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Opening the vault: Data, research, and improved policymaking in South Africa
Policymakers often work in the dark, as they try to make real impact on people’s lives. If you don’t have good data, being worked on by good...
24 UNU-WIDER articles, publications, projects, experts...
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Working Paper
Wage inequality, firm characteristics, and firm wage premia in South AfricaThis paper investigates the role of firm characteristics in driving wage inequality and firm wage premia in the South African labour market. The Abowd, Kramarz, and Margolis (AKM) and Kline, Saggio, and Sølvsten (KSS) regression-based decomposition...
Book Chapter
Implications for making the achievements sustainablePart of Book Sustaining Tanzania's Economic Development
Working Paper
Behind the numbers: exploring caste inequities in entrepreneurial successThe documented under-representation of marginalized groups in business ownership and the labour market is a concerning issue. This study explores how caste disparities in small-firm entrepreneurship impact on firm performance in India, focusing on...
Working Paper
What explains the disaster preparedness of micro-enterprises?Worldwide, enterprises are hit by disasters such as cyclones and floods. Despite being impacted negatively, most enterprises do not prepare for future disasters. This study aims at understanding the determinants of enterprises’ disaster preparedness...
Working Paper
COVID-19 in Central America: effects of firm resilience and policy responses on employmentWith data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey, this paper examines how firm-level resilience capabilities interact with government support in the reduction of lay-offs among formal firms in Central America. We estimate two latent variables to...
Working Paper
How have formal firms recovered from the pandemic?This paper examines how formal firms have been impacted by and recovered from the pandemic by drawing on two distinct but complementary data sources. This is the first attempt to use both survey and tax administrative data to measure the initial...
Journal Article
Local governance quality and law complianceIn sub-Saharan Africa, many micro and small enterprises do not (or at least only partially) comply with official rules and regulations. Given that low compliance rates impede economic growth and human development, it is essential to identify...
Technical Note
Identifying foreign firms and South African multinational enterprisesThe identification of foreign firms and South African multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the CIT-IRP5 panel has proved to be a challenge for many researchers. The CIT-IRP5 panel contains variables indicating different thresholds that determine...
Working Paper
The minimum wage and firm networksThere is a large literature on the minimum wage focused on directly exposed firms and geographies. This paper provides new evidence that the minimum wage has significant spillover effects on firms exposed to the minimum wage indirectly via firm...
Working Paper
Cash grants to manufacturers after Cyclone IdaiIn March 2019, Cyclone Idai hit central Mozambique and caused widespread damage, including businesses in the enterprise sector. We use panel data and a randomized controlled trial to estimate the impact of unconditional cash grants on micro...
Working Paper
Cyclone impacts on manufacturing firms in MozambiqueThis study investigates how manufacturing companies were affected by tropical Cyclone Idai, which struck Central Mozambique in March 2019. The analysis builds upon a representative sample of 464 enterprises located in the cities of Beira and Chimoio...
Working Paper
Spillovers from extractive industriesExtractive industries form an important part of the economy for many developing countries, but their impact on growth and welfare remains understudied. With global efforts to transition to net-zero carbon emissions in the coming decades...
Working Paper
Informality and firm performance in MyanmarUsing a novel panel survey of enterprises in Myanmar, we compare the performance of manufacturing firms by three different informality definitions. The first is binary, based on whether firms pay taxes. The second captures five categories of...
Journal Article
Informality and firm performance in MyanmarPart of Journal Special Issue What sustains informality
Working Paper
Contract clientelismWhere does the money come from to buy votes? We argue that an important source of funds for vote-buying comes from ‘contract clientelism’, or the provision of public contracts to private firms in exchange for campaign donations. Using quantitative...
Displaying 16 of 24 results