World Bank Staff Working Papers

Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. New ways of production are adopted, markets expand, and societies evolve. But some changes provoke more attention than others, in part due to the vast uncertainty involved in making predictions about the future. The 2019 World Development Report will study how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Technological progress disrupts existing systems. A new social contract is needed to smooth the transition and guard against rising inequality. Significant investments in human capital throughout a person’s lifecycle are vital to this effort. If workers are to stay competitive against machines they need to train or retool existing skills. A social protection system that includes a minimum basic level of protection for workers and citizens can complement new forms of employment. Improved private sector policies to encourage startup activity and competition can help countries compete in the digital age. Governments also need to ensure that firms pay their fair share of taxes, in part to fund this new social contract. The 2019 World Development Report presents an analysis of these issues based upon the available evidence.

Women, Business and the Law 2021 is the seventh in a series of annual studies measuring the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The project presents eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they move through their lives and careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. This year’s report updates all indicators as of October 1, 2020 and builds evidence of the links between legal gender equality and women’s economic inclusion. By examining the economic decisions women make throughout their working lives, as well as the pace of reform over the past 50 years, Women, Business and the Law 2021 makes an important contribution to research and policy discussions about the state of women’s economic empowerment. Prepared during a global pandemic that threatens progress toward gender equality, this edition also includes important findings on government responses to COVID-19 and pilot research related to childcare and women’s access to justice.

This survey assembles recent theoretical and empirical advances in the literature on economic informality and analyzes the causes and costs of informality in developed and developing economies. Using recent evidence, the survey discusses the nature and roots of informal economic activity across countries, distinguishing between informality as the result of exclusion and exit. The survey provides an extensive review of recent international experience with policies aimed at reducing informality, in particular, policies that facilitate the formalization process, create a framework for the transition from informality to formality, lend support to newly created firms, reduce or eliminate inconsistencies across regulation and government agencies, increase information flows, and increase enforcement.

Substantial social and economic progress in sub - Saharan Africa during the past 15 years has not altered the traditional regime of very high fertility. Explanations for this paradox have to turn to broad societal characteristics not captured by multivariate analysis of the household level. The search for physical survival promotes a very large family norm. High fertility may also reflect the predicament of the African woman. This paper argues that enough is known to provide a reliable basis for policies aimed at reducing fertility. The case for such policies rests on evidence that the challenge posed by accelerating population growth in Africa has not elicited a commensurate response in the form of technological or organizational progress. Instead, growing population numbers have accentuated the food deficit, magnified the budgetary problem of financing basic needs services and complicated the employment issue. The paper projects future population growth of nine sample countries, accounting for two-thirds of Africa's total population, on the basis of four sets of assumptions. These exercises confirm the desirability of action by African governments to reduce fertility.

This first report deals with some of the major development issues confronting the developing countries and explores the relationship of the major trends in the international economy to them. It is designed to help clarify some of the linkages between the international economy and domestic strategies in the developing countries against the background of growing interdependence and increasing complexity in the world economy. It assesses the prospects for progress in accelerating growth and alleviating poverty, and identifies some of the major policy issues which will affect these prospects.

Better management of the public service requires action on three fronts: the structural barriers to efficient management must be removed; the quality and allocation of human, financial, informational, and physical resources must be improved; and the systems and processes used for managing these resources must be reoriented toward performance goals. Of these, this paper focuses mainly on ways of better managing the human resources of the public service. Public service employment in developing countries has been growing about four times as fast as in developed countries in recent years. In many countries, overstaffing at lower levels is accompanied by shortages of professional and technical staff. These shortages are exacerbated by the "brain drain." Problems of public service training systems in developing countries lead to five policy recommendations: raising the status of the training function in government; preparing national training policies and plans; forging closer links between training and other areas of personnel management; strengthening the links between training, research, and consultancy; and expanding international cooperation in training.