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  • 2005-2009  (2,234)
  • 1995-1999  (309)
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  • Washington, D.C : The World Bank  (1,747)
  • München : GRIN Verlag
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  • 1
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    München : GRIN Verlag
    ISBN: 9783640446360
    Language: German
    Pages: Online-Ressource, 24 Seiten
    Edition: 1. Auflage, digitale Originalausgabe
    Parallel Title: Erscheint auch als
    Parallel Title: Erscheint auch als
    DDC: 307.7609
    Keywords: Davis, Wade ; Geheimbund ; Gift ; Haiti ; (Produktform)Electronic book text ; (BISAC Subject Heading)SOC002010: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social ; Haitis;Tote;Wade;Davis ; (VLB-WN)9753: Ethnologie / Volkskunde
    Note: Vom Verlag als Druckwerk on demand und/oder als E-Book angeboten
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  • 2
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    ISBN: 9780821377956
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (207 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Series Statement: Africa Development Indicators
    Abstract: Africa Development Indicators 2008/09 (ADI) provides the most detailed collection of data on Africa available in one volume. It puts together data from different sources, making it an essential tool for policy makers, researchers, and other people interested in Africa. This year’s ADI addresses the issue of youth employment. The report shows that success in addressing youth employment in will not be achieved and sustained through fragmented and isolated interventions. Instead it finds that an arching guideline for addressing the youth employment challenge is the need for an integrated strategy for rural development, growth and job creation - which covers the demand and the supply sides of the labor market and takes into account the youth mobility from rural to urban areas - combined with targeted interventions to help young people overcome disadvantages in entering and remaining in the labor market. This edition includes the Africa Development Indicators 2008/09 Single User CD-ROM and opening articles from leading economists reporting and analyzing key African economic and development issues
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  • 3
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    ISBN: 9780821378601
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (219 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Series Statement: Global Monitoring Report
    Abstract: A Development Emergency: the title of this year's Global Monitoring Report, the sixth in an annual series, could not be more apt. The global economic crisis, the most severe since the Great Depression, is rapidly turning into a human and development crisis. No region is immune. The poor countries are especially vulnerable, as they have the least cushion to withstand events. The crisis, coming on the heels of the food and fuel crises, poses serious threats to their hard-won gains in boosting economic growth and reducing poverty. It is pushing millions back into poverty and putting at risk the very survival of many. The prospect of reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, already a cause for serious concern, now looks even more distant. A global crisis must be met with a global response. The crisis began in the financial markets of developed countries, so the first order of business must be to stabilize these markets and counter the recession that the financial turmoil has triggered. At the same time, strong and urgent actions are needed to counter the impact of the crisis on developing countries and help them restore strong growth while protecting the poor. Global Monitoring Report 2009, prepared jointly by the staff of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, provides a development perspective on the global economic crisis. It assesses the impact on developing countries, their growth, poverty reduction, and other MDGs. And it sets out priorities for policy response, both by developing countries themselves and by the international community. This report also focuses on the ways in which the private sector can be better mobilized in support of development goals, especially in the aftermath of the crisis
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  • 4
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    ISBN: 9780821381472
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (64 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Series Statement: World Bank Annual Report
    Abstract: The World Bank Annual Report 2009, Year in Review, explores the impact of the global financial and economic crisis in developing countries, and fast-track funding and programs that can help member countries withstand the debacle. In addition, new and ongoing programs and projects in health, climate change, infrastructure, and several other areas are highlighted. A new feature this year is personal-impact stories for each region, relaying the positive effects of World Bank assistance on individuals
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  • 5
    ISBN: 9780821371268
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (167 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Series Statement: Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics
    Abstract: This book presents selected papers from the ABCDE Meetings, held May 17 -18, 2007 in Bled, Slovenia. Hosted by the World Bank and Government if Slovenia, more than 400 experts from countries around the world met to deliberate the theme: Private Sector and Development. This volume presents papers on financial inclusion, factors that matter the most for business climate, and the provision of public services by non- state actors
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  • 6
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (18 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Ban, Radu The Political Economy of Village Sanitation in South India
    Abstract: Despite efforts to mandate and finance local governments' provision of environmental sanitation services, outcomes remain poor in the villages surveyed in the four South Indian states. The analysis indicates some key issues that appear to hinder improvements in sanitation. Local politicians tend to capture sanitary infrastructure and cleaning services for themselves, while also keeping major village roads reasonably well-served. Their decisions suggest, however, that they neither understand the health benefits of sanitation, nor the negative externalities to their own health if surrounding areas are poorly served. Our findings suggest that improving sanitary outcomes requires disseminating information on the public goods nature of their health benefits, as well as on the local government's responsibilities. It also requires putting public health regulations in place, along with measures to enable accountability in service provision
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  • 7
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (46 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Rao, Vijayendra Dignity Through Discourse
    Abstract: Employing a view of culture as a communicative phenomenon involving discursive engagement, which is deeply influenced by social and economic inequalities, the authors argue that the struggle to break free of poverty is as much a cultural process as it is political and economic. In this paper, they analyze important examples of discursive spaces - public meetings in Indian village democracies (gram sabhas), where villagers make important decisions about budgetary allocations for village development and the selection of beneficiaries for anti-poverty programs. They examine 290 transcripts of gram sabhas from South India to demonstrate how they create a culture of civic/political engagement among poor people, and how definitions of poverty and beneficiary-selection criteria are understood and interrogated within them. Through this examination, they highlight the process by which gram sabhas facilitate the acquisition of crucial cultural capabilities such as discursive skills and civic agency by poor and disadvantaged groups. They illustrate how the poor and socially marginalized deploy these discursive skills in a resource-scarce and socially stratified environment in making material and non-material demands in their search for dignity. The intersection of poverty, culture, and deliberative democracy is a topic of broad relevance because it sheds light on cultural processes that can be influenced by public action in a manner that helps improve the voice and agency of the poor
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  • 8
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (31 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: McKenzie, David Impact Assessments in Finance and Private Sector Development
    Abstract: Until recently rigorous impact evaluations have been rare in the area of finance and private sector development. One reason for this is the perception that many policies and projects in this area lend themselves less to formal evaluations. However, a vanguard of new impact evaluations on areas as diverse as fostering microenterprise growth, microfinance, rainfall insurance, and regulatory reform demonstrates that in many circumstances serious evaluation is possible. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize and distil the policy and implementation lessons emerging from these studies, use them to demonstrate the feasibility of impact evaluations in a broader array of topics, and thereby help prompt new impact evaluations for projects going forward
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  • 9
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (48 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Chellaraj, Gnanaraj Labor Skills and Foreign Investment in A Dynamic Economy
    Abstract: Singapore is an interesting example of how the pattern of foreign investment changes with economic development. The authors analyze inbound and outbound investment between Singapore and a sample of industrialized and developing countries over the period 1984-2003. They find that Singapore’s two-way investment with industrialized nations has shifted into skill-seeking activities over the period, while Singapore’s investments in developing countries have increased sharply and become concentrated in labor-seeking activities. Singapore’s increasing skill abundance relative to all countries in the sample accounted for 41 percent of average inbound stocks during the period, that is, US
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  • 10
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (43 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Raschky, Paul A Aid, Natural Disasters and the Samaritan's Dilemma
    Abstract: This paper discusses the impact of foreign aid on the recipient country's preparedness against natural disasters. The theoretical model shows that foreign aid can have two opposing effects on a country's level of mitigating activities. In order to test the theoretical propositions, the authors analyze the effect of foreign aid dependence on ex-ante risk-management activity proxied by the death toll from major storms, floods and earthquakes occurring worldwide between 1980 and 2002. They find evidence that the crowding-out effect of foreign aid outweighs the preventive effect in the case of storms, while there is mixed evidence in the case of floods and earthquakes
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  • 11
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (46 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Rajadel, Tania The Mauritanian Labor Market Through the Lens of the 2004 National Household Survey
    Abstract: This paper provides a snapshot of Mauritania’s labor market using data from the 2004 national household survey. The results show that the labor market is characterized by lower participation rates, lower employment-to-population rates, and relatively higher unemployment rates than in neighboring countries. The non poor fare better in the labor market than the poor. Although the labor force participation of the poor is higher than that of the non poor, the poor display a higher unemployment rate and a lower employment rate than the non poor. The data also suggest a negative correlation between wage employment and poverty. Substantial differences in labor market indicators emerge when disaggregating the analysis by gender and age-group. Female non-participation is extremely high. Women systematically earn less than men independently of their sector and type of employment and controlling for other factors, such as education. Young adults face considerable difficulties in entering the labor market: more than half of the population aged 15-24 is neither studying nor participating in the labor force. As gender disparities remain important for similar levels of education, more work is needed to understand whether cultural factors may prevent women from entering the labor market. Concerning young adults, future poverty reduction strategies need to pay more explicit attention to the promotion of employment through informed labor market policies
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  • 12
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (46 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Gibson, John The Impacts of International Migration On Remaining Household Members
    Abstract: The impacts of international migration on development in the sending countries, and especially the effects on remaining household members, are increasingly studied. However, comparisons of households in developing countries with and without migrants are complicated by a double-selectivity problem: households self-select into migration, and among households involved in migration, some send a subset of members with the rest remaining while other households migrate en masse. The authors address these selectivity issues using the randomization provided by an immigration ballot under the Pacific Access Category of New Zealand’s immigration policy. They survey applicants to the 2002-05 ballots in Tonga and compare outcomes for the remaining household members of emigrants with those for members of similar households that were unsuccessful in the ballots. The immigration laws determine which household members can accompany the principal migrant, providing an instrument to address the second selectivity issue. Using this natural experiment, the authors examine the myriad impacts that migration has on remaining household members, focussing on labor supply, income, durable assets, financial service usage, diet, and physical and mental health. The analysis uses multiple hypothesis testing procedures to examine which impacts are robust. The findings indicate that the overall impact on households left behind is largely negative. The findings also reveal evidence that both sources of selectivity matter, leading studies that fail to adequately address them to misrepresent the impact of migration
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  • 13
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (18 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Seo, John The Impact of Climate Change On Catastrophe Risk Models
    Abstract: Catastrophe risk models allow insurers, reinsurers and governments to assess the risk of loss from catastrophic events, such as hurricanes. These models rely on computer technology and the latest earth and meteorological science information to generate thousands if not millions of simulated events. Recently observed hurricane activity, particularly in the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, in conjunction with recently published scientific literature has led risk modelers to revisit their hurricane models and develop climate conditioned hurricane models. This paper discusses these climate conditioned hurricane models and compares their risk estimates to those of base normal hurricane models. This comparison shows that the recent 50 year period of climate change has potentially increased North Atlantic hurricane frequency by 30 percent. However, such an increase in hurricane frequency would result in an increase in risk to human property that is equivalent to less than 10 years’ worth of US coastal property growth. Increases in potential extreme losses require the reinsurance industry to secure additional risk capital for these peak risks, resulting in the short term in lower risk capacity for developing countries. However, reinsurers and investors in catastrophe securities may still have a long-term interest in providing catastrophe coverage in middle and low-income countries as this allows reinsurers and investors to better diversify their catastrophe risk portfolios
