This study proposes a novel way of modeling the heterogeneous effects of schooling based on the notion that learning is maximized when the skill of the child matches the complexity of the learning experiences at school. It offers direct evidence about the importance of this match using longitudinal information on test scores and schooling attained by children from Peru, India, and Vietnam. Using data from Peru, it also finds that the relation between the effect of schooling and early childhood skill can follow an inverted-U shape. Increasing early childhood skill will raise the productivity of the school up to the point where it matches school complexity. Further increases in child skill, however, will reduce the productivity of schooling as they will widen the mismatch. If one relates the quality of schools to the amount of learning they produce, this framework predicts that quality gains can be achieved by reducing these mismatches.
{"title":"Too Hard, Too Easy, or Just Right: The Productivity of Schooling and the Match between Child Skill and School Complexity","authors":"Juan F Castro, Lucciano Villacorta","doi":"10.1093/wber/lhae013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhae013","url":null,"abstract":"This study proposes a novel way of modeling the heterogeneous effects of schooling based on the notion that learning is maximized when the skill of the child matches the complexity of the learning experiences at school. It offers direct evidence about the importance of this match using longitudinal information on test scores and schooling attained by children from Peru, India, and Vietnam. Using data from Peru, it also finds that the relation between the effect of schooling and early childhood skill can follow an inverted-U shape. Increasing early childhood skill will raise the productivity of the school up to the point where it matches school complexity. Further increases in child skill, however, will reduce the productivity of schooling as they will widen the mismatch. If one relates the quality of schools to the amount of learning they produce, this framework predicts that quality gains can be achieved by reducing these mismatches.","PeriodicalId":501583,"journal":{"name":"The World Bank Economic Review","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140570068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Graziella Bertocchi, Arcangelo Dimico, Gian Luca Tedeschi
This study explores the factors that shape natives’ attitudes toward citizenship acquisition for foreigners. The hypothesis is that, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the slave trade represents a deep determinant of contemporary attitudes toward citizenship, through a proximate determinant which is the level of trust. Accordingly, individuals belonging to ethnic groups with higher exposure to historical slave exports are more likely to exhibit a sense of distrust toward strangers, and are consequently more likely to oppose citizenship laws that favor the inclusion of foreigners. The findings indicate that individuals with higher levels of trust toward other people do exhibit more favorable attitudes regarding the acquisition of citizenship at birth for children of foreigners, that these attitudes are also negatively related to the intensity of the slave trade, and that the underlying inverse relationship between trust and the slave trade is confirmed. Other factors such as conflict, kinship tightness, and witchcraft beliefs, which could also influence attitudes toward citizenship through the channel of trust, do not yield the same distinct pattern of associations as observed with the slave trade.
{"title":"Strangers and Foreigners: Trust and Attitudes toward Citizenship in Sub-Saharan Africa","authors":"Graziella Bertocchi, Arcangelo Dimico, Gian Luca Tedeschi","doi":"10.1093/wber/lhae014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhae014","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the factors that shape natives’ attitudes toward citizenship acquisition for foreigners. The hypothesis is that, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the slave trade represents a deep determinant of contemporary attitudes toward citizenship, through a proximate determinant which is the level of trust. Accordingly, individuals belonging to ethnic groups with higher exposure to historical slave exports are more likely to exhibit a sense of distrust toward strangers, and are consequently more likely to oppose citizenship laws that favor the inclusion of foreigners. The findings indicate that individuals with higher levels of trust toward other people do exhibit more favorable attitudes regarding the acquisition of citizenship at birth for children of foreigners, that these attitudes are also negatively related to the intensity of the slave trade, and that the underlying inverse relationship between trust and the slave trade is confirmed. Other factors such as conflict, kinship tightness, and witchcraft beliefs, which could also influence attitudes toward citizenship through the channel of trust, do not yield the same distinct pattern of associations as observed with the slave trade.","PeriodicalId":501583,"journal":{"name":"The World Bank Economic Review","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140570012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study explores the impact of a light-touch job-facilitation intervention that supported young female job seekers during the application process for factory work in a newly constructed industrial park in Ethiopia. Using data from a panel of 687 job seekers and randomized access to the support intervention, the study finds that treated applicants are more likely to be employed and have higher earnings and savings eight months after baseline, although these impacts are short-lived. Four years later, the effects on employment and income largely dissipated. The results suggest that young women face significant barriers to engaging in factory work in the short run that a simple job-facilitation intervention can help overcome. In the long term, however, these jobs do not offer a better alternative than other income-generating opportunities.
