This working paper looks in detail at the H-1B and L-1 visa programs for temporary employment in the United States. Based on official data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the US Department of State, H-1B and L-1 visa issuance rapidly increased in the late 1990s, followed by...

Online recruitment describes hiring workers who were initially selected via the Internet. The practice is now widespread, with a majority of US jobseekers undertaking some online job search activity. The online intermediaries that allow employers and employees to connect with each other, leading...

Since their inception at the end of the Second World War, the sister organizations of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have aimed to consistently speak with one voice vis-à-vis their member governments. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that they often do not speak in...

Aid conditionality refers to the practice of donors attaching conditions to enhance the effectiveness of aid. The donor's prime objective is to reduce poverty, but recipients want to divert some of the aid to elites. This gives rise to two problems: adverse selection (aid does not go to the...

We develop a new empirical approach to identify tradable service activities. Contrary to conventional views of service activities as nontradable, we find a significant number of service industries and occupations that appear tradable and substantial employment in these tradable activities....

Multinational corporations account for 80 percent of all transfers of goods and services across borders, either within their own affiliate transactions or through networks with independent providers. As a result, the term supply chains is rapidly becoming the new norm in discussing the spread of...