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  • 14
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (34 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Jhingran, Dhir Addressing Educational Disparity
    Abstract: The challenge of development work in the social sector in India today is one of bridging huge disparities across regions of the country, gender and social groups. Unless national and state policies specifically target resources to address these disparities, achieving higher level outcomes in an inclusive manner, which is the real goal for human development in education and health, will be a distant dream. This paper takes up the case of the Indian government’s Elementary Education for All Mission to understand how this flagship program relates investments to spatial and social disparities. For identifying the most deprived districts in terms of educational inputs, outputs and overall development, the authors estimate district level education development indices for 2003-2004. The contribution of the largest investment program is measured by "per child allocations" and expenditures at the state and district levels for 2005-2006. An analysis of comparing the ratio of allocations to expenditures with the ratio of district level indices to sub-dimensional indices shows that there is an apparent disconnect between the "real investment needs" of the districts, reflected in their level of educational development and the actual allocations made on an annual basis. The analysis shows that although all districts received more funds for investing in elementary education programs, the most disadvantaged and needy districts received proportionately more funds, which helped these districts to bridge access and infrastructure gaps and appoint more teachers. Benchmarking sector development by spatial entities helps not only in monitoring the outcomes, but also in targeting planning and funding to reduce disparities
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  • 15
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (59 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Loening, Josef L Inflation Dynamics and Food Prices in An Agricultural Economy
    Abstract: Ethiopia has experienced a historically unprecedented increase in inflation, mainly driven by cereal price inflation, which is among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using monthly data from the past decade, the authors estimate error correction models to identify the relative importance of several factors contributing to overall inflation and its three major components, cereal prices, food prices, and non-food prices. The main finding is that, in a longer perspective, over three to four years, the main factors that determine domestic food and non-food prices are the exchange rate and international food and goods prices. In the short run, agricultural supply shocks and inflation inertia strongly affect domestic inflation, causing large deviations from long-run price trends. Money supply growth does affect food price inflation in the short run, although the money stock itself does not seem to drive inflation. The results suggest the need for a multi-pronged approach to fight inflation. Forecast scenarios suggest monetary and exchange rate policies need to take into account cereal production, which is among the key determinants of inflation, assuming a decline in global commodity prices. Implementation of successful policies will be contingent on the availability of foreign exchange and the performance of agriculture
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  • 16
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (34 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Wang, Limin The Health Impact of Extreme Weather Events in Sub-Saharan Africa
    Abstract: Extreme weather events are known to have serious consequences for human health and are predicted to increase in frequency as a result of climate change. Africa is one of the regions that risks being most seriously affected. This paper quantifies the impact of extreme rainfall and temperature events on the incidence of diarrhea, malnutrition and mortality in young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. The panel data set is constructed from Demographic and Health Surveys for 108 regions from 19 Sub-Saharan African countries between 1992 and 2001 and climate data from the Africa Rainfall and Temperature Evaluation System from 1980 to 2001. The results show that both excess rainfall and extreme temperatures significantly raise the incidence of diarrhea and weight-for-height malnutrition among children under the age of three, but have little impact on the long-term health indicators, including height-for-age malnutrition and the under-five mortality rate. The authors use the results to simulate the additional health cost as a proportion of gross domestic product caused by increased climate variability. The projected health cost of increased diarrhea attributable to climate change in 2020 is in the range of 0.2 to 0.5 percent of gross domestic product in Africa
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  • 17
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (27 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Brownbridge, Martin How Should Fiscal Policy Respond To the Economic Crisis in the Low Income Commonwealth of Independent States?
    Abstract: The paper analyses how the global economic crisis will affect the economies of the low income Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and discusses the fiscal measures which can be taken to help mitigate the adverse impact of the crisis. It focuses on Tajikistan, the poorest member of the CIS but also highlights similarities with the economies of Armenia, the Kyrgyz Republic and Moldova. The main channels through which the global economic crisis will affect the low income CIS economies is through a sharp reduction in remittances from migrant workers in Russia and lower export earnings. The adjustment to this external shock will involve a reduction in imports, private consumption, domestic output and government revenue. Fiscal policy, constrained by very limited macroeconomic and fiscal space, faces acute challenges. Maintaining budget targets for fiscal deficits and domestic borrowing in the face of revenue shortfalls will lead to a tightening of the fiscal stance, exacerbating recessionary pressures and making it very difficult to protect priority social expenditures from cuts. To avoid these outcomes, external support from donors, preferably in the form of quick disbursing budget support, is required. If additional external budget support can be mobilized, the priorities for fiscal policy should be to protect spending on budgeted social sector programs and, if sufficient budget resources are available, to implement a program of labor intensive repair and maintenance of public infrastructure to provide employment for returning migrant workers. Tax cuts are unlikely to be an effective use of scarce budget resources, either to stimulate the economy or protect the incomes of the poor. Up scaling existing social assistance programs may be a feasible way to protect the poor in some low income CIS countries provided they are not as poorly targeted as in Tajikistan
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  • 18
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (57 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Calderon, Cesar Does Financial Openness Lead To Deeper Domestic Financial Markets?
    Abstract: Advanced and emerging market economies have rapidly integrated into international capital markets and this growing globalization of financial markets has led to some important changes in the patterns of saving and investment across the world. The main goal of this paper is to test whether the cross-border asset trade has led to improvements in the intermediation of these savings - that is, foster development of domestic financial markets. The authors have collected annual information on financial market development, financial openness, and other control variables for a sample of 145 countries for the period 1974-2007. Controlling for the likely endogeneity of financial openness, the analysis finds that rising financial openness expands private credit, bank assets, and stock market and private bond market development, and generates efficiency gains in the banking system. However, the impact of financial openness on domestic financial development may depend on the level of institutional quality, the extent of investor protection, and the degree of trade openness. In general, rising financial openness will enlarge the size and activity of financial intermediaries, improve efficiency in the banking system, and contribute to deepen private bond markets in countries with moderate to high levels of institutional quality and investor protection as well as in countries with high trade openness
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  • 19
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (47 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Shankar, Raja Lessons from European Union policies for regional development
    Abstract: Regional disparities present an ever present development challenge in most countries, especially those with large geographic areas under their jurisdiction. A neglect of these inequities may create the potential for disunity and, in extreme cases, for disintegration. In view of this, most countries actively pursue policies with a view to helping lagging regions catch up with faster growing regions. These policies have at best a mixed record of success. It is therefore useful to discern what type of policies work and why? In this context learning from the experience of the European Union (EU) may be particularly instructive as, over the years, it has provided significant support to assist poorer regions achieve convergence with the richer regions. This paper reviews the impact of EU policies for regional development to draw lessons of interest to other countries pursuing similar goals. The paper concludes that policies that serve to create an internal common market by creating a level playing field that enables poorer regions to integrate with the broader national and global economies have the best potential to advance regional income convergence. In this context, removal of barriers to trade and factor mobility and providing enhanced access to information and technology to the lagging regions should be main policy priorities for regional development
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  • 20
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (50 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Brambilla, Irene Adjusting To Trade-Policy Changes in Export Markets
    Abstract: A large literature studies the effects of trade policy changes on developing-country exports on household incomes, and recent contributions have increasingly addressed the effects of administered protection, such as anti-dumping duties. In 2003 the United States imposed anti-dumping tariffs on imports of catfish from Vietnam ranging from 37 to 64 percent. As a result, Vietnamese exports of catfish to the U.S. market declined sharply, thus providing a unique opportunity to study the effects of U.S. trade policy changes on Vietnamese families. Using data on Vietnamese households, the authors study the responses of catfish producers in the Mekong delta of Vietnam between 2002 and 2004. The evidence suggests that the rate of growth of income of households that depended on catfish sales was significantly affected. In addition, the anti-dumping duties triggered significant exit from catfish farming. Households adjusted by moving out of catfish aquaculture and into wage labor markets and agriculture, but not into other aquaculture activities. Finally, the evidence also suggests that households found it difficult to change their catfish production levels, and that performance in aquaculture affects other household economic activities
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  • 21
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (26 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Labonne, Julien The Power of Information
    Abstract: The authors explore the impact of access to information on poor farmers’ consumption. The analysis combines spatially coded data on mobile phone coverage with household panel data on farmers from some of the poorest areas of the Philippines. Both the ordinary least squares and instrumental variable estimates indicate that purchasing a mobile phone has a large, positive impact on the household-level growth rate of per capita consumption. Estimates range from 11 to 17 percent, depending on the sample and the specification chosen. The authors perform a range of reliability tests, the results of which all suggest that the instruments are valid. They also present evidence consistent with the argument that easier access to information allows farmers to strike better price deals within their existing trading relationships and to make better choices in terms of where they choose to sell their goods
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  • 22
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (57 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Fomby, Thomas The Growth Aftermath of Natural Disasters
    Abstract: This paper provides a description of the macroeconomic aftermath of natural disasters. It traces the yearly response of gross domestic product growth - both aggregated and disaggregated into its agricultural and non-agricultural components - to four types of natural disasters - droughts, floods, earthquakes, and storms. The paper uses a methodological approach based on pooling the experiences of various countries over time. It consists of vector auto-regressions in the presence of endogenous variables and exogenous shocks (VARX), applied to a panel of cross-country and time-series data. The analysis finds heterogeneous effects on a variety of dimensions. First, the effects of natural disasters are stronger, for better or worse, on developing than on rich countries. Second, while the impact of some natural disasters can be beneficial when they are of moderate intensity, severe disasters never have positive effects. Third, not all natural disasters are alike in terms of the growth response they induce, and, perhaps surprisingly, some can entail benefits regarding economic growth. Thus, droughts have a negative effect on both agricultural and non-agricultural growth. In contrast, floods tend to have a positive effect on economic growth in both major sectors. Earthquakes have a negative effect on agricultural growth but a positive one on non-agricultural growth. Storms tend to have a negative effect on gross domestic product growth but the effect is short-lived and small. Future research should concentrate on exploring the mechanisms behind these heterogeneous impacts
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  • 23
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (28 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Dailami, Mansoor Measures of Investor and Consumer Confidence and Policy Actions in the Current Crisis
    Abstract: The current financial crisis has highlighted the danger that declines in confidence can have a self-fulfilling effect on economic activity. In this paper, the authors consider ways of measuring investor and consumer confidence, and try to explain the evolution of confidence using measures of financial volatility, investment performance, macroeconomic outcomes, and policy actions. They identify a link between investor and consumer confidence. Finally, they show that liquidity provision and easing of interest rates had only a limited effect on financial market spreads during the crisis, arguing for additional measures to address the loss of confidence. The paper focuses on the need for financial regulatory reform, and shows how the incentives to cooperate in this area are stimulated by a common shock to confidence
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  • 24
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (36 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Boonperm, Jirawan Does the Village Fund Matter in Thailand?
