Investment Climate Reforms and Job Creation in Developing Countries : What Do We Know and What Should We Do?

Rahman, Aminur

World Bank Group, Washington, DC

关键词: ABATEMENT;    ACCESS TO CREDIT;    ACCESS TO FINANCE;    ACCESS TO FORMAL FINANCE;    ACCESS TO INFORMATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7025
RP-ID  :  WPS7025

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper reviews the literature on therole of the investment climate reforms in job creation. Itfinds that the current landscape of employment and privatesector activity in developing countries indicates a numberof potential channels through which investment climatereforms can positively affect job creation. However,rigorous empirical evidence is scarce and most of therelevant studies focus on business entry reforms with a fewfocusing on business taxation and investment promotionactivities. Overall, there is evidence of job creationthrough business entry, tax reforms, and investmentpromotion activity in developing countries. Almost all ofthese evidences are from quasi-experimental studies that aresignificant improvements over conventional cross-country orcross-section panel data analysis. Still, variousendogeneity concerns in these studies cannot be ruled outcompletely. In assessing job effects, future research shouldprovide deeper insights on the gross versus net andshort-run versus long-run job effects and generalequilibrium effects of various investment climate reformsrelated to jobs, productivity, competition, and otherdevelopmental outcomes. Another critical agenda for futureresearch is to shed light on which investment climatereforms matter most for spurring the employment andproductivity growth of firms in developing countries. TheWorld Bank Group, in partnership with development partnersand client government countries, can play a significant rolein bridging the current knowledge gap by integratingrigorous evaluation as an integral part of project designand implementation, and improving data quality, particularlythrough its information and communication technologies-ledprivate sector development reform initiatives.