While adoption of new technologies is understood to enhance long-term growth and average per-capita incomes, its impact on lower-skilled workers is more complex and merits clarification. Concerns abound that advanced technologies developed in high-income countries would inexorably lead to job...

This paper uses firm-level data to assess whether telecommunication services are general-purpose technologies (technologies that benefit a large segment of the economy and have long-lasting effect). It finds that only Internet services are so: firm growth and productivity are much higher when...

This paper addresses the identification of low-frequency macroeconomic shocks, such as technology, in Structural Vector Autoregressions. Whilst identification issues with long-run restricted VARs are well documented, the recent attempt to overcome said issues using the Max-Share approach of...

This study collects data on the sophistication of technologies used at the business function level for a representative sample of firms in Vietnam, Senegal, and the Brazilian state of Ceara. The analysis finds a large variance in technology sophistication across the business functions of a firm....

This paper examines the agricultural productivity-farm size relationship in the context of Bangladesh. Features of Bangladesh's agriculture help overcome several limitations in testing the inverse farm size-productivity relationship in other developing country settings. A stochastic production...

This paper describes and benchmarks innovation activities for a sample of countries in the South Asia region, as well as the impact of these activities on firm-level productivity. The evidence gathered suggests that countries in the South Asia region can be divided into two groups, in terms of...

Changing population age structures are shaping the trajectories of development in many countries, bringing opportunities and challenges. While aging has been a matter of concern for upper-middle and high-income economies, rapid population growth is set to continue in the poorest countries over...

This policy note provides a view of the main challenges facing Ghana youth and proposes policy options to address them. The note: (i) highlights youth key characteristics from the perspective of their skills and jobs and the constraints they face, (ii) describes the institutional set up and...

Jobs are critical to poverty reduction and inclusive growth in Sierra Leone, where more than half the population is poor and most are dependent on labor earnings. Adding to the jobs challenge is the young and growing population and therefore the need for substantial job creation, coupled with...

Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations and acronyms -- Executive summary -- Introduction and background -- The macro aggregation-accumulation model -- Enterprises and workforce -- Key economic sectors for jobs, value addition, competitiveness, and growth -- Skills accumulation and the stock and flow...