Browsing by Author "Jayawardena, Priyanka"

Now showing 1 - 17 of 17
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    Bridging Skills for Employment in Sri Lanka
    (2023-07-11) Jayawardena, Priyanka
    To meet the emerging needs of Sri Lanka’s labour market, the education system now needs substantial modernization to equip workers to think and act creatively, work industriously and productively, and be able to innovate and adapt to available technologies to strengthen economic activities. Sri Lankan education system faces new challenges in improving the quality and relevance of education to equip workers with evolving skills demanded in a more globalized world. With existing public finance constraints and limited private sector participation, addressing these education sector needs to align with changing needs of a dynamic labour market is a major challenge. The objective of this paper is to analyze the existing education system in Sri Lanka and identifying the priority areas to be addressed.
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    Bridging skills for employment in Sri Lanka
    (Asian Development Bank, 2017) Jayawardena, Priyanka; Miller, Ronald
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    Explaining Labor Market Imbalance in Sri Lanka: Evidence from Jobsnet Data
    (World Bank, 2010) Arunatilake, Nisha; Jayawardena, Priyanka
    High unemployment among youth, mainly resulting from prolonged job search, has been of concern to policy makers in Sri Lanka for close to four decades . Numerous studies have explored the reasons for youth unemployment in the country and have offered several hypotheses that focus on job search behavior of individuals and hiring practices of employers . Many of these studies rely on household data sets , which collect information only from employers on availability of vacancies and their nature. We take advantage of newly available Jobsnet data, containing detailed information on job seekers and job vacancies , to test the validity of some of the existing explanations regarding unemployment in the country . Jobsnet data come from the information source of a web-based interface that facilitates job placement. Capitalizing on information available from both the demand and supply sides of the labor market, the study examines the excesses and shortages in Sri Lanka’s labor supply . This study also evaluates the usefulness of Jobsnet as a source of labor market information.
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    Implications of income tax reforms in 2011, on reveune and equity in Sri Lanka
    (2011) Jayawardena, Priyanka
    The need to reduce budget deficits by increasing government revenue was a challenge facing the Sri Lankan government over a long period of time. With the intention of increasing tax revenue while keeping the tax rates competitive, 2011 tax reforms, was proposed to remove the tax exception given to the public sector employees. At the same time tax rates have been reduced with the aim of improving tax compliance of PAYE tax payers
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    The Incidence of Taxes and Spending in Sri Lanka
    (2023-07-11) Arunatilake, Nisha; Inchauste, Gabriela; Jayawardena, Priyanka; Lustig, Nora
    This report seeks to answer (1) how much redistribution and poverty reduction is accomplished through taxes, social transfers and subsidies, (2) how progressive are revenue collection and government spending, and (3) what is the individual impact taxes and transfer policies have on inequality and poverty, given the fiscal resources used. The main contribution of this analysis is to provide systematic empirical evidence on the progressivity of the fiscal interventions. This study is a first comprehensive examination of Sri Lanka’s fiscal instruments and their ability to redistribute income and reduce poverty. The analysis finds that taxes and social spending were overall redistributive and poverty reducing in Sri Lanka in 2012/13, the latest year for which a household survey was available at the time of writing this chapter. Given the relatively low level of revenue and the limited fiscal space, overall social spending was small, leading to very limited impacts.
