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  • 1
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C., : The World Bank,
    UID:
    almafu_9958121517302883
    Format: 1 online resource (38 pages)
    Series Statement: Policy research working papers.
    Content: Mckenzie econometrically ascertains the determinants of default to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) through panel logit analysis. Creditworthiness with a lag of one period is determined by the extent of arrears to private creditors, the proportion of total debt service that is being paid, the government budget deficit, the extent of military involvement in the government of a country, and by the G7's current account balance. Default to the IBRD falls into a graduated hierarchy, whereby default occurs first to Paris Club and commercial bank creditors, with subsequent default triggered by portfolios with high proportions of IBRD and short-term debt, as well as the factors mentioned above. Default to these other creditor groups can be explained by more traditional country risk variables, although Mckenzie's analysis highlights the importance of political and external factors in explaining default to all creditors studied. He finds sovereign default to be a state-dependent process, whereby the repayment behavior of a country changes once it enters into default. Operationally, Mckenzie arrives at a model that can be used to assess short-term creditworthiness, although data imperfections and availability still limit the usefulness of the model for some countries. Longer-term risk assessment proves more difficult, which raises operational questions for the IBRD. This paper-a product of the Credit Risk Division, Office of the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer-is part of a larger effort in the Bank to monitor the creditworthiness of IBRD borrowers. The author may be contacted at mcken@stanford.edu.
    Language: English
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 2
    UID:
    almafu_9958099251402883
    Format: 1 online resource (44 pages)
    Series Statement: Policy research working papers.
    Content: Few representative surveys of households of migrants exist, limiting the analysis of the effects of international migration on sending families. This paper reports the results of an experiment designed to compare the performance of three alternative survey methods in collecting data from Japanese-Brazilian families, many of whom send migrants to Japan. The three surveys conducted were 1) Households selected randomly from a door-to-door listing using the Brazilian Census to select census blocks; 2) A snowball survey using Nikkei community groups to select the seeds; and 3) An intercept point survey collected at Nikkei community gatherings, ethnic grocery stores, sports clubs, and other locations where family members of migrants are likely to congregate. The authors analyze how closely well-designed snowball and intercept point surveys can approach the much more expensive census-based method in terms of giving information on the characteristics of migrants, the level of remittances received, and the incidence and determinants of return migration.
    Language: English
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 3
    UID:
    almafu_9958075595002883
    Format: 1 online resource (34 pages)
    Series Statement: Policy research working papers.
    Content: Millions of people emigrate every year in search of better economic and social opportunities. Anecdotal evidence suggests that emigrants may have over-optimistic expectations about the incomes they can earn abroad, resulting in excessive migration pressure, and in disappointment among those who do migrate. Yet there is almost no statistical evidence on how accurately these emigrants predict the incomes that they will earn working abroad. In this paper the authors combine a natural emigration experiment with unique survey data on would-be emigrants' probabilistic expectations about employment and incomes in the migration destination. Their procedure enables them to obtain moments and quantiles of the subjective distribution of expected earnings in the destination country. The authors find a significant underestimation of both unconditional and conditional labor earnings at all points in the distribution. This underestimation appears driven in part by potential migrants placing too much weight on the negative employment experiences of some migrants, and by inaccurate information flows from extended family, who may be trying to moderate remittance demands by understating incomes.
    Language: English
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 4
    UID:
    almafu_9958099244602883
    Format: 1 online resource (31 pages)
    Series Statement: Policy research working papers.
    Content: This paper estimates the impact of registering for taxes on firm profits in Bolivia, the country with the highest levels of informality in Latin America. A new survey of micro and small firms enables the authors to control for a rich set of measures of owner ability and business motivations that can affect both profits and the decision to formalize. The paper identifies the impact of tax registration on business profitability using the distance of a firm from the tax office where registration occurs, conditional on the distance to the city center, as an instrument for registration. Proximity to the tax office provides firms with more information about registration, but is argued to not directly affect profits. The findings show that tax registration leads to significantly higher profits for the firms that the instrument affects. However, there is also evidence of heterogeneous effects of tax formality on profits. Tax registration is found to increase profits for the mid-size firms in the sample, but to lower profits for both the smaller and larger firms, in contrast to the standard view that formality increases profits. The analysis shows that owners of large firms who have managed to stay informal have higher entrepreneurial ability than formal firm owners, in contrast to the standard view (correct among smaller firms) that informal firm owners have low ability.
    Language: English
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 5
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C., : The World Bank,
    UID:
    almafu_9958072717202883
    Format: 1 online resource (31 pages)
    Series Statement: Policy research working papers.
    Content: The paper uses individual level census and household survey data to present a rich profile of the young developing migrants around the world. Youth are found to comprise a large share of all migrants, particularly in migration to other developing countries, with the probability of migration peaking in the late teens or early twenties. The paper examines in detail the age and gender composition of migrants, whether young migrants move alone or with a parent or spouse, their participation in schooling and work in the destination country, the types of jobs they do, and the age of return migration. The results suggest a high degree of commonality in the youth migrant experience across a number of destination countries. In particular, developing country youth tend to work in similar occupations all around the world, and are more concentrated in these occupations than older migrants or native youth. Nevertheless, there is also considerable heterogeneity among youth migrants: 29 percent of 18 to 24 year olds are attending school in their destination country, but another 29 percent are not working or in school. This illustrates both the potential of migration for building human capital, and the fear that lack of integration prevents it from being used.