{"title":"Do Factory Jobs Improve Welfare? Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia","authors":"Girum Abebe, Niklas Buehren, Markus Goldstein","doi":"10.1093/wber/lhae015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhae015","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the impact of a light-touch job-facilitation intervention that supported young female job seekers during the application process for factory work in a newly constructed industrial park in Ethiopia. Using data from a panel of 687 job seekers and randomized access to the support intervention, the study finds that treated applicants are more likely to be employed and have higher earnings and savings eight months after baseline, although these impacts are short-lived. Four years later, the effects on employment and income largely dissipated. The results suggest that young women face significant barriers to engaging in factory work in the short run that a simple job-facilitation intervention can help overcome. In the long term, however, these jobs do not offer a better alternative than other income-generating opportunities.","PeriodicalId":501583,"journal":{"name":"The World Bank Economic Review","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140570102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carol Newman, Tara Mitchell, Marcus Holmlund, Chloë Fernandez
What strategies can help communities to overcome the public goods problem in the maintenance of communal spaces and infrastructure in urban environments? This paper investigates whether an intervention targeted at Community-Based Organizations can motivate them to make increased contributions to the public good, thereby improving outcomes for the community as a whole. Using a randomized controlled trial conducted in Dakar, Senegal, the analysis tests the effectiveness of a program that provides incentives to community groups to encourage them to keep their neighborhoods clean, with the ultimate goal of reducing flooding. After one year, the intervention proved to be effective in engaging communities, improving cleanliness, and reducing flooding.
{"title":"Group Incentives for the Public Good: A Field Experiment on Improving the Urban Environment","authors":"Carol Newman, Tara Mitchell, Marcus Holmlund, Chloë Fernandez","doi":"10.1093/wber/lhae011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhae011","url":null,"abstract":"What strategies can help communities to overcome the public goods problem in the maintenance of communal spaces and infrastructure in urban environments? This paper investigates whether an intervention targeted at Community-Based Organizations can motivate them to make increased contributions to the public good, thereby improving outcomes for the community as a whole. Using a randomized controlled trial conducted in Dakar, Senegal, the analysis tests the effectiveness of a program that provides incentives to community groups to encourage them to keep their neighborhoods clean, with the ultimate goal of reducing flooding. After one year, the intervention proved to be effective in engaging communities, improving cleanliness, and reducing flooding.","PeriodicalId":501583,"journal":{"name":"The World Bank Economic Review","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140150133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Decentralization is an important and commonplace type of reform, yet our understanding of its effects remains limited. This paper documents the effects of the 2009–10 wave of district creation in Uganda, which increased the country’s districts by 42 percent, using rich data on subdistrict units to assess the effects of district creation on a broad range of post-decentralization outcomes in a difference-in-differences framework. The effects of decentralization are concentrated in newly split off—rather than split from—districts, and are heterogeneous across outcome types. Newly split-off districts have more per capita frontline workers, but appear to have worse quality infrastructure and lower economic development. The study also presents suggestive evidence that administrative capacity decreases for newly formed districts post-split. These findings demonstrate the importance of considering a broad range of outcomes when thinking about decentralization.
