[Assam] Illegal guests, AIDS, Absentees, Gender etc -- World Bank Research E-Newsletter [February 2006]

umesh sharma jaipurschool at yahoo.com
Thu Mar 9 19:24:19 PST 2006 

some might find these papers interesting - on Teacher and Doctors/nurses absenteeism - and on Gender data missing.
   
  If I had time I would attend the conference at DC - on financial markets - trying to use my BA Eco and MBA knowledge and visit World bank HQ. Anyone game?
   
  Umesh
   
  PS: Also see: Who gets AIDS and how ? The determinants of HIV infection and sexual behaviors in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania
   
  http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&theSitePK=469372&piPK=64165421&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000016406_20060203104911
   
  Can guest worker schemes reduce illegal migration ?
  http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&theSitePK=469372&piPK=64165421&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000016406_20060124163357
  

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Missing in Action: Teacher and Medical Provider Absence in Developing Countries
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Absenteeism of teachers and medical personnel is widely acknowledged as a barrier to improvement of education and health outcomes in developing countries, especially in South Asia. A World Bank research project that set out to measure the extent of the problem (using, for the first time, a common random-sample approach in multiple countries) reports that on an average 19 percent of teachers and 35 percent of health workers were absent from their facilities in Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, and Uganda. "Beyond the widespread overall absence rates, we found that provider absence was worse in poorer regions, and that higher-ranking and more powerful providers such as headmasters and doctors were absent more often than lower-ranking ones," said Halsey Rogers, Senior Economist with the World Bank's Development Research Group. Rogers and other researchers suggest that education and health policies need to be adapted to take into account and minimize the cost of
 absence.
Read  feature article
Visit project website: http://econ.worldbank.org/projects/absenteeism

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Vital Gender Statistics Not Captured in 90 percent of Developing World
***********************************************************************
A new United Nations report, "The World’s Women 2005: Progress in Statistics", published in January 2006, concludes that there has been limited progress in the last thirty years both in the number of countries reporting national statistics as well as in the degree to which national statistics capture gender-related issues. With over forty percent of Africa’s population not covered by census, it is clear that today’s statistical reporting simply excludes many of the world’s poorest people. The report recommends that governments should conduct at least one census every ten years; and that countries establish and sustain civil registration and vital statistics systems, and adopt sustainable integrated national survey programs. “Statistics are essential building blocks for programs to provide health and education services, to fight poverty, AIDS and deliver clean water to communities,” said Shaida Badiee, Director of the World Bank’s Development Data Group, who chaired a
 recent World Bank panel discussion on the report. “Without reliable statistics, we don’t know the full scope of the problems and cannot adequately measure the results we actually achieve."
Read  feature article


Research <wbresearch at worldbank.org> wrote:
  
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Upcoming Development Research Conferences; Better Data needed for Policy Research on Access to Financial Services; Missing in Action: Teacher and Medical Provider Absence in Developing Countries; Vital Gender Statistics Not Captured in 90 percent of Developing World; Consultations on World Development Report 2007 on Development and the Next Generation; Recent Policy Research Working Papers
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Upcoming Development Research Conferences
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At a conference on "The Growth and Welfare Effects of Macroeconomic Volatility" organized by the World Bank, Centre for Economic Research, and Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional in Barcelona, Spain on March 17-18, 2006, researchers studying the long-term effects of macroeconomic volatility will address the question of how development, or the lack of it, can shape the effect of volatility on growth and welfare. The conference will include a combination of theoretical models, measurement analysis, and empirical results. Several topics will be discussed, including globalization and risk-sharing; policy volatility, institutions and economic growth; and trade openness, output volatility and the risk content of exports.
View  papers and agenda
  A second conference on "The Financing of Corporations in Emerging Markets" is being organized by the World Bank and the Darden Graduate School of Business in Washington DC on March 28-29, 2006 in partnership with the Research Foundation of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analysts) Institute and State Street Global Markets. Joseph Stiglitz will deliver the keynote address. The papers that will be presented at the conference highlight the importance of a country's institutional development and firms' corporate governance decisions on access to debt and equity financing. Topics covered also include political economy issues, financial internationalization and determinants of institutional investment in emerging markets.
View  papers and agenda 