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    Labor Market Trends and Outcomes in Sri Lanka
    (World Bank, 2010) Arunatilake, Nisha; Jayawardena, Priyanka
    The Sri Lankan labor market is currently experiencing several changes that affect youth employment in the country . First, the country has one of the fastest-aging populations in the world—the youth share of the population in the country is declining, while the adult share is rising. As a result, the labor force has aged and its rate of growth has declined. If current participation rates remain constant, the Sri Lankan labor force is expected to begin to shrink around. How are these changes affecting the labor market? Is Sri Lanka making optimum use of its diminishing labor resources? Second, Sri Lanka has grappled with the problem of high unemployment rates among youth over several decades (Rama 1999). In recent times overall unemployment rates in the country have come down steadily . Has that decline led to a corresponding improvement in youth employment prospects? Finally , globalization and technological change have fueled the demand for better -skilled workers in information technology (IT) and IT -enabled services both internationally and domestically . At the same time, demand for skilled migrant workers is growing globally (Lewin and Caillods 2001). To take advantage of these emerging opportunities , the country needs to have a skilled, globally competitive workforce . Is the education sector in the country preparing young workers to meet the skill demands of these emerging labor markets? To find answers to these questions , this chapter examines the trends in labor market indicators over time for Sri Lanka, with international comparisons , where appropriate . It begins with a description of the major data sources and definitions used in the study . It then looks at trends in the size of the labor force , employment, unemployment, and earnings distribution before offering some concluding thoughts.
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    Labour Market Trends - Informality in the Sri Lankan Labour Market
    (2014-01-09) Arunatilake, Nisha; Jayawardena, Priyanka
    This report presents preliminary analysis of secondary data on the Sri Lankan labour market. Section A provides a general over view of the labour market trends in the country. Section B of the report provides an overview of the characteristics and trends of the informal sector in Sri Lanka. The next section of the report, section C, analyses the determinants of participation in the informal sector. Detailed results of secondary data analysis and regressions results along with information on variable construction are given in the appendices.
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    Living wage report Sri Lanka
    (2019-05) Thibbotuwawa, Manoj; Jayawardena, Priyanka; Arunatilake, Nisha; Gunasekara, Neluka
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    Living Wage Report Sri Lanka Estate Sector
    (2023-07-11) Thibbotuwawa, Manoj; Jayawardena, Priyanka; Arunatilake, Nisha; Gunasekera, Neluka
    This report estimates a living wage for the workers in the estate sector (tea plantation industry) in Sri Lanka in December 2015. The study uses the Anker methodology to estimate the living wage (Anker, 2005; Anker & Anker, 2017). This methodology has been widely used in developing countries to estimate living wages internationally. This methodology has been used to estimate living wages in urban, rural, and non-metropolitan urban settings for the GLWC with 23 living wage estimates published or scheduled for publishing in the next two months, spanning geographies in 13 countries. This work is an expansion of earlier work by the Ankers in urban areas for a multi-national corporation spanning ten countries. Our take-home pay net living wage estimates for tea pluckers for December 2015 in the estate sector in Sri Lanka is LKR 19,126 per month and LKR 21,585 gross living wage per month after adding mandatory deductions. Our living wage estimates are much higher than the official poverty line wage for Sri Lanka (LKR 8,236) and the PPP adjusted World Bank extreme poverty line wage (LKR 6,170). Most importantly, our living wage is well above the World Bank poverty line of $3.1 per day wage per month (LKR 10,067). It is clear that both the Sri Lankan official poverty line wage and World Bank poverty lines wages are too low to provide sufficient income to afford a basic living wage. The gross living wage estimate is considerably higher than the current wage given by the existing cash wage salary package of the tea pluckers, which we estimate is equivalent to LKR 16,022 per month. The final prevailing wage after considering in-kind benefits (LKR 16,971) still leaves a monthly wage gap of LKR 4,613 (LKR 185/day) relative to our estimated living wage of LKR 21,585. Finding this difference is not surprising as estate sector workers have traditionally been considered as one of the poorest communities in Sri Lanka, having low living conditions. Even though, there have been significant improvements over the years, the living conditions of the tea estate community are still not up to standard, in spite of recent wage improvements.
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    A proactive path to combat malnutrition in Sri Lanka
    (Institute of Policy Studies, Sri Lanka, 2020-06) Jayawardena, Priyanka
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    School funding formulas in Sri Lanka
    (2013) Arunatilake, Nisha; Jayawardena, Priyanka
    Education Quality Inputs (EQI) scheme, a formula based resource allocation scheme, was introduced to give greater authority and resources to schools in decision making for improving teaching and learning methods in schools. This paper assesses its effectiveness in distributing funds and improving learning outcomes.Results show that the EQI scheme has improving equity. Smaller less facilitated schools rely on EQI funds more, but their utilization of funds is weaker. Evidence suggests that EQI funds have improved teaching, school attendance and learning. However, the effective usage of EQI funds is being affected by several factors as discussed in the paper.
