Note n°6 - may 2013

Title: “Workfare programs and Private Sector wages: lessons from India”
Authors: Clément Imbert and John Papp
Abstract:

Many countries throughout the developing world have implemented workfare programs, i.e. social safety nets whose beneficiaries are hired on public infrastructures projects. Beyond their direct benefits to participants, these programs are likely to have indirect effects, through their impact on labor markets.
We study India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which is the largest workfare program in the world today. Using the gradual roll-out of the program to identify its impact, we show that it crowds out private sector work and increases wages for unskilled laborers. Our estimates suggest that the welfare gains from increases in equilibrium wages for the poor are large in absolute terms and large relative to the gains received solely by program participants.

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  Note n°5 - March 2013

  Title: “Export upgrading and growth in China: the prerequisite of domestic embeddedness”
  Authors: Sandra Poncet and Felipe Starosta de Waldemar
  Abstract:

  

In China, as in many other developing countries, the attraction of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) inflows has been contemplated as a powerful tool to promote quality upgrades to the product structure and consequently to boost economic growth.This research relying on data from 200 Chinese cities (1997-2009) invalidates these expectations. More precisely, the authors assess to what extent the growth gains from the complexity of goods produced by firms depend on whether they are domestic or foreign. They find that product sophistication is not conducive to economic growth when it emanates from foreign firms which are mostly engaged in processing trade activities.
This invites to be cautious about the gains to be expected from an internationalization strategy based on special economic zones as they mainly attract foreign firms involved in export-platform FDI.

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  Note n°4 - november 2012

  Title: “How regional agreements tend to restrain Southern countries’ exports”
  Authors: Anne-Celia Disdier, Lionel Fontagné and Olivier Cadot
  Abstract:

  

Recent years have seen a surge in regional trade agreements, many of which including provisions on non-tariff measures. This research investigates whether the technical requirements contained in North-South Agreements affect international trade. More precisely, the authors assess to what extent North-South harmonization of technical barriers creates or reinforces a hub-and-spoke trade structure potentially detrimental to the integration of Southern countries in the world economy. Empirical results provide strong support to this conjecture.

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  Note n°3 - september 2012

  Title: “The End of Bank Secrecy ? An evaluation of the G20 Tax Haven Crackdown”
  Authors: Niels Johannesen, Gabriel Zucman
  Abstract:

  

In April 2009, G20 countries launched the most concerted ever push against tax evasion by compelling offshore tax havens to exchange bank information with foreign countries. The G20 has celebrated this policy initiative as “the end of bank secrecy.” In new research relying on unique data on bank deposits in tax havens, Niels Johannesen and Gabriel Zucman argue that the G20 tax haven crackdown has so far largely failed. There is as much money in tax havens today as in 2009, and funds are moving toward the least cooperating havens. These results suggest that G20 countries should push for a much more ambitious standard of information exchange.

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  Note n°2 - july 2012

  Title: “Towards a unified global tax on carbon”
  Authors: Antoine d’Autume, Katheline Schubert, Cees Withagen
  Abstract:

  

Almost everyone agrees that we must tackle global warming. But so far there is no consensus on how to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. This second G-MonD Note argues that one of the most efficient ways would be to levy a uniform global tax on carbon, on top of existing national taxes on fossil fuels that are designed to achieve domestic objectives such as reducing local pollution. Details of how this could work are presented by Nicholas Bray, based on conversations with researchers at the Paris School of Economics and the VU University Amsterdam that led the initial study.

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  Note n°1 - june 2012

  Title: “Student loans. Measuring credit constraints in South Africa”
  Authors: Marc Gurgand, Adrien Lorenceau, Thomas Melonio
  Abstract: Access to higher education is believed to be a condition for sustained growth based on innovation and technological adaptation. However, university enrolment remains low in most developing countries. South Africa is a relevant case study: as an emerging country it faces the need for an upgraded workforce, but its enrolment ratio into tertiary education remains only 15%. This “G-Mond Note” introduces a research showing that a significant number of South Africans face a credit constraint that prevents them from investing in tertiary education. Based on the evaluation of a credit scheme named Eduloan, it indicates that the development of education loan seems highly suitable and that targeting such loans to a middle-income population is workable and has significant impact on participation into higher education.

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