Bangladesh has achieved robust economic growth over the past 10 years, with real GDP growing by more than 6 percent on average each year. This paper investigates whether the country will be able to maintain such high levels of growth going forward. A simple growth model calibrated to the...

This paper examines the role of changes in sectoral productivity gaps over time in accounting for growth realized by countries over the past few decades. To quantify the productivity impact of the sectoral gaps, a simple model of resource allocation is developed in which the gaps arise due to...

Households accumulate wealth as a reserve against unexpected contingencies. We employ a detailed household survey in Afghanistan to study how non-housing wealth accumulation of households varies with labor income uncertainty. We find that households facing higher income uncertainty accumulate...

Bangladesh has achieved robust economic growth over the past 10 years, with real GDP growing by more than 6 percent on average each year. This paper investigates whether the country will be able to maintain such high levels of growth going forward. A simple growth model calibrated to the...

This paper investigates the relative importance of different channels in explaining the low share of industrial employment in Latin America relative to the economies that employ a large share of the workforce in industry. Differences in domestic final consumption shares play a pivotal role and...

Using panel data on input-output intensities and expenditure prices from 28 countries, this paper finds the elasticity of substitution across sectoral inputs to be less than one in each of the three broad sectors of the economy. Intermediates are most complementary in the production of services...

This paper examines the role of changes in sectoral productivity gaps over time in accounting for growth realized by countries over the past few decades. To quantify the productivity impact of the sectoral gaps, a simple model of resource allocation is developed in which the gaps arise due to...

The paper uses a detailed household survey to document precautionary wealth accumulation in Afghanistan, with wealth being significantly higher for households facing higher income uncertainty. Annual household expenditure on nondurable goods is also lower for these households. There is no...

This paper investigates the state of low investment in Afghanistan by studying how investment decisions interact with risks and uncertainty in the presence of underdeveloped financial markets. The analysis shows that investing firms experience a higher probability of being affected by events...

The paper documents that intergenerational occupational persistence is significantly higher in poor countries even after controlling for cross-country differences in occupational structures. I posit that high occupational persistence in poor countries is symptomatic of underlying talent...