Paula Nagler

Non-farm entrepreneurship in rural sub-Saharan Africa: New empirical evidence

We report on the prevalence and patterns of non-farm enterprises in six sub-Saharan African countries, and study their performance in terms of labor productivity, survival and exit, using the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). Rural households operate enterprises due to both push and pull factors and tend to do so predominantly in easy-to-enter activities, such as sales and trade, rather than in activities that require higher starting costs, such as transport services, or educational investment, such as professional services. Labor productivity differs widely: rural and female-headed enterprises, those located further away from population centers, and businesses that operate intermittently have lower levels of labor productivity compared to urban and male-owned enterprises, or enterprises that operate throughout the year. Finally, rural enterprises exit the market primarily due to a lack of profitability or finance, and due to idiosyncratic shocks.

How unemployment insurance savings accounts affect employment duration: evidence from Chile

The introduction of unemployment insurance savings accounts (UISA) in Chile in October 2002 introduced more comprehensive unemployment protection while decreasing the opportunity costs of job change. Being the first to empirically investigate the effect of UISA on employment duration, this paper examines (i) whether the introduction of UISA affected employment duration among formal private sector workers, and (ii) the magnitude of this effect. The analysis is performed on longitudinal social protection data and uses survival analysis techniques, including non-parametric, semi-parametric and parametric analysis, and competing-risk models. The paper finds that workers affiliated to the scheme show an increased hazard ratio of leaving employment, or accelerated time to employment termination. The effect is larger for workers becoming unemployed or inactive compared to workers changing jobs. The results provide strong support that the introduction of UISA led to shorter employment duration and higher mobility of the workforce in Chile.JEL codesC41, J63, J64, J65