***********************************************************************
Better Data needed for Policy Research on Access to Financial Services
***********************************************************************
Numerous case studies illustrate the poverty-reducing potential of direct access to financial services. Financial exclusion is likely to act as a “brake” on development as it retards economic growth and increases poverty and inequality. However, evidence that could guide public policy initiatives remains thin and tentative mostly due to inadequate data sources. Recognizing the serious gaps that exist in financial access data, the World Bank is seeking to develop better indicators of access to financial services, particularly for small firms and poor households. "Drawing on this new database, the Bank’s Development Research Group is in the process of  producing working papers and publications in this area, and the findings will be synthesized in a Policy Research Report on Access to Finance, due in 2007," said Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Senior Research Manager, Development Research Group - Finance Team.
Read  feature article
  ***********************************************************************
Missing in Action: Teacher and Medical Provider Absence in Developing Countries
***********************************************************************
Absenteeism of teachers and medical personnel is widely acknowledged as a barrier to improvement of education and health outcomes in developing countries, especially in South Asia. A World Bank research project that set out to measure the extent of the problem (using, for the first time, a common random-sample approach in multiple countries) reports that on an average 19 percent of teachers and 35 percent of health workers were absent from their facilities in Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, and Uganda. "Beyond the widespread overall absence rates, we found that provider absence was worse in poorer regions, and that higher-ranking and more powerful providers such as headmasters and doctors were absent more often than lower-ranking ones," said Halsey Rogers, Senior Economist with the World Bank's Development Research Group. Rogers and other researchers suggest that education and health policies need to be adapted to take into account and minimize the cost of
 absence.
Read  feature article
Visit project website: http://econ.worldbank.org/projects/absenteeism

***********************************************************************
Vital Gender Statistics Not Captured in 90 percent of Developing World
***********************************************************************
A new United Nations report, "The World’s Women 2005: Progress in Statistics", published in January 2006, concludes that there has been limited progress in the last thirty years both in the number of countries reporting national statistics as well as in the degree to which national statistics capture gender-related issues. With over forty percent of Africa’s population not covered by census, it is clear that today’s statistical reporting simply excludes many of the world’s poorest people. The report recommends that governments should conduct at least one census every ten years; and that countries establish and sustain civil registration and vital statistics systems, and adopt sustainable integrated national survey programs. “Statistics are essential building blocks for programs to provide health and education services, to fight poverty, AIDS and deliver clean water to communities,” said Shaida Badiee, Director of the World Bank’s Development Data Group, who chaired a
 recent World Bank panel discussion on the report. “Without reliable statistics, we don’t know the full scope of the problems and cannot adequately measure the results we actually achieve."
Read  feature article

***********************************************************************
Consultations on World Development Report 2007 on Development and the Next Generation
***********************************************************************
Consultations bring alternative viewpoints on the topic under consideration to the World Development Report (WDR) process. For the upcoming 2007 WDR on Development and the Next Generation, consultations have included face-to-face discussions in various developing countries, as well as an e-discussion with representatives from various youth organizations. Comments have been sought from the development community, and ideas and concerns from young people themselves. Consultation Reports.