    Abstract: Abstract: This paper evaluates the impact of the Thailand Village and Urban Revolving Fund on household expenditure, income, and assets. The revolving fund was launched in 2001 when the Government of Thailand promised to provide a million baht (about
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  • 25
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (30 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Freund, Caroline The Trade Response To Global Downturns
    Abstract: The author examines the impact of historical global downturns on trade flows. The results provide insight into why trade has dropped so dramatically in the current crisis, what is likely to happen in the coming years, how global imbalances are affected, and which regions and industries suffer most heavily. The author finds that the elasticity of global trade volumes to real world GDP has increased gradually from around 2 in the 1960s to above 3 now. The author also finds that trade is more responsive to GDP during global downturns than in tranquil times. The results suggest that the overall drop in real trade this year is likely to exceed 15 percent. There is significant variation across industries, with food and beverages the least affected and crude materials and fuels the most affected. On the positive side, trade tends to rebound very rapidly when the outlook brightens. The author also finds evidence that global downturns often lead to persistent improvements in the ratio of the trade balance to GDP in borrower countries
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  • 26
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (37 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Sharma, Manohar Who Migrates Overseas and Is It Worth Their While?
    Abstract: The paper assesses the costs and household level benefits of migrating overseas from Bangladesh. The authors survey households who have had overseas migrants to assess their characteristics compared to non-migrants. They also compute various types of migration and remittance related transaction costs and discuss the channels by which overseas migration is financed, remittances sent and the constraints faced by the poorest. Using the Propensity Score Matching method, the paper finds that overseas migration conveys substantial benefits to families as measured by household consumption, use of modern agricultural inputs, and level of household savings. The authors also offer some possible policy directions to strengthen the returns from migration as well as reduce some of the costs
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  • 27
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (28 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Fofack, Hippolyte Potential Gains From Capital Flight Repatriation for Sub-Saharan African Countries
    Abstract: Despite the recent increase in capital flows to Sub-Saharan Africa, the region remains largely marginalized in financial globalization and chronically dependent on official development aid. And with the potential decline in the level of official development assistance in a context of global financial crisis, the need to increase domestic resources mobilization as well as non-debt generating external resources is critical now more than ever before. However, the debate on resource mobilization has overlooked an important untapped source of funds consisting of the massive stocks of private wealth stashed in Western financial centers, a substantial part of which left the region in the form of capital flight. This paper argues that the repatriation of flight capital should take a more prominent place in this debate from a moral standpoint and for clear economic reasons. On the moral side, the argument is that a large proportion of the capital flight legitimately belongs to the Africans and therefore must be restituted to the legitimate claimants. The economic argument is that repatriation of flight capital will propel the sub-continent on a higher sustainable growth path while preserving its financial stability and without mortgaging the welfare of its future generations through external borrowing. The analysis in the paper demonstrates quantitatively that the gains from repatriation are large and dominate the expected benefits from other sources such as debt relief. It is estimated that if only a quarter of the stock of capital flight was repatriated to Sub-Saharan Africa, the region would go from trailing to leading other developing regions in terms of domestic investment, thus initiating a ‘big-push’-led sustainable long-term economic growth. The paper proposes some strategies for inducing capital flight repatriation, but cautions that the success of this program is contingent on strong political will on the part of African and Western governments and effective coordination and cooperation at the global level
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  • 28
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (34 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Fofack, Hippolyte Africa and Arab Gulf States
    Abstract: In spite of the similarities between Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab Gulf region (Gulf Cooperation Council states), development policies implemented in these two regions of the world have produced markedly different and even divergent outcomes. While Gulf Cooperation Council states have drawn on hydrocarbon revenues to dramatically transform their economic landscape, Sub-Saharan African countries have exhibited abysmal economic and social outcomes. The remarkable increase in personal income and large current account surpluses in Arab Gulf states is in sharp contrast with widespread poverty and recurrent balance of payments crises in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper reviews the possible causes of these divergent development paths and discusses the prospects for economic convergence in the new globalization landscape of growing trade ties between the two regions. In particular, it shows that development models underpinned by institutional continuity and intergenerational accountability could enhance long-run growth in Sub-Saharan Africa and income convergence between the two regions
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  • 29
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (30 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Piffaretti, Nadia F Reshaping the International Monetary Architecture
    Abstract: As the global economy undergoes profound changes, it is becoming apparent that the so-called "Revived Bretton Woods System" has increased the overall vulnerability of the global financial architecture. Therefore, it is worth revisiting the origins of the Bretton Woods conference, and pointing out the relevance for today’s framework of Keynes’ original 1942 plan for an International Clearing Union. This note explores the main characteristics of Keynes' original plan, by revisiting his original writings between 1940 and 1944, and outlining its relevance to the current debate on the international financial architecture. The note suggests that reforms of the international financial architecture should include anchoring the international monetary system on sounder institutional ground
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  • 30
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (38 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Raddatz, Claudio The Wrath of God
    Abstract: The process of global climate change has been associated with an increase in the frequency of climatic disasters. Yet, there is still little systematic evidence on the macroeconomic costs of these episodes. This paper uses panel time-series techniques to estimate the short and long-run impact of climatic and other disasters on a country's GDP. The results indicate that a climate related disaster reduces real GDP per capita by at least 0.6 percent. Therefore, the increased incidence of these disasters during recent decades entails important macroeconomic costs. Among climatic disasters, droughts have the largest average impact, with cumulative losses of 1 percent of GDP per capita. Across groups of countries, small states are more vulnerable than other countries to windstorms, but exhibit a similar response to other types of disasters; and low-income countries responds more strongly to climatic disasters, mainly because of their higher response to droughts. However, a country's level of external debt has no relation to the output impact of any type of disaster. The evidence also indicates that, historically, aid flows have done little to attenuate the output consequences of climatic disasters
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  • 31
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (30 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Do, Quy-Toan Agent Orange and the Prevalence of Cancer Among the Vietnamese Population 30 Years After the End of the Vietnam War
    Abstract: During the Vietnam War, more than 70 million liters of military herbicide were sprayed over the combat zone. This study uses self and proxy-reported data on cancer status obtained from a nationally representative health survey of the Vietnamese population (N=158,019), combined with measures of military herbicide exposure computed from detailed information on US and allied wartime military activities. No significant difference in the prevalence of reported cancer is detected between communes with some degree of exposure and those with none. When restricting the analysis to exposed communes and adopting a continuous measure of herbicide exposure, there is evidence of a dose-response relationship; among communes that were exposed, increasing exposure to past military spraying is associated with increasing prevalence of reported cancer in 2001-2002. There is mixed evidence as to whether cohorts born before or after the end of the spraying campaigns are equally affected
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  • 32
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (32 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Brenton, Paul Assessing the Adjustment Implications of Trade Policy Changes Using TRIST (Tariff Reform Impact Simulation Tool)
    Abstract: TRIST is a simple, easy to use tool to assess the adjustment implications of trade reform. It improves on existing tools. First, it is an improvement in terms of accuracy because projections are based on revenues actually collected at the tariff line level rather than simply applying statutory rates. Second, it is transparent and open; runs in Excel, with formulas and calculation steps visible to the user; and is open-source and users are free to change, extend, or improve according to their needs. Third, TRIST has greater policy relevance because it projects the impact of tariff reform on total fiscal revenue (including VAT and excise) and results are broken down to the product level so that sensitive products or sectors can be identified. And fourth, the tool is flexible and can incorporate tariff liberalization scenarios involving any group of trading partners and any schedules of products. This paper describes the TRIST tool and provides a range of examples that demonstrate the insights that the tool can provide to policy makers on the adjustment impacts of reducing tariffs
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  • 33
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (24 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Hoekman, Bernard The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership
    Abstract: This paper discusses options to facilitate movement of workers between high-income and developing countries within the framework of trade agreements, focusing on the European Union’s partnership agreements with neighboring countries. Existing frameworks for cooperation offer the possibility of expanding temporary rather than longer-term or permanent movement of workers since extant trade agreements provide scope for negotiating specific market access commitments for services, including those delivered through the cross-border movement of natural persons. Even though the potential for such "embodied" trade in services will not be anywhere near what would be associated with substantial liberalization of migration regimes, furthering the services trade dimension in the European Union’s trade agreements offers significant potential Pareto gains. For the partner countries these gains from temporary movement of service providers are both direct - through greater employment in/revenue from providing services in the European Union - and indirect - by helping to increase and sustain higher growth at home
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  • 34
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (55 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Cull, Robert Measuring Household Usage of Financial Services
    Abstract: In recent years, the number of surveys of access to and use of financial services has multiplied, but little is known about whether the data generated are comparable across countries, or within the same country over time. This paper reports results from a randomized experiment in Ghana to test whether the identity of the respondent and the inclusion of product-specific cues in questions affect the reported rates of household usage of financial services. The analysis shows that rates of household usage are almost identical when the head reports on behalf of the household and when the rate is tabulated from a full enumeration of household use. Randomly selected informants (i.e., non-heads of the household) provide a less complete summary of household use of financial services than the other two methods. The findings also show that for credit from formal institutions, informal sources of savings, and insurance, usage rates are higher when questions are asked about specific financial products rather than about the respondent’s dealings with types of financial institutions. In short, who is asked the questions and the form in which they are asked both matter
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  • 35
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (20 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Sauvant, Karl P FDI Protectionism Is On the Rise
    Abstract: Over the past two decades or so, countries have liberalized their FDI regulatory frameworks and have put in place an international investment law regime that provides various protections for international investors. In the past few years, however, there are signs that countries are reevaluating their approach toward such investment. As a result, FDI protectionism is on the rise, with screening of inward M&As becoming more frequent. Typically, this is being done under the guise of "national interest" or similar concepts, often linked to strategic sectors and national champions. While the international investment law regime faces a challenge to find the right balance between the rights and responsibilities of governments and investors, care needs to be taken that the rise of FDI protectionism does not endanger a rules-based approach to FDI. An independent FDI Protectionism Observatory to monitor new protectionist measures and name and shame countries that take them is therefore needed
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 36
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (51 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Khandker, Shahidur R Welfare Impacts of Rural Electrification
    Abstract: Access to electricity is crucial for economic development and there is a growing body of literature on the impact of rural electrification on development. However, most studies have so far relied on cross-sectional surveys comparing households with and without electricity, which have well known causal attribution problems. This paper is one of the first studies to examine the welfare impacts of households’ rural electrification based on panel surveys conducted in 2002 and 2005 for some 1,100 households in rural Vietnam. The findings indicate that grid electrification has been both extensive (connecting all surveyed communes by 2005) and intensive (connecting almost 80 percent of the surveyed households by 2005). Vietnam is unusual in that once electricity is locally available, both rich and poor households are equally likely to get the connection. The econometric estimations suggest that grid electrification has significant positive impacts on households’ cash income, expenditure, and educational outcomes. The benefits, however, reach a saturation point after prolonged exposure to electricity. Finally, this study recommends investigating the long-term benefits of rural electrification - not just for households, but for the rural economy as a whole
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  • 37
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (26 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Sturgeon, Timothy J Crisis and Protection in the Automotive Industry
