Documents developing countries 396 results

"Somewhat surprisingly, cross-country empirical evidence (at least in the cross section) does not seem to support the predictions of standard models that economies with stricter regulations on hiring and firing should have a lower pace of job reallocation. One problem in exploring these issues empirically has been the difficulty of comparing countries on the basis of harmonized measures of job reallocation. A related problem is that there may be unobserved measurement errors or other factors accounting for differences in job reallocation across countries. This paper overcomes these challenges by using harmonized measures of job creation and destruction in a sample of 16 industrial and emerging economies, exploiting the country, industry and firm size dimensions. The analysis of variance in the paper shows that firm size effects are a dominant factor in accounting for the variation in the pace of job reallocation across country, industry and size cells. However, even after controlling for industry and size effects there remain significant differences in job flows across countries that could reflect differences in labor market regulations. We use the harmonized data to explore this hypothesis with a difference-in-difference approach. We find strong and robust evidence that stringent hiring and firing regulations tend to reduce the pace of job reallocation."

"This paper studies the relationship between sovereign spreads and the interaction between debt composition and debt levels in advanced and emerging market countries. It finds that in emerging market countries there is a significant correlation between spreads and debt levels. This correlation, however, is not statistically significant in countries where most public debt is denominated in local currency. In advanced economies, the magnitude of the correlation between debt levels and spreads is about one-fifth of the corresponding correlation for emerging market economies. In eurozone countries, however, the correlation between spreads and debt ratios is similar to that of emerging market countries. The paper also shows that the financial crisis amplified the relationship between spreads and debt levels within the eurozone but had no effect on the relationship between spreads and debt in stand-alone countries. Finally, the paper shows that the relationship between debt levels and spreads is amplified by the presence of large net foreign liabilities. This amplifying effect of net foreign liabilities is larger in the eurozone than in stand-alone advanced economies. The paper concludes that debt composition matters and corroborates the original sin hypothesis that, rather than being a mere reflection of institutional weakness, the presence of foreign currency debt increases financial fragility and leads to suboptimal macroeconomic policies."

"Multinationals from Brazil, Russia, India and China, known as the BRIC countries, are a new and powerful force in global competition and are challenging the incumbency of much older global companies from the developed world. Emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) now account for a quarter of foreign investment in the world, are a prolific source of innovation and make almost one in three cross-border acquisitions globally. Despite this, traditional theories of international business do not provide a satisfactory explanation of their behaviour or performance. The authors of this book shine new light on the rise of the EMNEs and how they have built a competitive advantage through innovation, novel configurations of their international value chains and the acquisition of companies overseas. Any manager, policy maker or researcher who wishes to understand the emergence of this new breed of multinational will find this book an invaluable resource."

"Migration of formal and informal health-care workers is a global phenomenon – and, as this article demonstrates, one that is produced by government policies and practices. Nurses and lesser-trained caregivers migrate from many lower-income countries to richer ones (including from the Philippines to the United States, from South Africa to England, from Central Asia to Turkey). Using the Austrian experience to illustrate how policies and lack of enforcement of labor laws lead to migration and mistreatment of health-care professionals and informal caregivers, this article recommends how to alleviate health-care staff shortages in Africa and elsewhere through policymaking in Europe and North America. Recognition of the political dimensions of health-care migration is the first step toward addressing ethical questions and damaging shortages of caregivers."