This paper examines the consequences of rapid disinflation for downward wage rigidities in two emerging countries, Brazil and Uruguay, relying on high quality matched employer-employee administrative data. Downward nominal wage rigidities are more important in Uruguay, while wage indexation is...

It has been well established that the wages of individual workers react little, especially downwards, to shocks that hit their employer. This paper presents new evidence from a unique survey of firms across Europe on the prevalence of downward wage rigidity in both real and nominal terms. The...

China has made great progress in improving maternal and child health (MCH). It reduced maternal deaths from 1,500 per 100,000 live births and over 200 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 1949 to 120 per 100,000 live births and infant deaths to 42 per 1,000 by 1990. Currently China is on track...

Nepal has achieved its targets for MDGs 4 and 5a. Maternal mortality declined from 790 to an estimated 190 deaths per 100,000 live births between 1990 and 2013 an impressive 76 percent decline. Under-five mortality showed a similarly impressive decline going from 142 to 42 deaths per 1,000...

Firms very rarely cut nominal wages, even in the face of considerable negative economic shocks. This paper uses a unique survey of fourteen European countries to ask firms directly about the incidence of wage cuts and to assess the relevance of a range of potential reasons for why the firms...