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Recent Policy Research Working Papers
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These papers, and all older papers, are also available using the  Document Search on the Bank's Development Economics Research website and on the  Social Sciences Research Network.
  3826. Incomplete contracts and investment: a study of land tenancy in Pakistan. (Ghazala Mansuri, Hanan G. Jacoby)
  3827. Financial performance and outreach: a global analysis of leading microbanks. (Jonathan Morduch, Robert Cull, Asli Demirguc-Kunt)
  3828. Can guest worker schemes reduce illegal migration? (Aaditya Mattoo, Mohammad Amin)
  3829. Forecasting investment needs in South Africa's electricity and telecommunications sectors. (Zeljko Bogetic, Johannes W. Fedderke)
  3830. International benchmarking of South Africa's infrastructure performance. (Zeljko Bogetic, Johannes W. Fedderke)
  3831. Exploring the linkages between poverty, marine protected area management, and the use of destructive fishing gear in Tanzania. (Patricia Silva)
  3832. Entering the Union : European accession and capacity-building priorities. (Xubei Luo, Harry G. Broadman, John S. Wilson)
  3833. Structural change and poverty reduction in Brazil: the impact of the Doha Round. (Mauricio Bussolo, Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, Jann Lay)
  3834. Access to financial services in Colombia: the "unbanked" in Bogota. (Astrid Manroth, Tova Maria Solo)
  3835. The urban unbanked in Mexico and the United States. (John P.; Caskey; Celmente Ruiz Duran, Tova Maria Solo)Â 
  3836. Trade, inequality, and the political economy of institutions. (Quy-Toan Do, Andrei A. Levchenko)
  3837. The impact of regional trade agreements and trade facilitation in the Middle East and North Africa region. (Allen Dennis)
  3838. Remittances and poverty in Ghana. (Richard H. Adams)
  3839. The case for industrial policy: a critical survey. (Howard Pack, Kamal Saggi)
  3840. Estimating trade restrictiveness indices. (Marcelo Olarreaga, Alessandro Nicita, Hiau Looi Kee)
  3841. Export led growth, pro-poor or not? Evidence from Madagascar's textile and apparel industry. (Alessandro Nicita)
  3842. Does migration reshape expenditures in rural households? Evidence from Mexico. (Edward J. Taylor, Jorge Mora)
  3843. Regional subsidies and industrial prospects of lagging regions. (Somik V. Lall, Christopher Timmins, Alexandre Carvalho)
  3844. Who gets AIDS and how ? The determinants of HIV infection and sexual behaviors in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania. (Damien de Walque)
  3845. Access to finance by Chilean corporations. (Sophie Sirtaine)
  3846. New product technology, accumulation, and growth. (Faruk Khan)
  3847. Environmental federalism: a panacea or Pandora's box for developing countries? (Muthukumara Mani, Per G. Fredriksson, Jim R. Wollscheid)
  3848. Doha merchandise trade reform: what's at stake for developing countries? (Kym Anderson, Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, Will Martin)
  3849. Determinants of deposit-insurance adoption and design. (Edward J. Kane, Luc Laeven, Asli Demirguc-Kunt)
  3850. Do regional trade pacts benefit the poor? An illustration from the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement in Nicaragua. (Maurizio Bussolo, Yoko Niimi)
  3851. The return to firm investment in human capital. (Pedro Carneiro, Rita Almeida)
  3852. The welfare effects of slum improvement programs: the case of Mumbai. (Antonio Bento, Akie Takeuchi, Maureen Cropper)
  3853. Immigration policy and foreign population in Switzerland. (Dominique M. Gross)
  3854. Competitive implications of cross-border banking. (Stijn Claessens)
  3855. African small and medium enterprises, networks, and manufacturing performance. (Tyler Biggs, Manju Kedia Shah)
  3856. Creating an efficient financial system: challenges in a global economy. (Thorsten Beck)
  3857. Trade liberalization, factor market flexibility, and growth : the case of Morocco and Tunisia. (Allen Dennis)
  3858. Estimates of government net capital stocks for 26 developing countries, 1970-2002. (Christophe Hurlin, Florence Arestoff)
  3859. Evaluating recipes for development success. (Avinash Dixit)
  3860. Incentives for public investment under fiscal rules. (Jack M. Mintz, Michael Smart)
  3861. Integrated urban ugrading for the poor : the experience of Ribeira Azul, Brazil. (Judy L. Baker)
  3862. Bank ownership type and banking relationships. (Maria Soledad Martinez Peria, Rida Zaidi, Allen N. Berger, Leora F. Klapper)
  3863. Bulgaria's integration into the Pan-European economy and industrial restructuring. (Francis Ng, Bartlomiej)
  3864. Bulgaria's institutions and policies : integrating into Pan-European markets. (Bartlomiej Kaminski)



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