Documents Roncolato, Leanne 4 results

"This article addresses the debate on services-led growth in which services are variously portrayed as a substitute for or as a leading or lagging complement to manufacturing. Following a survey of related empirical studies, it applies growth decomposition methods to data for 18 countries in Asia and Latin America for 1980–2005, focusing on manufacturing and services that make intensive use of information and communication technology. By grouping the countries into four categories according to aggregate labour productivity and employment growth, the authors seek to identify common structural characteristics of better and worse performing countries. They also consider the viability of the services-led growth path in India in particular."

"The paper uses accounting methods to decompose aggregate labour productivity and employment growth into their sectoral components as well as into within-sector and employment reallocation effects for a sample of 81 developed and developing countries using data going back to the mid-1980s. Key findings are that aggregate labour productivity growth in Asia as a whole is driven by as much services as by industry, in spite of strong differences between countries (e.g., with industry dominant in China and services dominant in India) and that within-sector effects on aggregate labour productivity growth are more important than employment reallocation effects, a pattern that holds for all regions. At the aggregate level, the paper identifies a stronger positive relationship between output and employment growth in developed than developing countries, a stronger negative relationship between labour productivity and employment growth in developing than developed countries, and that “jobless growth” is more of a problem for developing countries in Asia than the more slowly-growing countries of Latin America-Caribbean."

"This article addresses two contested issues of crucial importance to policy, namely: formal labour regulations as a cause of informal employment, and so-called "voluntary" informal employment. The authors provide theoretical overviews on both issues and an extensive survey of empirical studies on the effects of formal labour regulations on informal employment. The article closes with observations on the relevance of the ILO's four decent work objectives for informal employment and economic development, with particular emphasis on the significance of – and potential for – organizing workers in the informal economy."

"This article uses social accounting matrices in a Leontief multiplier model to estimate the effects of trade expansion on employment and incomes in India and South Africa. The evaluation focuses on a period of rapid trade liberalization beginning in the early 1990s, distinguishing between trade with developed and developing countries. Employment results identify winning and losing industries and examine sex and skill biases. Income results examine inequality measured by household income distribution (rural and urban). Results are presented in the context of trade theory as regards adjustment mechanisms for bringing trade into balance and implications of specialization for economic development."