    Abstract: In this paper the authors apply global value chain (GVC) analysis to recent trends in the global automotive industry, with special attention paid to government interventions triggered by the recent economic crisis. The authors first highlight some of the defining characteristics of GVCs in this important industry, especially the unusually strong regional structure of production and sales. National political institutions create pressure for local content, which drives production close to end markets, where it tends to be organized nationally or regionally. They then examine policy reactions to the recent economic crisis, and provide some discussion of the government interventions in the industry. The authors end with a number of policy conclusions that highlight the likely impact of the interventions on the evolution GVCs and the growth of the industry in developing countries
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  • 38
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (55 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Agenor, Pierre-Richard Cyclical Effects of Bank Capital Requirements With Imperfect Credit Markets
    Abstract: This paper analyzes the cyclical effects of bank capital requirements in a simple model with credit market imperfections. Lending rates are set as a premium over the cost of borrowing from the central bank, with the premium itself depending on firms’ effective collateral. Basel I- and Basel II-type regulatory regimes are defined and a capital channel is introduced through a signaling effect of capital buffers on the cost of bank deposits. The macroeconomic effects of various shocks (a drop in output, an increase in the refinance rate, and a rise in the capital adequacy ratio) are analyzed, under both binding and nonbinding capital requirements. Factors affecting the procyclicality of each regime (defined in terms of the behavior of the risk premium) are also identified and policy implications are discussed
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  • 39
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (33 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Montalvo, Jose G The Pattern of Growth and Poverty Reduction in China
    Abstract: China has seen a huge reduction in the incidence of extreme poverty since the economic reforms that started in the late 1970s. Yet, the growth process has been highly uneven across sectors and regions. The paper tests whether the pattern of China´s growth mattered to poverty reduction using a new provincial panel data set constructed for this purpose. The econometric tests support the view that the primary sector (mainly agriculture) has been the main driving force in poverty reduction over the period since 1980. It was the sectoral unevenness in the growth process, rather than its geographic unevenness, that handicapped poverty reduction. Yes, China has had great success in reducing poverty through economic growth, but this happened despite the unevenness in its sectoral pattern of growth. The idea of a trade-off between these sectors in terms of overall progress against poverty in China turns out to be a moot point, given how little evidence there is of any poverty impact of non-primary sector growth, controlling for primary-sector growth. While the non-primary sectors were key drivers of aggregate growth, it was the primary sector that did the heavy lifting against poverty
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  • 40
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (31 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Beck, Thorsten What Explains the Cost of Remittances ?
    Abstract: Remittances are a sizeable source of external financing for developing countries. In the L’Aquila 2009 G8 Summit, leaders pledged to reduce the cost of remittances by half in 5 years (from 10 to 5 percent). Yet, empirically, little is known about what drives the cost of remittances. Using newly gathered data across 119 country corridors, this paper explores the factors that determine the cost of remittances. Considering average costs across all types of institutions, the authors find that corridors with larger numbers of migrants and more competition among remittances service providers exhibit lower costs. By contrast, remittance costs are higher in richer corridors and in corridors with greater bank participation in the remittances market. Comparing results across all banks and all money transfer operators separately, the analysis finds few significant differences. However, estimations for Western Union, a leading player in the remittances business, suggest that this firm’s prices are insensitive to competition
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  • 41
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (32 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Beegle, Kathleen Demographic and Socioeconomic Patterns of HIV/AIDS Prevalence in Africa
    Abstract: Understanding the demographic and socioeconomic patterns of the prevalence and incidence of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa is crucial for developing programs and policies to combat HIV/AIDS. This paper looks critically at the methods and analytical challenges to study the links between socioeconomic and demographic status and HIV/AIDS. Some of the misconceptions about the HIV/AIDS epidemic are discussed and unusual empirical evidence from the existing body of work is presented. Several important messages emerge from the results. First, the study of the link between socioeconomic status and HIV faces a range of challenges related to definitions, samples, and empirical methods. Second, given the large gaps in evidence and the changing nature of the epidemic, there is a need to continue to improve the evidence base on the link between demographic and socioeconomic status and the prevalence and incidence of HIV/AIDS. Finally, it is difficult to generalize results across countries. As the results presented here and in other studies based on Demographic and Health Survey datasets show, few consistent and significant patterns of prevalence by socioeconomic and demographic status are evident
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  • 42
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (44 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Hallward-Driemeier, Mary Who Survives ?
    Abstract: Size, age, sector, and productivity are commonly cited as factors determining a firm’s survival. However, there are several dimensions of the investment climate in which the firm operates that affect whether it continues in business or exits. This paper uses new panel data from 27 Eastern European and Central Asian countries to test the importance of five areas of the business climate on firm exit: the efficiency of government services, access to finance, the extent of corruption or cronyism, the strength of property rights, and the degree of competition. The paper finds that weaknesses in these areas do affect the probability of firm exit - largely in ways that undermine the Schumpeterian cleansing role of exit in raising overall productivity. Greater costs and regulatory burdens raise the probability that more productive firms exit, while less developed financial and legal institutions mitigate forces that would otherwise push less productive firms to exit. Thus, the more productive firms stand to gain the most from improvements in the investment climate, whether that is lowering transaction costs or improving market mechanisms. This holds both within countries and across countries. The impact of a particular investment climate measure can also differ significantly by type of firm, with the focus given to firm size. The differential impact on size can be significant at a size cutoff of 10 or more employees. As these are the firms that are near the threshold of many regulatory requirements, the implications are not just with regard to whether a firm remains in operation, but whether it does so in the formal sector
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  • 43
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (21 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Cull, Robert Microfinance Tradeoffs
    Abstract: This paper describes important trade-offs that microfinance practitioners, donors, and regulators navigate. Drawing evidence from large, global surveys of microfinance institutions, the authors find a basic tension between meeting social goals and maximizing financial performance. For example, non-profit microfinance institutions make far smaller loans on average and serve more women as a fraction of customers than do commercialized microfinance banks, but their costs per dollar lent are also much higher. Potential trade-offs therefore arise when selecting contracting mechanisms, level of commercialization, rigor of regulation, and the extent of competition. Meaningful interventions in microfinance will require making deliberate choices - and thus embracing and weighing tradeoffs carefully
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  • 44
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (33 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Carmin, JoAnn Achieving Urban Climate Adaptation in Europe and Central Asia
    Abstract: Many cities across Europe and Central Asia are experiencing the impacts of climate change, but most have not integrated climate adaptation into their agendas. This paper examines the threats faced and measures that can be taken by cities in the region to protect buildings, heritage sites, municipal functions, and vulnerable urban populations. In general, local governments must be proactive in ensuring that existing buildings are climate ready, paying particular attention to emerging technologies for retrofitting the prefabricated, panel style buildings that dominate the landscape while assessing the viability of homes situated in flood plains, coastal areas, and steep slopes. They also must ensure that new developments and buildings are designed in ways that account for climatic fluctuations. Although the resilience of all populations needs to be considered, historical patterns of discrimination require that special provisions are made for the poor and for ethnic minorities such as the Roma because these groups will be most at risk, but are least likely to have access to adequate resources. Urban climate adaptation requires national-level support and local commitment. However, centralized planning and expert-led decision-making under the former regimes may affect the ability of cities to pursue programmatic approaches to adaptation. Therefore, while national governments need to make adaptation a policy priority and ensure that municipalities have adequate resources, local government agencies and departments must be transparent in their actions and introduce participatory and community-based measures that demonstrate respect for diverse stakeholders and perspectives
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  • 45
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (33 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Baird, Sarah The Short-Term Impacts of A Schooling Conditional Cash Transfer Program On the Sexual Behavior of Young Women
    Abstract: Recent evidence suggests that conditional cash transfer programs for schooling are effective in raising school enrollment and attendance. However, there is also reason to believe that such programs can affect other outcomes, such as the sexual behavior of their young beneficiaries. Zomba Cash Transfer Program is a randomized, ongoing conditional cash transfer intervention targeting young women in Malawi that provides incentives (in the form of school fees and cash transfers) to current schoolgirls and recent dropouts to stay in or return to school. An average offer of US
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  • 46
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (56 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Ostrom, Elinor A Polycentric Approach for Coping With Climate Change
    Abstract: This paper proposes an alternative approach to addressing the complex problems of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The author, who won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, argues that single policies adopted only at a global scale are unlikely to generate sufficient trust among citizens and firms so that collective action can take place in a comprehensive and transparent manner that will effectively reduce global warming. Furthermore, simply recommending a single governmental unit to solve global collective action problems is inherently weak because of free-rider problems. For example, the Carbon Development Mechanism (CDM) can be ‘gamed’ in ways that hike up prices of natural resources and in some cases can lead to further natural resource exploitation. Some flaws are also noticeable in the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) program. Both the CDM and REDD are vulnerable to the free-rider problem. As an alternative, the paper proposes a polycentric approach at various levels with active oversight of local, regional, and national stakeholders. Efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions are a classic collective action problem that is best addressed at multiple scales and levels. Given the slowness and conflict involved in achieving a global solution to climate change, recognizing the potential for building a more effective way of reducing green house gas emissions at multiple levels is an important step forward. A polycentric approach has the main advantage of encouraging experimental efforts at multiple levels, leading to the development of methods for assessing the benefits and costs of particular strategies adopted in one type of ecosystem and compared to results obtained in other ecosystems. Building a strong commitment to find ways of reducing individual emissions is an important element for coping with this problem, and having others also take responsibility can be more effectively undertaken in small- to medium-scale governance units that are linked together through information networks and monitoring at all levels. This paper was prepared as a background paper for the 2010 World Development Report on Climate Change
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  • 47
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (48 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Lea, Nicholas Constraints To Growth in Malawi
    Abstract: This paper applies a growth diagnostics approach to identify the most binding constraints to private-sector growth in Malawi - a small, landlocked country in Southern Africa with one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world. The approach aims to identify the constraints (in terms of public policy, implementation, and investments) most binding on marginal investment, and therefore whose relaxation would have the largest impact on growth through the investment channel. The authors find that growth in Malawi has been primarily driven by the domestic multiplier effect from export revenues. The multiplier effect is particularly pronounced due to the high number of smallholder farmers, which produce Malawi’s main export crop, tobacco, and consequently results in the widespread and rapid transmission of agricultural export income. Furthermore, despite changes in the structure of agricultural production from estate to smallholder farming and liberalization of prices and finance, a longstanding relationship persists between exports in real domestic currency and overall gross domestic product. This central role of exports in creating domestic demand highlights the importance of the real exchange rate in Malawi’s growth story, which directly increases the strength of the export multiplier. The most pressing constraint to growth in Malawi continues to be the regime of exchange rate management. Despite good progress, there is compelling evidence that the rate is still substantially overvalued. Furthermore, it is also likely that the inflow of foreign aid - in excess of 50 percent of exports -contributes to the overvaluation through its large component of recurrent expenditures
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  • 48
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (93 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: De Rosa, Donato Barriers To Competition in Croatia
    Abstract: This paper examines product market policies in Croatia by benchmarking them to OECD countries and highlighting how policies that are more conducive to competition would stimulate a more efficient allocation of resources and, in consequence, facilitate convergence to higher income levels. OECD indicators of overall regulation in product markets indicate that Croatias policies in 2007 were generally more restrictive of competition than were the policies in OECD countries. This is especially true for policies concerned with the degree of state control of the economy and with barriers to entrepreneurship. Regulatory obstacles to trade and foreign direct investment, by contrast, are in line with those of pre-accession European Union countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovak Republic, and Poland in 2003, as well as Bulgaria and Romania in 2006), albeit well above the OECD average. Regulation of post, electricity, gas, telecoms, air, rail, and road transport, as estimated by the OECD energy transport and communication sectors indicator, is also less liberal than in the OECD, highlighting the positive knock-on effects for the rest of the economy that could derive from further liberalization of network industries
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  • 49
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (45 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Datt, Gaurav Has India's Economic Growth Become More Pro-Poor in the Wake of Economic Reforms ?
