This paper presents the results of a randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of taxpayer communications informed by behavioral science in inducing business payroll tax compliance at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, an experimental tax trial targeting 5,423 firms...

Fear of the threat of job loss is likely to elicit negative thoughts that have adverse consequences for not only job satisfaction, but also, all-round happiness and satisfaction with life. Using nationally representative cross-sectional data, this study provides evidence of the negative effect...

Purpose: This study asks whether lower quality forms of employment lead to career transitions into higher quality forms of employment acting as steppingstones, or bridges or, whether instead they lead to dead-ends, or traps, in which workers move between unstable jobs with low prospects for...

Purpose: The Albanian migration has always reflected a family character, be that before 1945 when Albania was not yet completely isolated, as well as after 1990 when borders were reopened. This feature characterized all types of movement, internal or international, permanent or seasonal...

Estimating the impact of risk aversion on emigration at the individual level is complicated by selection issues. In this paper, we use original data from Albania on mobility intentions and elicited risk aversion to provide causal estimates on this relationship. Our identification strategy relies...

For every company, decisions made on achieving an optimal capital structure are important for its life cycle and economic profitability. Properly funded investments contribute to the creation of new wealth, which reflects a high added value in the market.A number of theories have been developed...

Micro-insurance is a form of insurance, not being separated from traditional insurance, but which is mainly aimed at low-income individuals. This form of insurance applies to developing countries, where the level of population income is below the average level and where the low-income...

This study skims the much debatable issue of customer satisfaction (quality matching expectations) in the banking system, as for banks are the main actors of the Albanian financial system. In fact, the customer satisfaction in the banking sector is an important criterion for customer to...

This paper presents the results of a randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of taxpayer communications informed by behavioral science in inducing business payroll tax compliance at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, an experimental tax trial targeting 5,423 firms...

The final version of this paper will appear as Chapter 6 in the forthcoming MIT Energy Initiative study, The Future of Storage. Chapters referred to in this paper will be included in that study when it is published. In order to illuminate the role of energy storage in future decarbonized...

Albania is gradually emerging from the unprecedented economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As the pandemic is overcome, it is crucial to shift attention back to Albania's long-term objective of building a stronger underlying economic growth model. This...

Relations between Albania and Kosovo in recent years have intensified significantly. This is seen in the volume of economic cooperation agreements, political and social, in joint meetings between the Governments of the two countries, the volume of trade exchanges, the export-import, the volume...

This background note is one of several analytical contributions to the 2021 Albania country economic memorandum (CEM). The CEM is a World Bank flagship report that aims to help Albania identify next steps in its structural reform agenda. As set out in the CEM, Albania needs to refocus attention...

This study examines the effciency and distributional effects of selected labor market institutions in Albania, a rather underresearched country. An initial overview of the postcommunist developments articulates why Albania has the poorest labor market performance among other South East European...

This paper is dedicated to the cross-national comparison of the labour markets of the EU member countries and Albania. The aim is to establish whether or not cross-national variations in propensities of being hired in a non-standard job are the result of differences in national institutional...

This paper assesses labor market segmentation across formal and informal salaried jobs and self-employment in three Latin American and three transition countries. It looks separately at the markets for skilled and unskilled labor, inquiring if segmentation is an exclusive feature of the latter....

Albania has experienced a rapid transition from a centrally planned economy to a mixed economy since the fall of communism in 1989. Policy changes, trade liberalization, and privatization have come about at a rapid pace, allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade to become...

The informal sector constitutes a significant part of the economies in developing countries and it is very often stigmatized as unmanageable and troublesome. It has been a major issue for Albania since the early stages of its transition to a market economy. For this reason, integrating the...

Over the period 2019-21, Albania had to confront dual shocks: the 2019 earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic. Both had sizable impacts on the country's economy. The COVID-19 pandemic took a heavy toll on an economy already affected by the earthquake in 2019. Key sectors were put in lockdown in...

This report briefly introduces international remittance flows and their role in the global development agenda. The following chapters describe the work of the WB on financial inclusion and international remittances in Albania, with an emphasis on Project Greenback, and it outlines the local...

Albania is gradually emerging from the unprecedented economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As the pandemic is overcome, it is crucial to shift attention back to Albania's long-term objective of building a stronger underlying economic growth model. This...

This background note is one of several analytical contributions to the 2021 Albania country economic memorandum (CEM). The CEM is a World Bank flagship report that aims to help Albania identify next steps in its structural reform agenda. As set out in the CEM, Albania needs to refocus attention...

This study aims to analyse how the monetary policies of the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Albania, as one of the two critical macroeconomic policies, have reacted in response to COVID-19 for the year 2020. Last year, the year 2020, the pandemic caused these two countries to...

Albania and North Macedonia, as many countries in South-Eastern Europe, struggle with youth unemployment which is persistent, acute and unresponsive to the education of young people in both countries. High school graduates often decide to continue university education for better job perspectives...

Demographic change is a complex phenomenon, but it has generally been accepted that having better employment opportunities and quality of jobs are among important factors that determine people's mobility. The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between the increase in the number of...

We conduct a survey and incentivized lab-in-the-field experimental tasks in Tirana, Albania. While the original purpose of our study was to examine whether and how deep parameters such as time and risk preferences affect the intention to migrate, our study was transformed into a natural...

We conduct a survey and incentivized lab-in-the-field experimental tasks in Tirana, Albania. While the original purpose of our study was to examine whether and how deep parameters such as time and risk preferences affect the intention to migrate, our study was transformed into a natural...