Suchergebnisse

Around the world, women face persistent barriers in seeking to enter the labor force, attain leadership positions, and launch businesses. Gender inequality not only prevents women from achieving their full potential and gaining economic independence, but also inhibits the growth of national economies. In a context of growing global competition for private investment, policymakers face the timely challenge of ensuring that women are not left behind in the development agenda. This working paper identifies and analyzes investment incentives that governments can provide to businesses with the aim of promoting gender equality. Barriers to gender equality in the workplace include supply-side barriers that make it difficult for women to find jobs or investment financing, and demand-side barriers that make it more costly for firms or investors to hire or fund women. The paper discusses three main types of investment incentives that governments may use to address these barriers: (i) subsidies and grants, (ii) tax incentives, and (iii) public procurement incentives. Because incentives run the risk of creating market inefficiencies and leading to redundant outcomes, their use should be carefully conceived and implemented. The effectiveness of these instruments will depend on the underlying constraints to gender equality, the targeted policy goals, implementation features, and the broader enabling environment. Relevant studies and experiences from several countries are used to explore when and how governments might use investment incentives to promote gender equality.

Front Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- About the Authors -- Abbreviations -- Overview -- Introduction -- The innovation imperative for developing East Asia -- The state of innovation in developing East Asia -- Heterogeneity of innovation capabilities within countries, sectors, and firms -- Why diffusion matters -- What inhibits innovation? -- Spurring innovation in developing East Asia: Directions for policy -- Final remarks -- Notes -- References -- 1 The State of Innovation in Developing East Asia -- Introduction -- Defining innovation -- The innovation imperative for developing East Asia -- Innovation performance in developing East Asia -- Road map for this report -- Notes -- References -- 2 Conceptual Framework and Stylized Facts -- Introduction -- Key concepts -- Importance of innovation and diffusion of technology in addressing the region's challenges -- Core elements for designing policies that accelerate technology adoption and diffusion -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- 3 Technology Adoption and Diffusion: A Firm-Level Perspective -- Introduction -- Is East Asia converging with, or diverging from, the technological frontier? Why diffusion matters -- Heterogeneity in the pattern and diffusion of innovation across space, sectors, and firms -- What inhibits innovation? -- Conclusions -- Annex 3A The Firm-level Adoption of Technologies survey -- Annex 3B Supplementary tables -- 1396927554 -- Notes -- References -- 4 Skills and Finance for Innovation -- Introduction -- Skills for innovation -- Finance for innovation -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- 5 Innovation Policies and Institutions in the Region: An Assessment -- Introduction -- Are policies coherent with the objective of supporting diffusion as well as invention? -- Agencies to support innovation.

Front Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Executive Summary -- 12 Empirical Highlights -- Abbreviations -- Introduction Firms do not all serve the same purpose -- Firms do not all serve the same purpose -- How large is large? -- Note -- References -- 1. Large firms make distinct contributions to development -- Firm size is associated with productivity -- Size is a proxy for a package of characteristics and strategies -- Scale is associated with different returns to workers -- Macroeconomic outcomes are influenced by large-firm activity -- Notes -- References -- 2. The "missing top" -- Lower-income countries tend to have smaller firms -- The gap is in the larger among large firms -- Is there a "missing top"? -- Notes -- References -- 3. Large-firm creation: Origins and growth paths -- What do we know about the origins of large firms? -- Cross-country information on firm creation -- Origin of large firms -- Growth paths of large firms -- Notes -- References -- 4. Supporting large-firm creation -- What types of constraints give rise to the "missing top"? -- How to foster large-firm creation? -- Technology changes large-firm creation, growth, and impact -- What are the options for low-income countries? -- Case study -- Large-firm creation in Guinea: Past, present, and future -- The role of development finance institutions -- Notes -- References -- Appendixes -- Appendix A: Methodology for large-firm premiums -- Appendix B: The OECD Orbis database -- Appendix C: Why is the large-firm wage premium higher in lower-income countries? -- Appendix D: Outliers of the firm distribution -- Appendix E: IFC client data -- Appendix F: Origin and growth path results -- Appendix G: Sample for the growth path analysis -- Appendix H: Growth paths for France -- Boxes -- Box 1.1 Comparability of data on establishments versus firms.

Economic and social progress requires a diverse ecosystem of firms that play complementary roles. Making It Big: Why Developing Countries Need More Large Firms constitutes one of the most up-to-date assessments of how large firms are created in low- and middle-income countries and their role in development. It argues that large firms advance a range of development objectives in ways that other firms do not: large firms are more likely to innovate, export, and offer training and are more likely to adopt international standards of quality, among other contributions. Their particularities are closely associated with productivity advantages and translate into improved outcomes not only for their owners but also for their workers and for smaller enterprises in their value chains. The challenge for economic development, however, is that production does not reach economic scale in low- and middle-income countries. Why are large firms scarcer in developing countries? Drawing on a rare set of data from public and private sources, as well as proprietary data from the International Finance Corporation and case studies, this book shows that large firms are often born large—or with the attributes of largeness. In other words, what is distinct about them is often in place from day one of their operations. To fill the "missing top" of the firm-size distribution with additional large firms, governments should support the creation of such firms by opening markets to greater competition. In low-income countries, this objective can be achieved through simple policy reorientation, such as breaking oligopolies, removing unnecessary restrictions to international trade and investment, and establishing strong rules to prevent the abuse of market power. Governments should also strive to ensure that private actors have the skills, technology, intelligence, infrastructure, and finance they need to create large ventures. Additionally, they should actively work to spread the benefits from production at scale across the largest possible number of market participants. This book seeks to bring frontier thinking and evidence on the role and origins of large firms to a wide range of readers, including academics, development practitioners and policy makers.