Abstract

Using all the household survey data available in Latin America during the period 1992 to 2013, this paper estimates that in 2015, 20 million youth ages 15 to 24 years in the region were out of school and not working (making them ninis, for "ni estudian ni trabajan"). The share of out-of–school, out-of-work youth in Latin America, at about 19 percent, is roughly equal to the global average of 22 percent. Although women make up over two-thirds of the ninis in the region, the number of male ninis grew by 46 percent between 1992 and 2010. As a result, the absolute number of ninis rose over the two-decade period, even as women's education and employment rates were improving. Global comparisons show that Latin America is the region of the world with the largest concentration of ninis among households in the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution. Coupled with the long-lasting harm it causes to the youth's future labor-market outcomes, the high incidence of ninis among the poorest households tends to lock in income disparities from one generation to the next, obstructing social mobility and poverty reduction in the region. Document type: Book

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a contemporary statement of existing approaches to transport-land use planning in urban and regional areas to advise practising transport planners and students. The chapter concentrates on the knowledge that are available for the synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of alternative land use-transport-systems plans and regulations. First, the transportation planner must develop an understanding of the planning process before attempting to address herself to the broader polices issues. The first objective of this chapter is to provide transportation planners with an understanding of the land-use models and their application to urban and regional planning problems. The final objective covers policy, regulations and plans. Absence of physical space between people and firms is the definition of Economists to cities. Cities appear to supply the necessity to eliminate transport costs. Density lowers the costs of interacting with other people and speeds the flow of goods, people and ideas. The location and structure of cities is driven by the desire to eliminate transport costs. In this context, transportation technologies have been the primary determinant of the location and structure of cities. There is increasing concern across the world about increasing traffic congestion and the costs it imposes, particularly on accessibility, the environment, other social factors, such as accidents, and the economy in general. Growing personal car-mileage is engendering the well-known effects on the environment and transport systems, especially roads, which are not able to cope with the increasing amounts of traffic. Further development of innovative, integrated and well-balanced policies is strongly needed. Strong and ongoing growth in mobility, especially in road traffic, means that transport trends are unsustainable if only current policies are pursued: with constraints on resources, space, safety and the environment there are only limited possibilities to extend transport supply to safeguard accessibility. It is quite clear that the need for travel cannot really be avoided; it is crucial for the performance of social and economic functions in any society. People are not travelling much more often than twenty years ago, but they are travelling further and with greater use of the private car. Increasing car ownership is a central component of this (Transland, 2000). There is a lack of knowledge about the interaction between land use and transport and the related planning consequences. Institutional demands for integrated policymaking is 13 Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of transit accessibility to employment for 11 African cities. The use of identical methodologies and similar data sets allows for the creation of the first benchmark to compare accessibility across urban areas in Africa through different metrics and visuals. The study shows how the spatial pattern of land use and transport systems perform in connecting people to employment opportunities in these various settings. This first comparable benchmark is achieved by overcoming two significant data hurdles that are common in many developing country cities and in Africa in particular: (i) the scarcity of information on the distribution of employment and (ii) the lack of information on transit routes and travel times. These data gaps are filled through a novel methodology to estimate the distribution of employment in urban areas (Employment Opportunity Areas) as well as a comprehensive mapping of informal transit networks. The analysis developed here can be replicated in different cities in the future. The computation of these baseline accessibility studies also opens up the possibility to assess the impacts of future transport investments and/or land use changes, through the use of counterfactual scenarios, which could assist decision makers in these cities. Finally, this analysis can serve as a demonstration that the computation of accessibility metrics is achievable, including in data scarce environments, and should be considered as a progress indicator for Sustainable Development Goal 11.2, which focuses on safe and affordable transport for all, including public transport. Document type: Book

Abstract

The deep penetration of mobile phones offers cities the ability to opportunistically monitor citizens’ interactions and use data-driven insights to better plan and manage services. In this context, transit operators can leverage pervasive mobile sensing to better match observed demand for travel with their service offerings. With large scale data on mobility patterns, operators can move away from the costly and resource intensive transportation planning processes prevalent in the West, to a more data-centric view, that places the instrumented user at the center of development. In this framework, using mobile phone data to perform transit analysis and optimization represents a new frontier with significant societal impact, especially in developing countries. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

This paper reviews the empirical literature on the existence and impact of gender discriminatory laws on women's outcomes across various domains (categories) that constitute the Women in Business and the Law measure of gender inequality. The evidence to date suggests that there are significant negative consequences of legal gender discrimination on women's outcomes. However, there is considerable variation in the depth of the literature across different domains. In addition, a significant share of the evidence for certain domains is drawn from developed countries, which raises questions about its relevance for developing countries. The literature also highlights some potential unintended consequences of well-intended policy interventions to address legal gender discrimination in certain domains. The paper concludes with a discussion of the various theories relating women's legal rights to their outcomes. Document type: Book

Abstract

The authors have assembled 1960–2012 infrastructure stock data from 145 countries to estimate the demand for infrastructure services in emerging markets and developing economies. This paper identifies that the required resource flows to satisfy new demand while maintaining service for existing infrastructure amounts to $836 billion or 6.1 percent of current gross domestic product per year over the period 2014–20. The annual infrastructure investment gap for emerging markets and developing economies is $452 billion per year, which implies that emerging markets and developing economies should almost double their current spending. The paper also estimates that half of the spending should be allocated to maintenance of existing assets. Acknowledging the challenges to compare infrastructure investment estimates across different methodologies, the authors recognize this result as a lower bound estimate and compare the results with others available in the literature. Document type: Book