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The book is a contemporary compilation of important research in the
area of microfinance and financial inclusion. It explores a
plurality of views and experiences from different parts of the
world while linking a variety of international research
backgrounds. Accordingly the book will fill a gap in providing a
carefully curated cross-sectorial selection of topics relevant to
the development finance research community primarily but also
industry practitioners who are interested in keeping abreast of
developing research. Benefits in this regard also include being
able to provide a platform to less established researchers offering
them a voice in published form.
Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: From
Fundaments to Applications provides the reader with a
comprehensive, concise and thoroughly up-to-date resource on the
different types of hydrogels in tissue engineering and regenerative
medicine. The book is divided into three main sections that
describe biological activities and the structural and
physicochemical properties of hydrogels, along with a wide range of
applications, including their combination with emerging
technologies. Written by a diverse range of international academics
for professionals, researchers, undergraduate and graduate
students, this groundbreaking publication fills a gap in literature
needed in the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine field.
The report aims to meet two broad objectives: (a) enhance knowledge
about the current state of existing social safety nets (SSNs) and
assess their effectiveness in responding to new and emerging
challenges to the poor and vulnerable in the region by bringing
together new evidence, data, and country-specific analysis; and (b)
open up and inform a debate on feasible policy options to make SSNs
in the Middle East and North Africa more effective and innovative.
The first chapter, 'a framework for SSN reform, ' describes and
illustrates the reasons for the region's growing need for SSN
reform and establishes the framework for renewed SSNs. It
identifies key goals for SSNs (promoting social inclusion,
livelihood, and resilience) and illustrates how these goals have
been achieved in some parts of the region and elsewhere. The second
chapter, 'key challenges that call for renewed SSNs, ' analyzes the
challenges facing the region's poor and vulnerable households,
which SSNs could focus on as a priority. Two large groups are at
higher-than-average poverty risk: children and those who live in
rural or lagging areas. The third chapter, 'the current state of
SSNs in the Middle East and North Africa, ' analyzes SSN spending
and assesses different aspects of the SSN systems' performance. The
fourth chapter, 'the political economy of SSN reforms in the Middle
East and North Africa: what do citizens want?' presents new
evidence on citizens' preferences concerning redistribution and SSN
design, using newly collected data. It also discusses how political
economy considerations could be taken into account in designing
renewed SSNs in the region. The fifth chapter, 'the way forward:
how to make safety nets in the Middle East and North Africa more
effective and innovative, ' proposes an agenda for reform and the
path for moving forward, using global experience and the evidence
presented in the preceding chapt
While economic growth has been sustained for a number of years in
many countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region,
this has not resulted in the creation of an adequate number of jobs
and has succeeded, at best, in generating low-quality, informal
jobs. While there is a great deal of heterogeneity across
countries, informality in MENA is widespread, and some countries in
the region are amongst the most informal economies in the world.
The book looks at informality through a human development angle and
focuses specifically on informal employment. In line with this
approach, the working definition for informality adopted in the
book is "lack of social security coverage" (usually understood as
pensions, or if a pension system does not exist, as health
insurance), which captures well the vulnerability associated with
informal employment. Informal workers in MENA are generally engaged
in low productivity jobs - more so than in comparator countries -,
are paid less for otherwise similar work in the formal sector, and
self-report low levels of satisfaction at work. Also, informal
workers in MENA face important mobility barriers into formal
employment and thus lack of social security coverage against
health, unemployment, and old-age risks. Formal employment in the
MENA region is strongly associated with public sector employment.
Opportunities for formal employment in the private sector in the
region remain very limited. The book identifies 5 strategic
directions to promote long-term inclusive growth and formality,
namely: (i) fostering competition; (ii) realigning incentives in
the public sector; (iii) moving towards labor regulations that
promote labor mobility and provide support to workers in periods of
transition; (iv) enhancing the productivity of informal workers
through training and skills upgrading; and (v) reforming existing
social insurance systems and introduce new instruments for coverage
extension. This book is addressed to policy makers, academics, and
practitioners who wish to understand the phenomenon of informal
employment, and policy options for promoting more inclusive and
productive labor market opportunities.
The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to human capital.