    Abstract: The extent to which India's poor have benefited from the country’s economic growth has long been debated. This paper revisits the issues using a new series of consumption-based poverty measures spanning 50 years, and including a 15-year period after economic reforms began in earnest in the early 1990s. Growth has tended to reduce poverty, including in the post-reform period. There is no robust evidence that the responsiveness of poverty to growth has increased, or decreased, since the reforms began, although there are signs of rising inequality. The impact of growth is higher for poverty measures that reflect distribution below the poverty line, and it is higher using growth rates calculated from household surveys than national accounts. The urban-rural pattern of growth matters to the pace of poverty reduction. However, in marked contrast to the pre-reform period, the post-reform process of urban economic growth has brought significant gains to the rural poor as well as the urban poor
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  • 50
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (28 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Um, Paul Noumba Infrastructure and Economic Growth in the Middle East and North Africa
    Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of infrastructure on growth of total factor productivity and per capita income, using both growth accounting techniques and cross-country growth regressions. The two econometric techniques yield some consistent and some different results. Regressions based in the growth accounting framework suggest that electricity production helps explain cross-country differences in total factor productivity growth in the Middle East and North Africa region. Growth regressions support that conclusion, while also stressing an effect of telecommunications infrastructure. Finally, growth regressions also indicate quite consistently that the returns to infrastructure have been lower in the Middle East and North Africa region than in developing countries as a whole
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  • 51
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (51 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Mu, Ren Left Behind To Farm ?
    Abstract: The transformation of work during China’s rapid economic development is associated with a substantial but little noticed re-allocation of traditional farm labor among women, with some doing much less and some much more. This paper studies how the work, time allocation, and health of non-migrant women are affected by the out-migration of others in their household. The analysis finds that the women left behind are doing more farm work than would have otherwise been the case. There is also evidence that this is a persistent effect, and not just temporary re-allocation. For some types of women (notably older women), the labor re-allocation response comes out of their leisure
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  • 52
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (111 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Girishankar, Navin Innovating Development Finance
    Abstract: As early as 2000, development partners embarked on a decade-long search for "innovative" or alternative sources of Official Development Assistance to help finance achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. For their part, developing countries have sought not only more financial flows but better financial solutions, for example, through partnerships that mobilize private finance for public service delivery, risk mitigation efforts that promote private entry in the productive sectors, and support for carbon trading. This paper offers a framework to organize and understand this heterogeneous mix of innovations in fund-raising and financial solutions for development. It also provides, for the first time, a stocktaking of actual innovations that make up the international landscape and highlights the World Bank Group’s role to date. The stocktaking shows that innovative finance mechanisms have played a more significant role in supporting financial solutions on the ground than in identifying and exploiting "alternative sources of ODA." Innovative fund-raising therefore should be viewed as a complement to - rather than a substitute for - traditional efforts to mobilize official flows, in particular concessional flows. Going forward, innovations need to be tested and evaluated to determine value-added
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  • 53
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (37 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Bollard, Albert Remittances and the Brain Drain Revisited
    Abstract: Two of the most salient trends surrounding the issue of migration and development over the past two decades are the large rise in remittances, and an increased flow of skilled migration. However, recent literature based on cross-country regressions has claimed that more educated migrants remit less, leading to concerns that further increases in skilled migration will hamper remittance growth. This paper revisits the relationship between education and remitting behavior using microdata from surveys of immigrants in 11 major destination countries. The data show a mixed pattern between education and the likelihood of remitting, and a strong positive relationship between education and the amount remitted conditional on remitting. Combining these intensive and extensive margins gives an overall positive effect of education on the amount remitted. The microdata then allow investigation as to why the more educated remit more. The analysis finds that the higher income earned by migrants, rather than characteristics of their family situations, explains much of the higher remittances
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  • 54
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (36 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Ahmed, Syud Amer Climate Volatility and Poverty Vulnerability in Tanzania
    Abstract: Climate models generally indicate that climate volatility may rise in the future, severely affecting agricultural productivity through greater frequency of yield-diminishing climate extremes, such as droughts. For Tanzania, where agricultural production is sensitive to climate, changes in climate volatility could have significant implications for poverty. This study assesses the vulnerability of Tanzania’s population to poverty to changes in climate variability between the late 20th century and early this century. Future climate scenarios with the largest increases in climate volatility are projected to make Tanzanians increasingly vulnerable to poverty through its impacts on the production of staple grains, with as many as 90,000 additional people, representing 0.26 percent of the population, entering poverty in the median case. Extreme poverty-increasing outcomes are also found to be greater in the future under certain climate scenarios. In the 20th century, the greatest predicted increase in poverty was equal to 880,000 people, while in the 21st century, the highest possible poverty increase was equal to 1.17 million people (approximately 3.4 percent of the population). The results suggest that the potential impacts of changes in climate volatility and climate extremes can be significant for poverty in Sub-Saharan African countries like Tanzania
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  • 55
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (46 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Mattoo, Aaditya Reconciling Climate Change and Trade Policy
    Abstract: There is growing clamor in industrial countries for additional border taxes on imports from countries with lower carbon prices. The authors confirm the findings of other research that unilateral emissions cuts by industrial countries will have minimal carbon leakage effects. However, output and exports of energy-intensive manufactures are projected to decline potentially creating pressure for trade action. A key factor affecting the impact of any border taxes is whether they are based on the carbon content of imports or the carbon content in domestic production. Their quantitative estimates suggest that the former action when applied to all merchandise imports would address competitiveness and environmental concerns in high income countries but with serious consequences for trading partners. For example, China’s manufacturing exports would decline by one-fifth and those of all low and middle income countries by 8 per cent; the corresponding declines in real income would be 3.7 per cent and 2.4 per cent. Border tax adjustment based on the carbon content in domestic production, especially if applied to both imports and exports, would broadly address the competitiveness concerns of producers in high income countries and less seriously damage developing country trade
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  • 56
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (31 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Lederman, Daniel Export Promotion Agencies Revisited
    Abstract: The number of national export promotion agencies has tripled over the past two decades. Although more countries made them part of their export strategy, studies criticized their efficacy in developing countries. The agencies were retooled, partly in response to these critiques. This paper studies the impact of today's export promotion agencies and their strategies, based on new survey data covering 103 developing and developed countries. The results suggest that on average they have a statistically significant effect on exports. The identification strategies highlight the importance of EPA services for overcoming foreign trade barriers and solving asymmetric information problems associated with exports of heterogeneous goods. There are also strong diminishing returns, suggesting that as far as export promotion agencies are concerned, small is beautiful
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  • 57
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (105 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Kessides, Ioannis N Regionalizing Telecommunications Reform in West Africa
    Abstract: In recent years, there has been an increasing recognition that significant welfare gains could be realized through deep forms of regional integration which entail harmonization of legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks. Reforms that reduce cross-border transaction costs and improve the performance of “backbone” infrastructure services are arguably even more important for the creation of an open, unified regional economic space than trade policy reforms narrowly defined. This paper assesses the potential gains from regionalized telecommunications policy in West Africa. To this end, the paper: (i) discusses how regional cooperation can overcome national limits in technical expertise, enhance the capacity of nations credibly to commit to stable regulatory policy, and ultimately facilitate infrastructure investment in the region; (ii) identifies trade-distorting regulations that inhibit opportunities for regional trade and economic development, and so are good candidates for regional trade negotiations to reduce indirect trade barriers; and (iii) describes substantive elements of a harmonized regional regulatory policy that can deliver immediate performance benefits
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  • 58
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (28 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Do, Quy-Toan Mental Health in the Aftermath of Conflict
    Abstract: The authors survey the recent literature on the mental health effects of conflict. They highlight the methodological challenges faced in this literature, which include the lack of validated mental health scales in a survey context, the difficulties in measuring individual exposure to conflict, and the issues related to making causal inferences from observed correlations. They illustrate how some of these issues can be overcome in a study of mental health in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mental health is measured using a clinically validated scale; conflict exposure is proxied by administrative data on war casualties instead of being self-reported. The analysis suggests that there are no significant differences in overall mental health across areas which are affected by ethnic conflict to a greater or lesser degree
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  • 59
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (27 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Lall, Somik V Explaining High Transport Costs Within Malawi
    Abstract: What are the main determinants of transport costs: network access or competition among transport providers? The focus in the transport sector has often been on improving the coverage of "hard" infrastructure, whereas in reality the cost of transporting goods is quite sensitive to the extent of competition among transport providers and scale economies in the freight transport industry, creating monopolistic behavior and circular causation between lower transport costs and greater trade and traffic. This paper contributes to the discussion on transport costs in Malawi, providing fresh empirical evidence based on a specially commissioned survey of transport providers and spatial analysis of the country’s infrastructure network. The main finding is that both infrastructure quality and market structure of the trucking industry are important contributors to regional differences in transport costs. The quality of the trunk road network is not a major constraint but differences in the quality of feeder roads connecting villages to the main road network have significant bearing on transport costs. And costs due to poor feeder roads are exacerbated by low volumes of trade between rural locations and market centers. With empty backhauls and journeys covering small distances, only a few transport service providers enter the market, charging disproportionately high prices to cover fixed costs and maximize markups
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  • 60
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (31 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Rudolph, Heinz P State Financial Institutions
    Abstract: There is no doubt that on average the performance of state financial institutions around the world has been below the lowest expectations. Lack of governance, management skills, regulation, and transparency, and misguided incentives have contributed to discredit these institutions for supporting the development of local financial markets. However, the pro-active role that some state financial institutions have played in the recent crisis in allocating credit to sectors cyclically not attractive for commercial banks has brought back the question of whether some state ownership in the banking system would be preferable. This paper analyzes the experience of four state financial institutions that have performed relatively well in the past: Canada's Business Development Bank, Chile's BancoEstado, South Africa's Development Bank of Southern Africa, and Finland's Finnvera plc. The author finds that these institutions have different checks and balances to mitigate eventual mismanagement of resources. The author also finds that little progress has been made in measuring the policy performance of these institutions
