Pakistan's informal sector

This study reviews the main features of Pakistan's informal sector. The data on the informal sector, compiled from censuses and sample surveys in one major city (Rawalpindi), suggest that both real wages and employment have grown in the informal sector. The seeming paradox of real wage growth in a labor surplus economy is explained by real wage growth in both agriculture and large‐scale manufacturing, both of which were made possible by Pakistan's growth performance during the 1960s. The differences in wages between the formal and informal sector, after adjusting for age and education, are quite small, a reflection of high labor mobility between the two sectors.     

Reverse Gender Gap in Schooling in Bangladesh: Insights from Urban and Rural Households

This paper documents a reverse gender gap in secondary schooling outcomes in Bangladesh drawing upon several rounds of nationally representative household survey data. In terms of enrolment status and years of schooling completed, boys are found to lag behind girls in the rural as well as in the urban area. Within the urban sample, the gender gap is widest in the non-metropolitan area. These findings are robust to extensive control for demand and supply-side determinants of schooling and remain unchanged even when we use a within household estimator. We consider one hypothesis, namely gender-differentiated response to a conditional cash transfer program to reconcile the findings of this reverse gender gap.     

Computer Usage and Labour Regulation in India's Retail Sector

Abstract

A recent survey of 1,948 retail stores in India conducted by the World Bank's Enterprise surveys shows that 19 per cent of all stores use computers. In the state of Kerala, the figure is as high as 40 per cent. Using this survey, we estimate the effect of computer usage on labour employment. Our findings show that this effect depends on the stringency of the underlying labour laws. Stricter labour laws magnify the labour displacing effect of computers significantly.     

Staffing the higher civil services in Bangladesh: An analysis of recruitment and selection processes

In developing a recruitment and selection policy for the Bangladesh Civil Service there has been significant disagreement over whether this should be based exclusively on merit or whether merit should be modified in the interests of equity. The government has, in practice, required that the policy should recognize the principle of equity and various interests have been given a privileged status in recruitment. At the same time the administration of the recruitment process has been conducted in a way that has undermined confidence in it. The authors describe the policy differences and problems of administration concluding with ideas on desirable reforms.