Sonja Fagernäs

Legal Origin, Shareholder Protection and the Stock Market: New Challenges from Time Series Analysis

This paper uses a new time series dataset of shareholder protection consisting of 60 annual legal indicators for the period 1970-2005 for France, Germany, the UK and the US. On the basis of these data it examines developments in shareholder protection and reassesses the claims that common-law countries have better shareholder protection than civil law countries. Furthermore it examines the relationship between legal changes and stock market development. It casts serious doubt on the claim that common-law countries have better shareholder protection which in turn leads to more stock market development.

Labor Law, Judicial Efficiency, and Informal Employment in India

This study assesses the effects of industrial disputes legislation and the dispute-settlement process on informal versus formal employment in India. It uses indicators of pro-worker court awards and court efficiency as well as amendments to the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA) at the level of Indian states. The state-level IDA amendments are classified in relation to their pro-worker stance and ability to enforce existing legislation. The main finding is that the relationship between formal employment in both the industrial and service sectors and the judicial indicators is weak. Results are not robust to model specification. Thus, the evidence is neither robust nor strong enough to confirm the much claimed negative relationship between pro-worker judicial change and the degree of formal work in the entire service or industrial sectors.

Birth registration and access to health care: an assessment of Ghana’s campaign success

PROBLEM Birth registration remains far from complete in many developing countries. This was true of Ghana before a major registration campaign was undertaken. APPROACH This study, based on survey data, assesses the results of a registration campaign initiated in 2004-2005 in Ghana. Key strategies included: extending the legal period for free registration of infants; incorporating registration in child health promotion weeks; training community health workers to register births; using community registration volunteers; registering children during celebrations, and piloting community population registers. This paper discusses the contribution of these strategies to the increase in registration rates and shows the degree of association between birth registration and various health-care access indicators and family characteristics. LOCAL SETTING The Ghana Births and Deaths Registry worked together with international organizations, mainly Plan International and the United Nations Childrens Fund, to implement the birth registration campaign. RELEVANT CHANGES Unlike many other sub-Saharan African countries, Ghana saw a substantial rise in registration rates over the campaign period. Campaign strategies improved accessibility and shortened distance to registration centres. Survey data show that the registration rate for children younger than 5 years rose from 44% in 2003 to 71% in 2008. LESSONS LEARNT Incorporation of birth registration into community health care, health campaigns and mobile registration activities can reduce the indirect costs of birth registration, especially in poorer communities, and yield substantial increases in registration rates. The link between the health sector and registration activities should be strengthened further and the use of community population registers expanded.

Whether to Hire Local Contract Teachers? Trade-Off between Skills and Preferences in India

Whether to hire teachers locally on a contract basis, or via competitive examinations as government officials, is a major policy question in developing countries. We use a Discrete Choice Experiment to assess the job preferences of 700 future elementary school teachers in the state of Uttarakhand in India. The students have been selected using either competitive examination or from a pool of locally hired contract teachers. Skills in English, Arithmetic and Vocabulary are also tested. We find a trade-off between skills and preferences, as students hired using competitive examination have higher skills, but prefer posts in less remote regions.

Papers, Please! The Effect of Birth Registration on Child Labor and Education in Early 20th Century USA

A birth certificate establishes a childs legal identity and age, but few quantitative estimates of the significance of birth registration exist. Birth registration laws were enacted by U.S. states in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Using 1910-1930 census data, this study finds that minimum working age legislation was twice as effective in reducing under-aged employment if children were born with a birth registration law, with positive implications for school attendance. Registration laws also improved the enforcement of schooling laws somewhat, but the connection is weaker. The long-term effect of registration laws was to increase educational attainment by 0.06-0.1 years.

Preferences and skills of Indian public sector teachers

With a sample of 700 future public sector primary teachers in India, a Discrete Choice Experiment is used to measure job preferences, particularly regarding location. General skills are also tested. Urban origin teachers and women are more averse to remote locations than rural origin teachers and men respectively. Women would require a 26–73 percent increase in salary for moving to a remote location. The results suggest that existing caste and gender quotas can be detrimental for hiring skilled teachers willing to work in remote locations. The most preferred location is home, which supports decentralised hiring, although this could compromise skills.JEL codesI25, J41, J45