    Language: English
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 6
    UID:
    almafu_9958074886402883
    Format: 1 online resource (29 pages)
    Series Statement: Policy research working papers.
    Content: Distance and location are important determinants of many choices that economists study. While these variables can sometimes be obtained from secondary data, economists often rely on information that is self-reported by respondents in surveys. These self-reports are used especially for the distance from households or community centers to various features such as roads, markets, schools, clinics, and other public services. There is growing evidence that self-reported distance is measured with error and that these errors are correlated with outcomes of interest. In contrast to self-reports, the Global Positioning System (GPS) can determine almost exact location (typically within 15 meters). The falling cost of GPS receivers (typically below USD 100) makes it increasingly feasible for field surveys to use GPS as a better method of measuring location and distance. In this paper the authors review four ways that GPS can lead to better economics and better policy: (1) through constructing instrumental variables that can be used to understand the causal impact of policies, (2) by helping to understand policy externalities and spillovers, (3) through better understanding of access to services, and (4) by improving the collection of household survey data. They also discuss several pitfalls and unresolved problems with using GPS in household surveys.
    Language: English
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 7
    UID:
    almafu_9958074877002883
    Format: 1 online resource (29 pages)
    Series Statement: Policy research working papers.
    Content: A large share of the world's poor is self-employed. Accurate measurement of profits from microenterprises is therefore critical for studying poverty and inequality, measuring the returns to education, and evaluating the success of microfinance programs. But a myriad of problems plague the measurement of profits. The authors report on a variety of different experiments conducted to better understand the importance of some of these problems and to draw recommendations for collecting profit data. In particular, they (1) examine how far we can reconcile self-reported profits and reports of revenue minus expenses through more detailed questions; (2) examine recall errors in sales and report on the results of experiments which randomly allocated account books to firms; and (3) ask firms how much firms like theirs underreport sales in surveys like this, and have research assistants observe the firms at random times 15-16 times during a month to provide measures for comparison. The authors conclude that firms underreport revenues by about 30 percent, that account diaries have significant effects on both revenues and expenses but not on profits, and that simply asking profits provides a more accurate measure of firm profits than detailed questions on revenues and expenses.
    Language: English
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 8
    UID:
    almafu_9958062379102883
    Format: 1 online resource (16 pages)
    Series Statement: Policy research working papers.
    Content: This paper reviews common challenges faced by researchers interested in measuring the impact of migration and remittances on income, poverty, inequality, and human capital (or, in general, "welfare") as well as difficulties confronting development practitioners in converting this research into policy advice. On the analytical side, the paper discusses the proper formulation of a research question, the choice of the analytical tools, as well as the interpretation of the results in the presence of pervasive endogeneity in all decisions surrounding migration. Particular attention is given to the use of instrumental variables in migration research. On the policy side, the paper argues that the private nature of migration and remittances implies a need to carefully spell out the rationale for interventions. It also notices the lack of good migration data and proper evaluations of migration-related government policies. The paper focuses mainly on microeconomic evidence about international migration, but much of the discussion extends to other settings as well.
    Language: English
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 9
    UID:
    almafu_9958074876802883
    Format: 1 online resource (37 pages)
    Series Statement: Policy research working papers.
    Content: Small and informal firms account for a large share of employment in developing countries. The rapid expansion of microfinance services is based on the belief that these firms have productive investment opportunities and can enjoy high returns to capital if given the opportunity. However, measuring the return to capital is complicated by unobserved factors such as entrepreneurial ability and demand shocks, which are likely to be correlated with capital stock. The authors use a randomized experiment to overcome this problem and to measure the return to capital for the average microenterprise in their sample, regardless of whether they apply for credit. They accomplish this by providing cash and equipment grants to small firms in Sri Lanka, and measuring the increase in profits arising from this exogenous (positive) shock to capital stock. After controlling for possible spillover effects, the authors find the average real return to capital to be 5.7 percent a month, substantially higher than the market interest rate. They then examine the heterogeneity of treatment effects to explore whether missing credit markets or missing insurance markets are the most likely cause of the high returns. Returns are found to vary with entrepreneurial ability and with measures of other sources of cash within the household, but not to vary with risk aversion or uncertainty.
    Language: English
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 10
    UID:
    almafu_9958097424602883
    Format: 1 online resource (35 pages)
    Series Statement: Policy research working papers.
    Content: Is the vast army of the self-employed in low income countries a source of employment generation? This paper uses data from surveys in Sri Lanka to compare the characteristics of own account workers (non-employers) with wage workers and with owners of larger firms. The authors use a rich set of measures of background, ability, and attitudes, including lottery experiments measuring risk attitudes. Consistent with the International Labor Organization's views of the self employed (represented by Tokman), the analysis finds that two-thirds to three-quarters of the own account workers have characteristics which are more like wage workers than larger firm owners. This suggests the majority of the own account workers are unlikely to become employers. Using a two and a half year panel of enterprises, the authors show that the minority of own account workers who are more like larger firm owners are more likely to expand by adding paid employees. The results suggest that finance is not the sole constraint to growth of microenterprises, and provides an explanation for the low rates of growth of enterprises supported by microlending.
    Language: English
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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