The report "World Development Report 1995: workers in an integrating world" looks at what is required to improve labor outcomes in low- and middle-income economies. It identifies four areas in need of policy reform: 1) development strategy; 2) international integration; 3) labor market...

Indonesia has long been characterized as having a "low-pay civil service" which is in turn used to explain corruption at various levels of government. Analysis of individual and household level data show that the earnings of government employees, on average, is comparable to what they might earn...

Various arguments have been used to explain Sub-Saharan Africa's economic decline. We find that a stress on investments in education as a prerequisite for more rapid growth is misplaced; that greater openness is far from sufficient to insure economic progress; that income inequality and urban bias...

"Economists and reform minded policymakers in Latin America are asking themselves, and are being asked, hard questions these days. The broad consensus is that two decades of reform have had too little toshow for it. Sporadic and sputtering economic growth and stagnant real wages (especially for...

The HIV/AIDS pandemic striking South Africa is of historic proportions. More people are living with AIDS in South Africa than in any other country in the world. Just in the past decade, the life expectancy in South Africa has dropped from 67 to 43 years. The social and economic impact of this...