Until recently rigorous impact evaluations have been rare in the area of finance and private
sector development. One reason for this is the perception that many policies and projects in …

The recent World Development Report on Jobs emphasized that labor regulations can
correct imperfections in labor markets resulting from inadequate information, uneven …

Using micro-data on firm-specific borrowing costs and wages, we demonstrate that
distortions in firms' policies can be empirically measured using firm-level gaps between …

The paper identifies key labor market and institutional differences between developed and
develo** countries, analyzes how these differences affect the working of the standard …

This paper examines how stringent de facto firing regulations affect firm size throughout the
develo** world. A large firm level dataset is used across 63 countries and within country …

Severance pay, a fixed-sum payment to workers at job separation, has been the focus of
intense policy concern for the last several decades, but much of this concern is unearned …

Severance pay mandates are an appealing job displacement insurance strategy in
develo** countries, which have only modest government administrative capacities, but …

Sri Lanka has devoted much attention to worker protection. Extensive legislation covers
various aspects of working conditions, and the government has ratified eight International …

This paper analyzes trends and outcomes in Sri Lanka's labor markets and seeks to assess
the likely impacts of labor market reform. A key question is whether the likely losses for some …