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January 2009

William Easterly is blogging

Submitted by Ignacio Hernandez on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 13:07

William Easterly has started blogging at Aid Watch, with the idea of being brutally honest when aid is not helping the poor, but also praising it when it is.

In his first comment a few days ago he was brutally honest with the president of the World Bank (where he spent sixteen years as a Research Economist).

A very nice addition to the blogosphere. Welcome!

Robert S. McNamara Fellowships Program: Support for post-graduate research

Submitted by Ignacio Hernandez on Tue, 01/27/2009 - 12:45

The Robert S. McNamara Fellowships Program awards fellowships to support innovative and imaginative post-graduate research in areas of socioeconomic development - specifically focusing on issues critical to improving the lives of the most vulnerable in society.

The Program provides support to young researchers from eligible countries working in academic and research institutions preparing a doctoral thesis. Research grants cover residence costs for a 5 to 10 month period in a renowned university or research center. The research must be carried out in a member country of the World Bank other than the applicant's own country, or country of residence at the time of application.

How to apply and contact information.

Deadline to apply is February 28, 2009. If you have any questions please contact directly the Program Office (contact information in the above link).

Good luck to those who apply.

 

 

A Stimulus Package for the World

Submitted by Ignacio Hernandez on Mon, 01/26/2009 - 10:28

Robert B. Zoellick, president of the World Bank, last week in the pages of the New York Times:

WITHIN his first 100 days, President Obama will attend his inaugural global summit meeting: an April gathering of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations in London. The president, with bipartisan backing in Congress, should send an audacious signal of hope. Starting with the United States, Mr. Obama should call for each developed country to pledge 0.7 percent of its stimulus package to a vulnerability fund for assisting developing countries that can’t afford bailouts and deficits.

The United States could begin by pledging some $6 billion of its own $825 billion stimulus package — just 4 percent of what was provided to American International Group. With this modest step, the United States would speed up global recovery, help the world’s poor and bolster its foreign policy influence.

Read the full article.

Fridays Academy: Gender and Macroeconomic Management

Submitted by Ignacio Hernandez on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 16:54

From Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes. This week we finish our series on Gender and Macroeconomic Management.

 

Empirical Evidence on Impact of Globalization on Women (and IV)

 

Gender differences during financial crises

There is some evidence from United States and some developing countries that women are more risk averse than men in investing their pension contributions (Bajtelsmit and Bernasek, 1996; Bajtelsmit and Van Derhei, 1997; Hinz, McCarthy and Turner, 1996). While studies on gender impact of financial crises are limited, evidence from both Indonesia and the Philippines show that as men became unemployed, the amount of work done by women increased (women as shock absorbers).  Frankenberg, Thomas and Beegle (1999) estimated that during the financial crises of 1997-98 in Indonesia, employment decreased by 1.3 per cent for women, while for women it increased by 1 per cent.  When unpaid work is also included, there is an increase for both men and women, but for men the increase is only 1.3 per cent, while for women it is 7 per cent.  During the financial crisis of South Korea in 1997-98, employment declined by 3.8 per cent for men and 7.1 per cent for women (Lee and Rhee, 1999).
 

Gender and Migration

Fridays Academy: Gender and Macroeconomic Management

Submitted by Ignacio Hernandez on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 10:43

From Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.

 

Empirical Evidence on Impact of Globalization on Women (III)

 

Gender wage gap

Oostendorp (2004) provides a cross-country study of the impact of globalization on the occupational gender wage gap using data from International Labor Organization’s data set on gender wage gap for the period 1983–99 in 161 narrowly defined occupations in more than 80 countries around the world and finds that:

(i) the occupational gender wage gap appears to be narrowing with increases in GDP per capita;

(ii) there is a significantly narrowing impact of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) net inflows on the occupational gender wage gap for low-skill occupations, both in poorer and richer countries, and for high-skill occupations in richer countries;

(iii) there is no evidence of a narrowing impact of trade, but there is evidence of a widening impact of FDI net inflows on the high-skill occupational gender wage gap in poorer countries;

and (iv) wage-setting institutions have a strong impact on the occupational gender wage gap in richer countries. 

Fridays Academy: Gender and Macroeconomic Management

Submitted by Ignacio Hernandez on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 12:28

 From Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.

 

Empirical Evidence on Impact of Globalization on Women (II)

 

Trade-related gains.

Trade-related gains in employment for women in developing countries have occurred in export processing zones (EPZs), subcontract work for larger firms and in the informal sector.   In all of these, women’s employment is characterized by long hours, job insecurity and unhealthy working conditions, as well as low pay.

In Ecuador, flower-exports increased and women benefited. In Bangladesh, about 2 million jobs were created in textiles and apparel industry, majority of workers are women.  However, trade openness implies that imports of goods and services would also rise and women who are in the import-substitution industries could lose jobs (e.g. as happened in small farming agriculture in Sub-Saharan African countries where women had to compete with cheaper imports).

As shown in the following graph, share of women employed in export manufacturing in selected East Asian countries is larger compared with women’s employment in other manufacturing. This re-confirms that trade openness contributed to employment of women in selected countries for which data is available.  In other words, employment in import-susbstituting manufacturing did not create as many jobs as in the export manufacturing sector.  But, what about the wage rates in export and non-export manufacturing?  Next week we will look at the gender wage gap.