{"title":"Documenting Decentralization: Empirical Evidence on Administrative Unit Proliferation from Uganda","authors":"Isabelle Cohen","doi":"10.1093/wber/lhae008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhae008","url":null,"abstract":"Decentralization is an important and commonplace type of reform, yet our understanding of its effects remains limited. This paper documents the effects of the 2009–10 wave of district creation in Uganda, which increased the country’s districts by 42 percent, using rich data on subdistrict units to assess the effects of district creation on a broad range of post-decentralization outcomes in a difference-in-differences framework. The effects of decentralization are concentrated in newly split off—rather than split from—districts, and are heterogeneous across outcome types. Newly split-off districts have more per capita frontline workers, but appear to have worse quality infrastructure and lower economic development. The study also presents suggestive evidence that administrative capacity decreases for newly formed districts post-split. These findings demonstrate the importance of considering a broad range of outcomes when thinking about decentralization.","PeriodicalId":501583,"journal":{"name":"The World Bank Economic Review","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140097783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper documents the role of village fairness norms in land markets. A strong and robust relationship is established between experimentally elicited village-level fairness norms and land-rental rates across 250 Malawian villages. Stronger fairness norms correlate with a tighter range in village rental rates. The study suggests that the fairness norms for tenants appear to be more important, constraining the land-rental price range by a price ceiling rather than a price floor. The results further indicate that rented-in fields are of lower agronomic quality than owner-cultivated fields, but do not find any statistically significant relationship between the fairness norms and land-rental activity in the village.
{"title":"Village Fairness Norms and Land-Rental Markets","authors":"Kwabena Krah, Annemie Maertens, Wezi Mhango, Hope Michelson, Vesall Nourani","doi":"10.1093/wber/lhae009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhae009","url":null,"abstract":"This paper documents the role of village fairness norms in land markets. A strong and robust relationship is established between experimentally elicited village-level fairness norms and land-rental rates across 250 Malawian villages. Stronger fairness norms correlate with a tighter range in village rental rates. The study suggests that the fairness norms for tenants appear to be more important, constraining the land-rental price range by a price ceiling rather than a price floor. The results further indicate that rented-in fields are of lower agronomic quality than owner-cultivated fields, but do not find any statistically significant relationship between the fairness norms and land-rental activity in the village.","PeriodicalId":501583,"journal":{"name":"The World Bank Economic Review","volume":"98 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140075020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper focuses on the effect of preferential trade agreements and their depth on firm-to-firm ownership, in particular, along global value chains. It measures shareholder–affiliate ownership links at the country-sector-pair level to distinguish between vertical and horizontal links. The findings show that preferential trade agreements boost vertical international investment links (both backward and forward) while reducing horizontal investment. Deep preferential trade agreements stimulate investment particularly for sector pairs, where a high input specificity prevails.
{"title":"Deep Trade Agreements and Firm Ownership in GVCs","authors":"Peter H Egger, Gerard Masllorens","doi":"10.1093/wber/lhae003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhae003","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on the effect of preferential trade agreements and their depth on firm-to-firm ownership, in particular, along global value chains. It measures shareholder–affiliate ownership links at the country-sector-pair level to distinguish between vertical and horizontal links. The findings show that preferential trade agreements boost vertical international investment links (both backward and forward) while reducing horizontal investment. Deep preferential trade agreements stimulate investment particularly for sector pairs, where a high input specificity prevails.","PeriodicalId":501583,"journal":{"name":"The World Bank Economic Review","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139978013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There is growing evidence that business training for micro-entrepreneurs can be effective. However, in-person training can be expensive and imposes costs on the target beneficiaries. This paper presents the results of a two-site randomized evaluation of a light-touch, mobile-phone-based business-training service for micro-entrepreneurs in India and the Philippines. The results show that the training had a statistically significant impact on the adoption of improved business practices, with an increase of 0.06 to 0.12 standard deviation points when considering a binary indicator of business practices. The study finds no evidence of impacts on business sales or profits, though the confidence intervals are wide enough to include meaningful effect sizes (positive or negative). These results suggest that mobile-phone-based training can be a cost-effective and scalable way to impart business skills to micro-entrepreneurs.