This report presents new evidence and analysis to provide a
comprehensive diagnostic of the effects of the pandemic on human
capital outcomes and identify promising policy responses for
governments faced with the task of rebuilding human capital in the
wake of the pandemic. The report identifies the mechanisms through
which COVID-19 affected the human capital of people at different
points in the life cycle and provides estimates of the magnitude of
these losses. This analysis underlines differences in impact across
countries and groups within countries to understand how the
reported blow on human capital has been unequal, exacerbating
existing gaps and creating new ones. Grounded in the diagnostic,
the report discusses policy responses that attend to afflicted
groups in the short-term as well as the medium- to long-term agenda
to build back better human capital and make systems more resilient.
The long-term policy discussion recognizes COVID-19 as an
inflection point, using the opportunity to reimagine systems and
institutions, thinking in a completely different way about some key
issues. In conclusion, the report reflects on what we have learned
from failed policy responses as well as the innovations that proved
successful across sectors in preventing or mitigating human capital
losses associated with the COVID-19 crisis, and how these lessons
can be incorporated across sectors going forward.
A better policy framework for preventing, managing, and helping
people recover from crises is crucial to lifting long-term growth
and livelihoods in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The need
for this policy framework has never been more urgent as the region
faces the monumental task of recovery from the worldwide COVID-19
pandemic. Whether specific policy responses will deliver the
expected growth dividends will depend on the underlying vision of
how labor markets adjust to crises and the quality of the policies
enacted. This report estimates how crises change labor market
flows, assesses how these changes affect people, and discusses the
key policy responses. The key findings are threefold. First, crises
have significant impacts on employment dynamics and structure in
Latin America. Different labor market dynamics hide behind similar
reductions in labor demand. Crises increase unemployment. This is
the principal margin of adjustment despite highly informal labor
markets. Across the region, the biggest employment losses are in
the formal sector, driven by a reduction in job-finding rates
rather than higher job-loss rates. Adjustment through reduction in
hours worked does not seem to be an important factor in most
countries' formal or informal sectors. Crises do not just shape
worker flows temporarily-they have significant after-crisis effects
on the structure of employment that last for several years. These
effects are such that good job opportunities are gradually
shrinking. Whereas in some countries the whole economy shrinks, in
others informality serves as a partial buffer. Second, crises leave
scars. Some workers recover from displacement and other livelihood
shocks, while others are permanently scarred. For lower-skilled
workers, earnings losses are persistent. Workers with higher
education suffer no impacts of the crisis on their wages and very
short-lived impacts on their employment. The responses are similar
across male and female workers and workers with high and low
previous participation in the formal labor market. New entrants to
the labor market during a crisis face a worse career start - one
from which it is difficult to recover. Yet, crises also bring
efficiency gains, as detailed in this report. This study finds that
both the structure of product markets and the conditions in local
labor markets matter for the severity of crisis-induced employment
and earnings losses across localities and sectors. Workers in more
protected sectors that enjoy rents are sheltered from adjustment,
while workers in localities with more informality cope better. This
suggests the need for integrated responses at the worker, sector,
and locality levels. Third, this study considers how the region's
policy frameworks can more effectively respond to crises-mitigating
scarring, speeding adjustment, and promoting long-term growth. It
proposes a three-pronged strategy, including (i) creating a more
stable macroeconomic environment at the aggregate level to smooth
the impacts of crises, including "automatic stabilizers" such as
countercyclical, publicly-financed income support that is lacking
in LAC; (ii) increasing the capacity of social protection and labor
policies to provide income support as well prepare workers for
change through reemployment assistance; and (iii) tackling
structural issues, including addressing product market competition,
contestability issues, and the spatial dimension behind poor labor
market adjustment.
