This paper examines the labor market dynamics of six CEE countries over the last 10 years, paying special attention to the nature of labor market institutions these countries have adopted and their impact on labor market performance. This paper finds that, compared to EU countries, CEE countries...

The World Bank's operations in labor markets are reviewed in this report. The findings show that lending in labor markets has increased significantly in the last four years. The Bank supported close to 950 projects in FY92 to FY96. An examination of the 941 project reports approved during this...

This paper summarizes the World Bank's experience in dealing with redundant (laid-off) workers. It identifies World Bank lending of 88 loans in 47 countries that have contained labor assistance to redundant workers related to enterprise restructuring or privatization since 1987. The paper...

The World Bank is financing an increasing number of community-based social services projects. The objective of this paper is to review and categorize the extent, scope and mechanisms of these projects in the current Bank portfolio, and to identify good practices and potential pitfalls. The...

This paper approaches labor markets through multisector modeling. The first main substantive section presents the essence of multisector modeling, in particular, the role of labor market dualism. Given that labor markets often consist of quite distinct segments, a useful and insightful...

Many pension schemes mandated by governments have accumulated large reserves. The management of these funds has a direct effect on financial sustainability, and potential benefit levels. It also has important indirect effects on the overall economy when the funds are large. Part I of this study...

Unemployment insurance has been the subject of numerous theoretical and empirical studies. These studies elucidate the benefits and the cost of unemployment insurance, namely, the improved allocation of risk bearing and the reduced incentives for work. In the past two decades a branch of the...

Prefunding of pension commitments in OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) economies is increasingly seen as a central strategy to cope with the aging of their populations. This paper argues that investments in emerging markets can help at the margin but are unable to solve...

This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of demand-side subsidy approaches for improving poor households'access to housing services. It begins with a discussion of the rationale for stand-alone housing assistance programs, and a description of the ongoing transition away from traditional...

This paper reviews the experience in transacting payments through the commercial banking system, to beneficiaries in Colombia's"Familias en Accion"program. The story told will be useful to those trying to solve the operational problem of moving cash, cost-effectively to large numbers of...