Apparel is the largest labor-intensive manufacturing industry in South Asia, and is a major employer of women. Although South Asia's apparel sector benefits from many of the same favorable conditions as East Asia's, performance in South Asian apparel remains well below that of East Asia. The...

South Asia has a huge need to create more and better jobs for a growing population especially in the manufacturing industries where it is underperforming as compared to East Asia. The report examines three critical and relatively understudied drivers of competitiveness: -Economies of...

This paper explores the link between the prevalence of violent conflicts and extremely low female labor force participation rates in South Asia. The Labor Force Surveys from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan are merged with the Global Terrorism Database to estimate the relationship...

This paper studies employment patterns and trends in South Asia to shed light on determinants of extremely low female employment rates in the region. After a comprehensive literature review, we use employment data from about one hundred censuses and surveys from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan,...

This paper explores the link between the prevalence of violent conflicts and extremely low female labor force participation rates (FLFPR) in South Asia. We merge Labor Force Surveys (LFSs) from Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka, India, and Pakistan to the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) to estimate the...

This paper studies employment patterns and trends in South Asia to shed light on determinants of extremely low female employment rates in the region. After a comprehensive literature review, the authors use employment data from about one hundred censuses and surveys from Afghanistan, Bangladesh,...

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Overview -- With some exceptions, South Asia has reaped few benefits from global integration -- Productivity is the key to improved competitiveness -- Business environment challenges remain a...