{"title":"Heuristics on Call: The Impact of Mobile-Phone-Based Business-Management Advice","authors":"Shawn Cole, Mukta Joshi, Antoinette Schoar","doi":"10.1093/wber/lhad038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhad038","url":null,"abstract":"There is growing evidence that business training for micro-entrepreneurs can be effective. However, in-person training can be expensive and imposes costs on the target beneficiaries. This paper presents the results of a two-site randomized evaluation of a light-touch, mobile-phone-based business-training service for micro-entrepreneurs in India and the Philippines. The results show that the training had a statistically significant impact on the adoption of improved business practices, with an increase of 0.06 to 0.12 standard deviation points when considering a binary indicator of business practices. The study finds no evidence of impacts on business sales or profits, though the confidence intervals are wide enough to include meaningful effect sizes (positive or negative). These results suggest that mobile-phone-based training can be a cost-effective and scalable way to impart business skills to micro-entrepreneurs.","PeriodicalId":501583,"journal":{"name":"The World Bank Economic Review","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139951523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
From analysis of the effects of a national childcare policy on women's time allocation in Costa Rica, it is found that childcare services are associated with increased female labor force participation, greater educational enrollment, and reduced unpaid care work. However, a comparison of two implementing agencies indicates that the overall effects vary by agency. One agency's services yield positive outcomes, such as increased labor force participation, reduced unpaid care work, and increased educational attendance; the other agency's results are less favorable, particularly for part-time childcare users. These findings highlight the challenges governments face when scaling up interventions, as different implementing agencies may modify program criteria, serve distinct populations, and offer varying services. While policies can be effective on a smaller scale, impacts may differ when they are scaled up. Understanding these variations can help governments adapt policies and reallocate resources to achieve their intended goals.
{"title":"Public Child Care Provision: Unraveling the Consequences of Implementation Variations for Women's Time Allocation","authors":"Catherine Mata","doi":"10.1093/wber/lhae004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhae004","url":null,"abstract":"From analysis of the effects of a national childcare policy on women's time allocation in Costa Rica, it is found that childcare services are associated with increased female labor force participation, greater educational enrollment, and reduced unpaid care work. However, a comparison of two implementing agencies indicates that the overall effects vary by agency. One agency's services yield positive outcomes, such as increased labor force participation, reduced unpaid care work, and increased educational attendance; the other agency's results are less favorable, particularly for part-time childcare users. These findings highlight the challenges governments face when scaling up interventions, as different implementing agencies may modify program criteria, serve distinct populations, and offer varying services. While policies can be effective on a smaller scale, impacts may differ when they are scaled up. Understanding these variations can help governments adapt policies and reallocate resources to achieve their intended goals.","PeriodicalId":501583,"journal":{"name":"The World Bank Economic Review","volume":"105 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139760288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Early marriage restrains women's agency and bargaining strength in postmarital households, impairing their ability to make meaningful contributions to household decision making. This paper employs a comprehensive measure of women's empowerment in the domestic and productive spheres, and isolates the causal effect of age at marriage, instrumented by age at menarche, on their bargaining strength, using nationally representative data from Bangladesh. Results suggest that delayed marriages result in significantly higher empowerment scores and probability of being empowered for women, because of higher likelihood in achieving adequacy in their autonomy in agricultural production, control over income, ownership of assets and rights in those assets, and ability to speak in public. Favorable impacts of delayed marriage are also found on women's freedom of mobility, fertility choices, and their ability to decide on household expenses and investments, with the impacts likely coming via improvements in education and labor market outcomes when women married later.
{"title":"The Causal Effect of Early Marriage on Women's Bargaining Power: Evidence from Bangladesh","authors":"Salauddin Tauseef, Farha Deba Sufian","doi":"10.1093/wber/lhad046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhad046","url":null,"abstract":"Early marriage restrains women's agency and bargaining strength in postmarital households, impairing their ability to make meaningful contributions to household decision making. This paper employs a comprehensive measure of women's empowerment in the domestic and productive spheres, and isolates the causal effect of age at marriage, instrumented by age at menarche, on their bargaining strength, using nationally representative data from Bangladesh. Results suggest that delayed marriages result in significantly higher empowerment scores and probability of being empowered for women, because of higher likelihood in achieving adequacy in their autonomy in agricultural production, control over income, ownership of assets and rights in those assets, and ability to speak in public. Favorable impacts of delayed marriage are also found on women's freedom of mobility, fertility choices, and their ability to decide on household expenses and investments, with the impacts likely coming via improvements in education and labor market outcomes when women married later.","PeriodicalId":501583,"journal":{"name":"The World Bank Economic Review","volume":"251 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139412708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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