Between 2007 and 2017, 99 countries initiated reforms in labor regulations that affected World Bank Doing Business labor indicators. The most common topics for reforms are (i) procedural requirements in case of contract termination, and changes in notification arrangements; (ii) fixed-term...

The high incidence of informality in developing countries acts as a drag on economic development due to the associated efficiency and equity costs and implied weak governance. Policy makers therefore want to reduce informality. This note presents guidance on policy levers to make formality more...

This paper uses a novel matched employer-employee data set representing the formal sector in Bangladesh to provide descriptive evidence of both the relative importance of cognitive and non-cognitive skills in this part of the labor market and the interplay between skills and hiring channels in...

Trust and participation in social networks are inherently interrelated. We make use of India's demonetization policy, an unexpected and unforeseeable exogenous variation, to causally identify the effect of social networks in determining trust. We use first-hand quantitative and qualitative data...

Trust and participation in social networks are inherently interrelated. We make use of India's demonetization policy, an unexpected and unforeseeable exogenous variation, to causally identify the effect of social networks in determining trust. We use first-hand quantitative and qualitative data...

Greater transparency and accountability has been one of the core issues behind the current upheavals in the region. Similarly, lack of or inability to gain access to data has been a long standing complaint by local and international agencies and organizations. This state of affairs makes it...