techniques, and cost-effectiveness are strongly recommended.Environmental Economics&Policies,Poverty Impact Evaluation,ICT Policy and Strategies,Labor Standards,Poverty Monitoring&Analysis

Unemployment benefits

This report summarizes key aspects of unemployment benefit schemes across the world and presents information on their characteristics in a cross-country comparative context. Unemployment benefit schemes can be of insurance type (paid from employer/worker contributions to provide insurance against"the risk of becoming unemployed") or assistance type (means tested paid to the unemployed poor). Their characteristics include coverage, eligibility conditions, source of funds, and benefit levels and administration. These characteristics differ not only across economies but also over time in the same country as governments strive to tune unemployment policies to macro and labor conditions. Therefore, the reader should consider the information in this report as approximately correct at the time of publishing and should refer to the indicated sources for greater reliability.Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Insurance Law,Banks&Banking Reform