Author: Ugo Gentilini Let’s start with the facts. A third of the 418 social protection programs world-wide responding to COVID-19 (Coronavirus) are government-funded, non-contributory cash transfer programs. Why do cash transfer programs play such a prominent role? The pandemic demands rapid, concrete a response that injects resources directly. Cash transfer programs tick all the boxes. In…
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Authors: Truman Packard and Michael Weber
COVID-19 (Coronavirus) will liquidate livelihoods. In a catastrophic shock, concerns for income and wealth inequality, which inform anti-poverty programs in “normal” times, must take a back seat to concerns with livelihood losses.
Photo by Tim Mossholder from Pexels Authors: Eliana Carranza and Indhira Santos In this blog, we look at the potential of wage subsidies for supporting jobs and incomes during the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis. The crisis affects both workers’ ability to go to work and the labor demand of firms that are forced to…
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Author: Tom Farole
COVID is wreaking havoc on firms, which face a triple shock. On the supply side, emergency decrees have shut down many businesses…
Authors: Dino Merotto, Jörg Langbein, & Michael Weber In this blog, we explore how the challenges of delivering better jobs through structural change differ depending on where a country is in its demographic transition. We draw implications for jobs strategies in youthful countries. When developing countries enter the demographic transition the share of youth in…
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Author: Dino Merotto Jobs Group, World Bank If you haven’t read Easterly and Levine’s “It’s Not Factor Accumulation” you should. But you should also read Klenow and Rodriguez-Clare’s “The Neoclassical Revival in Growth Economics: Has It Gone Too Far?”. Since it was published in 2001, Easterly and Levine’s ideas have shaped much of World Bank…
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By JAVIER SANCHEZ-REAZA There is no doubt that technology is improving our daily lives. We ask Siri to set the alarm for us, let Spotify guide us through a gym session, and rely on Waze to navigate the city. What is less obvious is how technology is also on the brink of completely reshaping our…
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Authors: NAMITA DATTA APARNA KRISHNAMURTHY NAZRENE MANNIE The lack of a sufficiently skilled workforce remains a significant challenge in the labor market. Around the world, employers say that schools and universities aren’t preparing students well enough for the workforce. How can employers work with schooling and post-schooling systems to design curricula that align with labor market needs? Employers could benefit…
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Authors: APARNA KRISHNAMURTHY NIRAJ H. SHAH HANS JOEHR Conventional wisdom tells us that young people are fleeing agriculture to seek opportunities in urban centers. While that is largely true, agriculture remains a primary source of employment for youth in many developing countries. Studies show that the absolute number of young African farmers is expected to rise…
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Authors: Andreas Eberhard-Ruiz and Kevwe Pela, Jobs Group, World Bank. In this blog, we explore whether the process of structural change differs between resource-rich and resource-poor economies, and discuss the implications of our findings for jobs strategies in resource-rich countries. The ‘Great Convergence’ of global incomes seen over the last 30 years, was triggered by…
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