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South Asia
INFORMALITY IN SOUTH ASIA
Increasing Productivity and Job Quality in the Informal Sector
By the World Bank
SOUTH ASIA DEVELOPMENT FORUM
April 2022. 150 pages. Stock no. C211834 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1834-9). US$43.95
In South Asia, most workers and firms are in the informal sector. Informal firms constitute almost 99 percent of all firms, but account for a much smaller share of total output and employment. These firms remain stunted due to limited access to capital and other resources, and lack the means or the incentive to invest in upgrading their technological and managerial capabilities. The share of total employment outside of the formal sector reaches higher than 80 percent in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Informal workers lack access to high-quality, productive jobs; they are also vulnerable to shocks because they are not covered by the social protection and labor-market regulations that exist in the formal sector. Policy makers in South Asia need better evidence to design policies addressing the persistent developmental challenges of low productivity, high vulnerability, and weak taxation that are posed by the vast informal sector. As the informal sector has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing these issues will also be critical for COVID relief and recovery.
FROM JOBS TO CAREERS
Apparel Exports and Career Paths for Women in Developing Countries
By Stacey Frederick, Gladys Lopez-Acevedo, Raymond Robertson, and Mexico A. Vergara Bahena
SOUTH ASIA DEVELOPMENT FORUM December 2021. 178 pages. Stock no. C211803 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1803-5). US$43.95
An oft-cited strategy to advance economic development is to further integrate developing countries into global trade, particularly through global value chains, bolstered by the expansion of female-intensive industries to bring more women into the formal labor force. In recent decades, the apparel industry has shifted production to low-wage developing countries, increasing the demand for women, closing male-female wage gaps, and bringing women into the formal labor force from agriculture and informal work. But is an apparel-led export strategy sufficient to induce a broader transition from jobs women do to survive to careers promising stable employment and a sense of identity? From Jobs to Careers answers this question by focusing on seven countries where apparel plays a vital role in their export baskets: Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Arab Republic of Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Vietnam. It finds that the apparel industry indeed can serve as a launching pad to bring more women into the labor market. For this approach to work, however, complementary policies must tackle the barriers that hinder women's pursuit of long-term workforce participation and better-paid occupations. Key policy recommendations include increasing the participation of female production workers in export-oriented apparel manufacturing and associated industries, upgrading within manufacturing-related industries, boosting access to education, and breaking glass ceilings. The report also seeks to shift the paradigm of how we think of women in the labor force by stressing the importance of their transition from jobs to careers—the so-called “quiet revolution.”
REGIONAL INVESTMENT PIONEERS IN SOUTH ASIA
The Payoff of Knowing Your Neighbors
By Sanjay Kathuria, Ravindra A. Yatawara, and Xiao’ou Zhu
Regional economic engagement within South Asia may gain increasing importance owing to several factors that are currently in play, including strategies to diversify global value chains and locate such value chains nearer home. These developments offer South Asia a chance to enhance its low levels of regional economic engagement and capitalize on significant unrealized development opportunities. This report shows that examining intraregional investment and knowledge connectivity enhances our understanding of the low levels of intraregional trade and limited regional value chains in South Asia.
Creating a new and unique data set for South Asian investment, this report provides a detailed and nuanced understanding of the drivers of outward investment, both regional and global, for South Asian firms.
Regional Investment Pioneers in South Asia provides key considerations for policy makers in South Asia, which remain particularly relevant in the aftermath of the pandemic. This report follows on, and is complementary to, the earlier World Bank report, A Glass Half Full: The Promise of Regional Trade in South Asia.
SOUTH ASIA DEVELOPMENT FORUM
December 2021. 258 pages. Stock no. C211534 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1534-8). US$45.00
PRIVATE CITIES IN SOUTH ASIA
By Yue Li and Martin Rama
Private cities are an emerging reality in developing countries and are particularly important in South Asia. Weak urban governments are at the root of some of the challenges faced by cities in developing countries. In most of South Asia, for example, urbanization has been “messy” and congestion has severely undermined the benefits of agglomeration. The shortage of empowered, resourced, and accountable local government is the key challenge underlying these problems. Addressing this institutional failure remains the main priority of the urban agenda in most developing countries. At the same time, political economy constraints have made the reform of urban governance an arduous and often-frustrating undertaking. All of this calls for a rethinking of the role of nongovernment actors in the city formation process. In theory, large private land developers can internalize local externalities and, provided that they can reach a sufficiently large population size, build efficient cities. Their incentive to do so is to maximize the value of the land they develop. In equilibrium, land prices should be closely linked to the (discounted) future stream of value added that can be generated on that land. It is therefore in the interest of developers to maximize agglomeration effects and minimize congestions cost in the area they own.