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  • 61
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (24 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Milanovic, Branko Four Critiques of the Redistribution Hypothesis
    Abstract: This paper discusses and assesses critiques of the aurhor's reformulation of the median voter hypothesis and its testing. The author rephrases and redefines more correctly the redistribution hypothesis and clarifies its relationship with the median voter hypothesis. He also reviews four types of critiques leveled at his approach
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  • 62
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (30 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Arena, Marco Pro-Cyclical Fiscal Policy in Brazil
    Abstract: The empirical literature on budget cyclicality has generally focused more on assessing the degree of pro-cyclicality in federal (central government) revenues and expenditures and less on budget cyclicality at the sub-national level in multi-tiered systems. This paper attempts to contribute to the literature on budget cyclicality by examining how sub-national fiscal revenues and expenditures are linked to the business cycle in Brazil, particularly after the introduction of the Fiscal Responsibility Law. It explains the degree of pro-cyclicality across Brazilian states, and assesses whether intergovernmental transfers help to stabilize states’ finances. These issues are addressed using both a time-series and a cross-section dimension at the Brazilian state level for the period 1991-2006. The empirical evidence suggests the existence of a pro-cyclical fiscal policy in Brazil at the state level. However, the introduction of the Fiscal Responsibility Law helped to reduce Brazilian states’ spending-side pro-cyclicality. For the Brazilian states, the main source of the observed pro-cyclicality is found in the behavior of tax revenues directly collected by the state governments. Intergovernmental transfers (federal transfers to the states) are not associated with changes in gross state product, but they are pro-cyclically aligned with national gross domestic product, which could amplify the pro-cyclical behavior of sub-national expenditures
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  • 63
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (34 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Das Gupta, Monica Family Systems, Political Systems, and Asia's 'Missing Girls'
    Abstract: Son preference is known to be found in certain types of cultures, that is patrilineal cultures. But what explains the fact that China, South Korea, and Northwest India manifest such extreme child sex ratios compared with other patrilineal societies? This paper argues that what makes these societies unique is that their pre-modern political and administrative systems used patrilineages to organize and administer their citizens. The interplay of culture, state, and political processes generated uniquely rigid patriliny and son preference. The paper also argues that the advent of the modern state in these settings has unraveled the underpinnings of the rigid patrilineal rules, and unleashed a variety of forces that reduce son preference. Firstly, the modern state has powerful tools for incorporating and managing its citizenry, rendering patrilineages a threat rather than an asset for the state. Secondly, the modern state has brought in political, social, and legal reforms aimed to challenge traditional social hierarchies, including the age and gender hierarchies of the kinship system. Thirdly, industrialization and urbanization have ushered in new modes of social organization, which reduce the hold of clans and lineages. Studies of the impact of the media suggest that states can accelerate the resultant decline in son preference, through media efforts to help parents perceive that daughters can now be as valuable as sons
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  • 64
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: As market reforms to the Mongolian economy continue and the country enjoys rapid economic growth, the environment has entered a period of unprecedented pressure. Mining, infrastructure development and tourism development, in particular, are undergoing rapid expansion, and all pose risks to Mongolia's globally important biodiversity. In order to strengthen its safeguard review process in Mongolia, specifically implementation of its operational policy on natural habitats, the World Bank contracted Birdlife Asia to identify important areas of natural habitat in the country, and assess the extent to which these areas overlap with development plans. Birdlife Asia undertook this study in close collaboration with the Wildlife Science and Conservation Center (WSCC) of Mongolia. The study looked at the extent of overlap between sites of conservation importance on the one hand, and mining licenses, major infrastructure plans, and tourist camp locations on the other. It determined the scale of overlap at the national level, provided a strategic overview of potential impacts, and identified particular sites where there is cause for concern. Recommendations were made for how environmental issues arising might be addressed, including examples of guidance and best practice from outside of Mongolia
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  • 65
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: India is experiencing a period of high economic growth and rapid social and demographic change. There is increasing concern about the manner in which this transformation is impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. While the Government of India has taken significant measures to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, much remains to be done. Given the complexity of the challenge, an effective response requires the engagement of all sectors. The private sector, alongside other stakeholders, can play an important part not only by contributing to the efforts for HIV/AIDS prevention and the reduction of stigma and discrimination, but also for the care, support and treatment of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA). The report presents challenges, good practices and success stories about how Informational Technology (IT) companies in India are addressing the issues of HIV/AIDS. It demonstrates the mounting will and commitment of IT leaders to respond to the epidemic. The IT industry in India is young in terms of both its stage of development and the age of its workforce which averages 18-35 years. Reflecting the composition of the sector, the report documents the experiences not only of large companies in India's IT sector, but also of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Each company has used different approaches to address HIV/AIDS among its workforce including community outreach activities. By capturing these companies' experiences, the report seeks to foster a more active response to HIV/AIDS from India's IT community and to encourage new partnerships to leverage the goodwill and competencies of this sector
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  • 66
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: This paper sketches a macroeconomic scenario for China for 2010-20. Growth accounting exercise finds that, with both the working population and total factor productivity on course to decelerate, potential gross domestic product (GDP) growth is likely to moderate in the coming 10 years, despite still sizeable capital deepening. Actual GDP should grow broadly as fast as potential GDP, continuing the track record since the late 1990s. With some rebalancing expected, the share of consumption in GDP is likely to bottom out and to rise somewhat through 2015 while the share of investment edges down. Robust economic growth in China would support imports. Meanwhile, given the outlook for the world economy, the share of exports in GDP may decline in 2010-2015 despite good competitiveness. As a result, the trade surplus may diminish relative to the size of China's economy. Even so, the external surplus will continue to rise in US dollar terms, especially the current account. In 2020 China's GDP per capita will be broadly comparable to the current level in Latin America, Turkey, and Malaysia. Adjusted for purchasing power, in 2020 China's GDP per capita will be one-fourth of the US level and China's total economy larger than that of the US. The pace of catch up in current prices and market exchange rates will depend on the extent of real exchange rate (RER) appreciation. Past experience internationally suggests that, with a large portion of labor employed in agriculture, RER appreciation may be modest in the coming decade. However, demographic changes may speed up the tightening of the labor market and trend RER appreciation. Reflecting this uncertainty, two scenarios are presented, suggesting China may become the largest economy on this metric sometime between 2020 and 2030
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  • 67
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: South Africa has rapidly reduced trade barriers since the end of Apartheid, yet agricultural production and exports have remained sluggish. Also, poverty and unemployment have risen and become increasingly concentrated in rural areas. This paper examines the extent to which remaining price distortions, both domestic and foreign, are contributing to the underperformance of the agricultural sector vis-a-vis the rest of the economy. The author draws on a computable general equilibrium (CGE) and micro-simulation model of South Africa that is linked to the results of a global trade model. This framework is used to examine the effects of eliminating global and domestic price distortions. Model results indicate that South Africa's agricultural sector currently benefits from global price distortions, and that removing these will create more jobs for lower-skilled workers, thereby reducing income inequality and poverty. The author also fined that South Africa's own policies are biased against agriculture and that removing domestic distortions will raise agricultural production. Job losses in nonagricultural sectors will be outweighed by job creation in agriculture, such that overall employment rises and poverty falls. Overall, the findings suggest that South Africa's own policies are more damaging to its welfare, poverty and inequality than distortionary policies in the rest of the world. Existing national price distortions may thus explain some of the poor performance of South Africa's agricultural sector and rural development
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  • 68
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: The objective of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which trade agreements affect agricultural trade policy volatility. Using a new panel database compiled as part of the World Bank's agricultural distortions research project, the author estimate the effect of regionalism on the volatility of price distortions measured by the absolute value of their first differences, averaged, for each country and year, over all agricultural goods. Using an instrumental-variable approach to correct for the endogeneity of regional trade agreements, (RTAs), the author fined that participation in RTAs has a significantly negative effect on agricultural trade-policy volatility. The author find that the World Trade Organization (WTO) agricultural agreement also contributed to reducing agricultural trade-policy volatility, in spite of the weak disciplines involved, but the effect is only weakly identified. The results are robust to a variety of robustness checks and hold, in particular, for the Latin American sub-sample
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  • 69
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: This paper uses new data on agricultural policy interventions to examine the political economy of agricultural trade policies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Historically, African governments have discriminated against agricultural producers in general (relative to producers in non-agricultural sectors), and against producers of export agriculture in particular. While more moderate in recent years, these patterns of discrimination persist. They do so even though farmers comprise a political majority. Rather than claiming the existence of a single best approach to the analysis of policy choice, the authors explore the impact of three factors: institutions, regional inequality, and tax revenue-generation. The authors find that agricultural taxation increases with the rural population share in the absence of electoral party competition; yet, the existence of party competition turns the lobbying disadvantage of the rural majority into political advantage. The authors also find that privileged cash crop regions are particular targets for redistributive taxation, unless the country's president comes from that region. In addition, governments of resource-rich countries, while continuing to tax export producers, reduce their taxation of food consumers
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  • 70
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: This paper deals with the effect of constitutional rules on agricultural policy outcomes in a panel of observations for more than 70 developing and developed countries in the 1955-2005 period. Testable hypotheses are drawn from recent developments in the comparative politics literature that see political institutions as key elements in shaping public policies. Using differences-in-differences regressions we find a positive effect of a transition into democracy on agricultural protection. However, this average effect masks substantial heterogeneities across different forms of democracy. Indeed, what matters are transitions to proportional democracies, as well as to permanent democracies. Moreover, while the author does not detect significant differences across alternative forms of government (presidential versus parliamentary systems), there is some evidence that the effect of proportional election is exacerbated under parliamentary regimes, and diminished under presidential ones
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  • 71
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: Britain contrary to received wisdom was not a free trader for most of the 1800s and, despite repeal of the Corn Laws, continued to have higher tariffs than the French until the last quarter of the century. War with Louis fourteenth from 1689 led to the end of all trade between Britain and France for a quarter of a century. The creation of powerful protected interests both at home and abroad led to the imposition of prohibitively high tariffs on French imports notably on wine and spirits, when trade with France resumed in 1714. Protection of domestic interests from import competition allowed the state to raise domestic excises which provided increased government revenues despite almost no increases in the taxes on land and income in Britain. The state ensured compliance not simply through the threat of lower tariffs on foreign substitutes but also through the encouragement of a trend towards monopoly production in brewing and restricted retail sales of beer. This history is analyzed in terms of its effects on British fiscal and commercial policy from the early 1700s to the end of the nineteenth century. The result is a fuller, albeit revisionist account of the rise of the modern state that calls into question a variety of theses in economics and political science that draw on the naive view of a liberal Britain unilaterally moving to free trade in the nineteenth century
