Global Development Network

About: Global Development Network is a other organization based out in New Delhi, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: International development & Counterfactual thinking. The organization has 15 authors who have published 36 publications receiving 1159 citations.

The Impact of Labor Market Regulations

Abstract: There may be natural limits on the efficiency losses engendered by labor market regulations, although such costs could be significant in some countries at some times. Squire and Suthiwart-Narueput investigate the impact of labor market regulations in settings where compliance is incomplete. They review some stylized facts about labor market behavior, present an analytical model that may explain such behavior, and provide a checklist for assessing the distortionary impact of a regulation such as the minimum wage. They take as their starting point the limited evidence about the distortionary effects of such regulations and argue that there may be natural limits on the efficiency losses engendered by labor market regulations. First, the regulations may not be binding at market equilibrium. For example, minimum wages may be set so low that they are ineffective. Second, even if they are binding, the relevant elasticities of supply and demand may be so low that the regulations have little impact on efficiency. Third, even if the regulations are binding and elasticities are sizable, compliance may be low. Squire and Suthiwart-Narueput argue that the likelihood of compliance will be greatest when the regulations are binding and the relevant elasticities are sizable. That is, if the distortionary costs of regulations are not rendered insignificant by the first two reasons, then the returns to noncompliance will be high and, other things being equal, employers will evade or avoid the regulations, thereby minimizing the impact on efficiency. The argument rests on profit maximization subject to a hard budget constraint. Public enterprises, which are not concerned only with profit maximization and often have softer budget constraints than the private sector, may be more willing to conform to profit-reducing regulations, but in this case the authors argue that compliance may reduce already-existing efficiency losses. This paper - a joint product of the Office of the Director and the Public Economics Division, Policy Research Department - is one in a series of background papers prepared for the World Development Report 1995 on labor.

The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie): an introduction

Abstract: The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) is a new organisation devoted to enhancing development effectiveness through supporting the production and use of evidence from rigorous impact studies. This paper outlines the theory of change that underlies 3ie's mission and the activities designed to address it.

Editors' Introduction: Weaving the Theories and Practice of International Relations

Abstract: This issue brings together a selection of the most interesting contributions to the 2011 Millennium Annual Conference: ‘Out of the Ivory Tower: Weaving the Theories and Practices of International Relations’, held at the London School of Economics and Political Science on 22 and 23 October 2011.

CONSORT Extensions for Development Effectiveness: guidelines for the reporting of randomised control trials of social and economic policy interventions in developing countries

Abstract: The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) checklist was developed to assist investigators, authors, reviewers, and journal editors provide the necessary information to be included in reports of controlled medical trials. We augment the CONSORT reporting by adapting and elaborating the checklist to the context of trials of development interventions. We call this revised list the CONSORT Extensions for Development Effectiveness (CEDE). This checklist emphasises the reporting of underlying theories and descriptions of intervention and comparison conditions, research design, and detailed discussion of the protocol to mitigate the threats to the randomised evaluation design of studies. Systematising, and greater transparency, in the reporting formats for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) will enable the community of evaluators, policy-makers, and programme officers to be privy to the many steps in an RCT implementation, and to better judge the internal and external validity of specific RCTs, b...

ICT4D: Solutions Seeking Problems?

Abstract: This paper investigates information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) projects from around the world. It finds that computer and Internet promotion schemes usually fail despite active support, but mobile penetration in even the poorest countries is deepening organically. It argues that mobiles have emotional appeal because talking is a universal psycho-sociological propensity while the other two are principally utilitarian technologies that have to generate returns on investment. The search for killer apps is likely to be fruitless because technological adoption is conditional upon need and absorptive capacity. The paper raises questions about the continuing support for ICT4D among proponents.