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The Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s not only highlighted the welfare consequences of transparency in the financial sector but also linked this relatively narrow problem to the broader context of transparency in governance. It has been observed that objections to transparency, often on flimsy pretexts, are common even in industrialized countries. This article argues that transparency is indispensable to the financial sector and describes its desirable characteristics: access, timeliness, relevance, and quality. The authors emphasize the need to weigh the costs and benefits of a more transparent regulatory policy, and they explore the connection between information imperfections, macroeconomic policy, and questions of risk. The article argues for developing institutional infrastructure, standards, and accounting practices that promote transparency, implementing incentives for disclosure and establishing regulations to minimize the perverse incentives generated by safety net arrangements, such as deposit insurance. Because institutional development is gradual, the authors contend that relatively simple regulations, such as limits on credit expansion, may be the most reasonable option for developing countries. They show that transparency has absolute limits because of the lack of adequate enforcement and argue that adequate enforcement may be predicated on broader reforms in the public sector. Among policymakers there is growing recognition of the importance of transparency to the mechanisms that sustain welfare and development-economic markets and institutions of governance. In the economic sphere greater availability of reliable and timely information improves resource allocation, enhances efficiency, and increases the prospects for growth. In the recent literature on financial crises, lack of transparency is cited as one of the factors that either caused or contributed to the prolonged crises. 1 This literature also highlights the possible links between transparency, good governance, and economic stability. Greater openness and wider information sharing enable the public to make informed political decisions, improve the accountability of governments, and reduce the scope for corruption. Nonetheless, many otherwise open and democratic societies have adopted regula-Public Disclosure Authorized

Unemployment rates of educated youth are high throughout the Middle East, and female labor force participation is low. We study the impact of a randomized experiment in Jordan designed to assist female community college graduates find employment. One randomly chosen group of graduates was given a voucher that would pay an employer a subsidy equivalent to the minimum wage for up to 6 months if they hired the graduate; a second group was invited to attend 45 hours of employability skills training designed to provide them with the soft skills employers say graduates often lack; a third group was offered both interventions; and the fourth group forms the control group. We find that the job voucher led to a 40 percentage point increase in employment in the short-run, but that most of this employment is not formal, and that the average effect is much smaller and no longer statistically significant 4 months after the voucher period has ended. The voucher does appear to have persistent impacts outside of Amman, where it almost doubles the employment rate of graduates, but this appears likely to largely reflect displacement effects. Soft skills training has no average impact on employment, although again there is a weakly significant impact outside of Amman. The training does lead to graduates believing their life will be better in five years, and to them having better mental health. The results suggest that wage subsidies can help increase employment in the short-term, but are no panacea for the problems of high urban female youth unemployment.

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Employers around the world complain that youth lack the soft skills needed for success in the workplace. In response, a number of employment programs have begun to incorporate soft skills training, but to date there has been little evidence as to the effectiveness of such programs. This paper reports on a randomized experiment in Jordan in which female community college graduates were randomly assigned to a soft skills training program. Despite this program being twice as long in length as the average program in the region, and taught by a well-regarded provider, we find soft skills training does not have any significant employment impact in three rounds of follow-up surveys. We elicit expectations of academics and development professionals and reveal that these findings are novel and unexpected. JEL codes: O12, O15, J08, J16

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