A better policy framework for preventing, managing, and helping
people recover from crises is crucial to lifting long-term growth
and livelihoods in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The need
for this policy framework has never been more urgent as the region
faces the monumental task of recovery from the worldwide COVID-19
pandemic. Whether specific policy responses will deliver the
expected growth dividends will depend on the underlying vision of
how labor markets adjust to crises and the quality of the policies
enacted. This report estimates how crises change labor market
flows, assesses how these changes affect people, and discusses the
key policy responses.The key findings are threefold. First, crises
have significant impacts on employment dynamics and structure in
Latin America. Different labor market dynamics hide behind similar
reductions in labor demand. Crises increase unemployment. This is
the principal margin of adjustment despite highly informal labor
markets. Across the region, the biggest employment losses are in
the formal sector, driven by a reduction in job-finding rates
rather than higher job-loss rates. Adjustment through reduction in
hours worked does not seem to be an important factor in most
countries' formal or informal sectors. Crises do not just shape
worker flows temporarily-they have significant after-crisis effects
on the structure of employment that last for several years. These
effects are such that good job opportunities are gradually
shrinking. Whereas in some countries the whole economy shrinks, in
others informality serves as a partial buffer.Second, crises leave
scars. Some workers recover from displacement and other livelihood
shocks, while others are permanently scarred. For lower-skilled
workers, earnings losses are persistent. Workers with higher
education suffer no impacts of the crisis on their wages and very
short-lived impacts on their employment. The responses are similar
across male and female workers and workers with high and low
previous participation in the formal labor market. New entrants to
the labor market during a crisis face a worse career start - one
from which it is difficult to recover. Yet, crises also bring
efficiency gains, as detailed in this report.This study finds that
both the structure of product markets and the conditions in local
labor markets matter for the severity of crisis-induced employment
and earnings losses across localities and sectors. Workers in more
protected sectors that enjoy rents are sheltered from adjustment,
while workers in localities with more informality cope better. This
suggests the need for integrated responses at the worker, sector,
and locality levels.Third, this study considers how the region's
policy frameworks can more effectively respond to crises-mitigating
scarring, speeding adjustment, and promoting long-term growth. It
proposes a three-pronged strategy, including (i) creating a more
stable macroeconomic environment at the aggregate level to smooth
the impacts of crises, including "automatic stabilizers" such as
countercyclical, publicly-financed income support that is lacking
in LAC; (ii) increasing the capacity of social protection and labor
policies to provide income support as well prepare workers for
change through reemployment assistance; and (iii) tackling
structural issues, including addressing product market competition,
contestability issues, and the spatial dimension behind poor labor
market adjustment.
Continued social and economic progress in Brazil will depend on
high employment, sustained labour productivity and income growth,
and opportunities for the poor and disadvantaged to upgrade their
own productivity and convert it into sustainable incomes.
A better policy framework for preventing, managing, and helping
people recover from crises is crucial to lifting long-term growth
and livelihoods in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The need
for this policy framework has never been more urgent as the region
faces the monumental task of recovery from the worldwide COVID-19
pandemic. Whether specific policy responses will deliver the
expected growth dividends will depend on the underlying vision of
how labor markets adjust to crises and the quality of the policies
enacted. This report estimates how crises change labor market
flows, assesses how these changes affect people, and discusses the
key policy responses.The key findings are threefold. First, crises
have significant impacts on employment dynamics and structure in
Latin America. Different labor market dynamics hide behind similar
reductions in labor demand. Crises increase unemployment. This is
the principal margin of adjustment despite highly informal labor
markets. Across the region, the biggest employment losses are in
the formal sector, driven by a reduction in job-finding rates
rather than higher job-loss rates. Adjustment through reduction in
hours worked does not seem to be an important factor in most
countries' formal or informal sectors. Crises do not just shape
worker flows temporarily-they have significant after-crisis effects
on the structure of employment that last for several years. These
effects are such that good job opportunities are gradually
shrinking. Whereas in some countries the whole economy shrinks, in
others informality serves as a partial buffer.Second, crises leave
scars. Some workers recover from displacement and other livelihood
shocks, while others are permanently scarred. For lower-skilled
workers, earnings losses are persistent. Workers with higher
education suffer no impacts of the crisis on their wages and very
short-lived impacts on their employment. The responses are similar
across male and female workers and workers with high and low
previous participation in the formal labor market. New entrants to
the labor market during a crisis face a worse career start - one
from which it is difficult to recover. Yet, crises also bring
efficiency gains, as detailed in this report.This study finds that
both the structure of product markets and the conditions in local
labor markets matter for the severity of crisis-induced employment
and earnings losses across localities and sectors. Workers in more
protected sectors that enjoy rents are sheltered from adjustment,
while workers in localities with more informality cope better. This
suggests the need for integrated responses at the worker, sector,
and locality levels.Third, this study considers how the region's
policy frameworks can more effectively respond to crises-mitigating
scarring, speeding adjustment, and promoting long-term growth. It
proposes a three-pronged strategy, including (i) creating a more
stable macroeconomic environment at the aggregate level to smooth
the impacts of crises, including "automatic stabilizers" such as
countercyclical, publicly-financed income support that is lacking
in LAC; (ii) increasing the capacity of social protection and labor
policies to provide income support as well prepare workers for
change through reemployment assistance; and (iii) tackling
structural issues, including addressing product market competition,
contestability issues, and the spatial dimension behind poor labor
market adjustment.
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