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  • 72
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: Despite reforms over the past quarter-century, world agricultural markets remain highly distorted by government policies. Traditional indicators of those price distortions such as the nominal rate of assistance and consumer tax equivalent provide measures of the degree of intervention, but they can be misleading as indicators of the true effects of those policies. By drawing on recent theoretical literature that provides indicators of the trade- and welfare-reducing effects of price and trade policies, this paper develops more-satisfactory indexes for capturing distortions to agricultural incentives. It then exploits the agricultural distortion database recently compiled by the World Bank to generate estimates of them for both developing and high-income countries over the past half century, based on a sample of 75 countries that together account for all but one-tenth of the world's population, gross domestic product (GDP) and agricultural production. While they are still only partial equilibrium measures, they provide a much better approximation of the true trade and welfare effects of sectoral policies without needing a formal model of global markets or even price elasticity estimates
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  • 73
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: The Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations stalled in 2008 owing in no small degree to a lack of agreement on the terms of substantially reducing trade-distorting support for agricultural products and to what extent this will be beneficial to developing countries. Nicaragua presents an interesting case in point, being one of the poorest economies in Latin America with still a relatively large agricultural sector and high degrees of rural poverty. In 2005, the country signed a free trade agreement with the United States. This chapter provides a quantitative analysis addressing that question. It does so using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for Nicaragua coupled with a micro-simulation methodology. The first section provides background information on trade reform policies and macroeconomic trends in Nicaragua, with special reference to the agricultural sector and rural poverty. The section that follows describes the main features of the CGE model and the micro-simulation methodology used to assess the impact on poverty and inequality. The author then lay out the model scenarios considered, which include liberalizations of agricultural and all merchandise goods trade by the rest of the world and by Nicaragua itself. That is followed by a summary analysis of results. This analysis includes tests for the sensitivity of the results with respect to assumptions regarding the responsiveness of trade to price liberalization, as identified through the relevant trade elasticities. The final section provides conclusions and possible policy implications
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  • 74
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: Although Mozambique has considerable agricultural potential, rural poverty remains extremely high. This paper examines the extent to which global and domestic price distortions affect agricultural production and national poverty. The author develops a computable general equilibrium (CGE) and micro-simulation model of Mozambique that is linked to the results of a global model. This framework is used to examine the effects of eliminating global and national price distortions. Model results indicate that agriculture is adversely affected by current trade distortions due to policies in the rest of the world. While a removal of all merchandise trade distortions will reduce import prices, it will also raise agricultural production and reduce poverty. By contrast, removing only agricultural price distortions abroad will have little effect on Mozambique's agricultural sector. Model results indicate that Mozambique's own distortions are also biased against agriculture, with producers of processed agricultural products enjoying high protection levels. Removing these distortions causes a significant expansion of agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a reduction in both poverty and inequality. The findings therefore suggest that removing own-country and rest-of-world distortions will have positive implications for agriculture and for the overall economy in Mozambique, and in particular it will reduce its poverty and inequality
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  • 75
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Environment Department Papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: Climate change presents a profound challenge to food security and development. Negative impacts from climate change are likely to be greatest in regions that are currently food insecure and may even be significant in those regions that have made large gains in reducing food insecurity over the past half-century. Adaptation in the agricultural sector is being given a high priority within this effort because of the inherent sensitivity of food production to climate and the strong inter-linkages that exist between climate, agriculture, and economic growth and development. The purpose of this report is to review the major effects of climate change on the agricultural sector; to examine the causes of vulnerability; and to suggest a range of potential options and investment opportunities for supporting adaptation efforts and, more generally, for building adaptive capacity. This report primarily focuses on appropriate strategies for adapting to climate change impacts that are projected to occur over the next one to two decades, although several issues covered in this report are important for long-term adaptation needs as well. This report also describes opportunities for linking adaptation and mitigation, and it discusses the importance of mainstreaming adaptation into development
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  • 76
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Investment Climate Assessment
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: This paper focuses on core aspects of the political economy of reform, drawing on case studies of three economies transitioning to stronger business environments (Hungary, the Republic of Korea, and Mexico) and three countries with well-developed business environments (Australia, Italy, and the United Kingdom). The purpose is threefold: first, to identify so-called drivers of reform among successfully reforming countries; second, to explore how a reform strategy can make optimal use of the opportunities provided by the drivers of change; and third; to suggest how these lessons can be proactively used by other reformers to design and guide reforms. The case study findings suggest that, regardless of the content of reform, success is influenced by an evolving mix of seven drivers of change: i) globalization or competitiveness; ii) crisis; iii) political leadership; iv) unfolding reform synergies; v) technocrats; vi) changes in civil society, and vii) external pressure. The case studies suggest that reformers can influence the direction and pace of change by mobilizing and exploiting drivers of it. Rather than a cause-and-effect scenario in which a single driver-such as a crisis-creates and defines the success of a body of reforms, what happens is an unfolding series of events in which various drivers become more and less important in defining phases of the reform process
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  • 77
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other Social Protection Study
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: High labor tax wedges and slow formal employment growth have combined to make labor tax reform an important economic policy issue in Turkey. This synthesis report presents the results of a series of empirical studies of the impact of a labor tax reform. The analysis was undertaken before the social contribution reforms that were introduced as part of the 2008 employment package. Using data from firms, households, and social insurance files, the research finds that employment does respond to changes in labor costs at levels that are comparable to those found in other middle-income and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The results show that reducing labor costs could significantly boost registered employment. However, the actual effect of lower taxes on employment would be diluted because a significant portion of the reduced tax will be captured by workers through higher wages rather than by employers through lower labor costs. As a result, tax cuts targeted towards low-wage labor would be more cost-effective than across-the-board reductions. To achieve overall fiscal neutrality, compensating additional revenues from other sources or reduced expenditures will be needed to accompany lower contribution rates
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  • 78
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other Environmental Study
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: Vietnam's transport sector plays an important role in its socioeconomic development. Passenger transport helps meets daily needs and contributes significantly to tourist service development while freight transport helps meet the country's demand for delivery of raw materials and of semi-finished products to production facilities and for transport of finished products to consumers. With the overall growth in transport in the country, each of the main forms of transport (road, railway, aviation, inland waterways and maritime) are currently increasing the total fuel use for transport and as a result overall greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the mix of transport modes used, the major factors affecting the impact of this growth on current and future greenhouse gases from each mode of transport are the quality and quantity of the vehicles and supporting infrastructure and the type of fuels used and their efficiency. The following sections evaluate the infrastructure and fuel use of each of the modes of transport (sections 1.1-1.5), the current and projected greenhouse gas emissions from the sector and the reasons for this (section 2), and typologies of interventions that can reduce the emissions from the sector (section 3)
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  • 79
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other Poverty Study
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: The purpose of this report is to provide a detailed analysis of the behavior of cropping output in agriculture between 1992 and 2006 in Vietnam at both the national and regional level. There are several motivations. The report focuses our analysis on trends with respect to how rapidly output was growing in real terms. The next parts of the chain will link output to farm incomes more directly. First this requires information on the value-added from crop production (gross output value less the cost of intermediate inputs) in order to convert gross revenue into real net income. Second, the report will have to convert 'real farm profits' measured in producer prices, to 'real incomes' that link to farmer welfare, utilizing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for rural households. Third, the period 1992 through 2006 has been one of considerable change in the economic and policy environment that might affect the growth of agriculture. In this report, the report focus only on the trends in real output at the national and sub-regional level, and save the latter two links of the chain for future work
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  • 80
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other Public Sector Study
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: The devolution of procurement responsibilities to local levels of government is increasingly occurring across South Asia. This trend is significant because increasingly localized decision-making better enables communities to hold government authorities accountable for the effectiveness of public spending, which can lead to various improved development outcomes, such as improvements in quality of service delivery; greater empowerment and understanding by end-users services supplied through public procurement processes; and improved oversight and accountability of service delivery agencies. The objective of this report is to set out an overview of the strategic approach developed by World Bank Institute (WBI) as a component of the Norwegian governance trust fund (NTF) program `procurement and service delivery: establishing effective collaboration between government and beneficiaries on monitoring procurement outcomes`. WBI received funds under the NTF to facilitate the development of context and audience-specific knowledge products by recognized practitioners and civil society organizations in South Asia as part of a broader effort to create a practical curriculum on social accountability in procurement
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  • 81
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Country Environmental Analysis
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: The Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) for Timor-Leste identifies environmental priorities through a systematic review of environmental issues in natural resources management and environmental health in the context of the country's economic development and environmental institutions. Lack of data has been the main limitation in presenting a more rigorous analysis. Nevertheless, the report builds on the best available secondary data, presents new data on the country's wealth composition, and derives new results on the costs of water and air pollution. The CEA calls for urgent attention to gaps in the environmental management framework, the lack of capacity to implement the few regulations in place, and the high cost of indoor air pollution and poor water, sanitation, and hygiene. Timor-Leste is a young country that regained independence in 2002, and it has emerged from a bitter past burdened by colonialism and violent conflicts. It is still a fragile state facing enormous challenges. The report also points out the lack of clean water, appropriate sanitation, and hygiene as an environmental priority. The CEA estimates that this imposes an economic cost of about
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  • 82
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Poverty Assessment