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    Sri Lanka
    (SAGE Publications, 2011) Arunatilake, Nisha; Jayawardena, Priyanka; Weerakoon, Dushni
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    The Sri Lankan Labour Market
    (2023-07-11) Arunatilake, Nisha; Gunasekera, Neluka; Jayawardena, Priyanka; Madurawala, Sunimalee
    This report analyses the labour market trends in Sri Lanka from 2006 onwards. The report finds that the country’s labour force growth is slowing down and soon, it will start to decline. The job growth in the country has not kept up with economic growth. The jobs that were created were mostly low skilled jobs. In order to stay competitive, increase productivity and attract and retain workers, the country needs improve job creation, especially for higher skilled workers, and reduce disparities in the market.
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    Tax reforms in Sri Lanka: will a tax on public servants improve progressivity?
    (Partnership for Economic Policy, 2012-12) Arunatilake, Nisha; Jayawardena, Priyanka; Wijesinha, Anushka
    The Sri Lankan government implemented tax reforms in 2011, including removal of the tax exemption given to public servants and reduction of personal income tax rates in order to improve tax compliance from pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax payers. This study evaluates the 2007 and 2011 tax systems in order to examine the effects that taxing the income of public sector employees has on total tax revenues and the tax base. The study also compares the distributional effects of the different tax systems. Study further conducts simulation analyses to assess the most progressive means of achieving the 2007 tax revenue levels. Implications for tax evasion are also examined under different tax systems. The study finds that the 2011 tax reforms reduce tax revenue by 48 percent relative to the structure of income taxation in 2007. This decline in tax revenues occurs even though income taxes are extended to public sector workers because the 2011 tax reforms reduced the rate of income taxes across the board and increased the ta x-free threshold. Our simulations show that tax revenues would have risen if the reforms were limited to introducing income taxes to public servants. The resulting hypothetical) tax system would also have been more progressive than the tax structure resulting from the 2011 reforms. The study evaluated the distributional impacts of modifications to the 2011 tax system which would increase tax revenue to their level in 2007. More specifically, the present study finds that the most progressive way to attain this tax revenue target would be to increase tax rates on taxable income by 6 percentage points and to lower the tax-free threshold from LKR 600,000 to LKR 400,000.
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    What Prevents Equitable Access to Tertiary Education in Sri Lanka?
    (Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, 2018) Arunatilake, Nisha; Jayawardena, Priyanka; Abayasekara, Ashani
    The project proposes to identify whether free education has resulted in improving access to tertiary education to all. It also proposes to assess how inequalities in access to tertiary education result in inequalities in employment outcomes.
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    Why people choose to participate in the non-standard forms of employment in Sri Lanka
    (Institute of Policy Studies, Sri Lanka, 2017) Jayawardena, Priyanka
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    Will school level decision making improve access to better education in Sri Lanka?
    (2013-09-11) Arunatilake, Nisha; Jayawardena, Priyanka; De Silva, Roshani
    Achievements in Sri Lanka’s Education sector are praiseworthy, in many respects. However, problems of equity and quality of education are increasingly plaguing the education system in the country. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of one initiative – the Educational Quality Inputs (EQI) Scheme -- that seeks to improving educational inputs at the schools through decentralized decision-making. The study explores the factors that affect the utilization of funds allocated to schools under the EQI scheme and examines how these affect inequity. The study concludes that although the EQI scheme has some equalizing effects, existing discrepancies in the resource availability at the school level lessens the equity outcomes of the EQI scheme. Making funds available does not always result in improving education resources at the school level. Confirming international evidence on other educational decentralization experiences, the study finds that local level capacity to manage funds are important in efficient utilization of funds.