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: The study starts with a classification of the enterprises depending on their participation to the Vietnam social security. Among the enterprises that contribute, one striking feature is that on average the share in the wage bill of the contributions paid to the Vietnam social security is much lower than the contribution rate established in the law. Even if the enterprises that do not register their employees are excluded from the calculation, the average ratio is of 7.6 percent while the legal rate was in 2006 equal to 23 percent. The study, consequently, examine this issue before investigating the characteristics of the enterprises that do not register their employees. The paper shows that this low ratio is due to a wide practice by enterprises of paying contributions on lower wages than current wages. The paper investigates, furthermore, who benefit from the practice of avoiding registration and from the practice of under-reporting wages to social security. The results indicate strong evidence that employees in enterprises that are not registered to social security and in enterprises that under report wage receive higher net wages
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  • 83
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Transport Papers
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: The estimate of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development is that more than 80 percent or close to 8 million tons in 2007, of world freight is transported by sea. Most, if not all, freight transport moves from the producer to the consumer through logistic processes thereby passing a number of nodal points. As for waterborne transport, sea and river ports and terminals form these nodal points where freight is transferred from one mode to another. Chapter one provides data on world maritime transport and explains the different types of cargo that pass which are carried by the world merchant fleet and the cargoes they carry. It also is explained that the former general cargo type of vessels have evolved into vessel designs that have specifically been designed for different types of cargoes. Chapter two provides an extensive overview of the development of the container in terms of what containers are, how dedicated container vessels have developed as well as the impact of containers on logistic processes, including hinterland connections. Chapter three provides an overview of the world port in terms of numbers and classifies the largest ports in the world in terms of total cargoes, containers and dry bulk. Chapter four presents an overview of the indicators used in ports. Chapter five describes how ports around the world are owned and managed. First the major characteristics and functions of ports are described and possible ownership structures are explained. The chapter six not only describes the aspect of emissions, but also describes other forms of pollution sources of the sector, as these are noise, light, dust and soil and water pollution. As is explained in chapter seven, port work has gradually changed from pure physical work to processing control using dedicated and complicated equipment and automated systems. Similarly, the work of seafarers has changed. Chapter eight provides tools as to how cities can cope with this issue; in particular how former port areas can be and have been re-integrated in the city. Chapter nine presents a number of examples comparing rates that were charged in 2008 with those in the same period in 2009. Finally, chapter ten provides a comparison between the World Bank's transport business strategy paper 2008-2012 and the issues presented in this overview of ports and waterborne transport
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  • 84
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Corporate Governance Assessment
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: Good corporate governance ensures that companies use their resources more efficiently, protects minority shareholders, leads to better decision making, and improves relations with workers, creditors, and other stakeholders. It is an important prerequisite for attracting the patient capital needed for sustained long-term economic growth. This report provides an assessment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) corporate governance policy framework. It highlights recent improvements in corporate governance regulation, makes policy recommendations, and provides investors with a benchmark against which to measure corporate governance in KSA. The corporate governance laws, regulations, and institutions that have been put in place generally reflect international good practice. In the wake of the market correction of 2006, market regulators focused on the need for better corporate governance via legal and institutional reforms. These included passing a Corporate Governance Regulation (CGR) for listed companies (2006), and further strengthening the supervisory functions across the financial sector. However, many of the laws and institutions are still relatively new and untested; awareness of the importance of good corporate governance is low, and implementation by companies in its early stages
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  • 85
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Investment Climate Assessment
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: This case study focuses on the attempts of the government of Bulgaria (GoB) to promote and implement reform of the business registration system to better suit the new economic framework that emerged in the country following the collapse of communist rule. The uniqueness of the Bulgarian case is that there were two distinct stages of business registration reforms, which marked two separate periods in the sociopolitical development of Bulgaria: the transformation from planned to market economy and the accession of the country to the European Union (EU). This collection of case studies describes experiences and draws lessons from varied business registration reform programs in economies in vastly different stages of development: Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland, Madagascar, and Malaysia. The case studies were written based on a desk study of reforms in each country discussed. Then, more detailed information was gathered by field-based researchers. In some cases, detail on the business registration process that was in place prior to implementation of reforms was unavailable. As such, data on the number of businesses registered and the time required to completed registration before and after the reforms cannot be compared and contrasted. The partial success of the reform during the first year was a consequence of problems in four areas: lack of legislative will, insufficient financial support, inappropriate organizational structure of the new business registration agency, and weak human resource management. All of these problems delayed progress and had negative effects on the registration agency and the business community
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  • 86
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Poverty Assessment
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: A wide range of public policies aims at improving the social welfare of the population or specific groups among the population. The use of the term social protection usually refers to the group of social policies that provide cash transfer to protect households from poverty. The goal of this study is to measure the possible impact of these new policies. Because the new regulations have been recently passed and few administrative data on the programs are available, the study cannot report on the effective impact of the new policy. The approach instead uses the 2006 VHLSS (Vietnamese Household Living Standard Survey) to estimate how efficient the new policy could be if it had enough resource to be fully implemented without any restriction. The first section measures how many of the poor could be eligible to social allowances if the decision 67 could be fully implemented. The second section describes the characteristics of the poor that would probably not benefit from this new policy
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  • 87
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Investment Climate Assessment
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: This paper analyzes how investment incentives may or may not be used to foster private investment, particularly in developing countries. As practitioners and policymakers can attest, political economy exerts a powerful influence on incentives. Many incentives especially generous ones have persisted because of lobbying by special interests and politicians' need to curry favor. Yet little research has been done on how political economy affects incentive policy. Second, the paper sheds light on the role that political economy plays in the popularity of incentives and the related shortcomings. Incentives are sometimes used to dole out favors to investors, so investors who benefit from incentives resist attempts to eliminate them. This paper suggests a way to tackle such problems. Third, the paper compiles good practices on managing and administering incentives in developing countries, drawing on government and private sector experiences. Finally, the paper provides policymakers with a framework for analyzing the efficacy of investment incentives based on the sector and level of development involved, and suggests reforms for moving toward best practice
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  • 88
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other Health Study
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: This report synthesizes data from surveillance, behavioral surveys and published and unpublished research to better understand emerging patterns and trends in the HIV epidemic in Bangladesh. Taking stock of 20 years of experience with HIV in Bangladesh, this report summarizes what is known about the coverage and impact of HIV prevention services, including knowledge on risk and protective behaviors. The report is divided into nine chapters. Chapter one provides a brief introduction and an overview of the methodology used for this exercise. Chapter two discusses the risks and vulnerabilities of the high risk groups including female sex workers, injecting drug users, male who have sex with male, hijra and overlapping populations, while chapter three discusses the trend of the infection amongst partners of high risk groups. Bangladesh continues to report low condom use, which is analyzed and discussed in chapter four. Structural factors including macro level and intermediate level factors that affect HIV interventions in Bangladesh are addressed in chapter five. The national HIV response is discussed in chapter six. The report concludes with a discussion of the main findings, with recommendations for the future in chapter seven, and chapter eight and nine are annexes and references
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  • 89
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Investment Climate Assessment
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: This report on Sudan's Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) provides a baseline assessment of challenges to productivity, diversification and inclusion. Chapter 1 describes some of the questions underlying the three issues of competitiveness, diversification and broad-based growth. Chapter 2 analyzes firm performance and competitiveness. Chapter 3 discusses markets and trust. Chapter 4 describes the role of the financial sector. Chapter 5 analyses the informal sector. Chapter 6 discusses the conflict-affected private sector development. Chapter 7 discusses regional inclusion, and Chapter 8 makes some preliminary conclusions and recommendations
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  • 90
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource
    Series Statement: Other Financial Sector Study
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Abstract: An inspection is an official examination or review. The term 'onsite' means that the inspection takes place wherever the subject of the inspection happens to be located. In the insurance sector, supervisory authorities perform onsite inspections of insurers and intermediaries. Inspections sometimes extend to other entities that can affect the operations of insurers and intermediaries, such as affiliated companies and providers of outsourced services. A full-scale onsite inspection is a wide-ranging look at the finances and operations of an insurer. It can greatly assist the supervisory authority in arriving at a comprehensive assessment of the insurer's risk profile, viability, and compliance with requirements. Full-scale inspections can consume a lot of supervisory resources. A focused inspection looks at selected aspects of an insurer's finances or operations. They can often be performed more quickly and with fewer resources than a full-scale inspection, which is particular important if a specific supervisory concern has arisen and needs to be investigated. The flexibility to use both full-scale and focused inspections, as the situation may require, enables a supervisory authority to use available resources effectively and efficiently
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  • 91
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (49 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Bandyopadhyay, Simanti Fiscal Health of Selected IndianCities
    Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the fiscal problems faced by five urban agglomerations in India, namely, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, and Pune. It analyzes the fiscal health of the five urban agglomerations, quantifies their revenue capacities and expenditure needs, and draws policy recommendations on the means to reduce the gaps between revenue raising capacities and expenditure needs. The main findings suggest that, except for five small urban local bodies in Hyderabad, the others are not in a position to cover their expenditure needs by their present revenue collections. All the urban agglomerations have unutilized potential for revenue generation; however, with the exception of Hyderabad, they would fail to cover their expenditure needs even if they realized their revenue potential. Except in Chennai, larger corporations are more constrained than smaller urban local bodies. The paper recommends better utilization of "own revenue" through improved administration of property taxes, implementation of other taxes, and collection of user charges. It recommends that state governments should explore the option of allowing local bodies to piggyback a small proportion on their value-added tax collections. Another way to reduce the fiscal gap would be to earmark a portion of the sales proceeds from land and housing by state governments sold through their development agencies for improvements in urban infrastructure. The paper also recommends that the State Finance Commissions should develop appropriate norms for estimating expenditure needs, based on which transfers from the state to local governments can be decided
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  • 92
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (29 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Azzarri, Carlo Modeling Migration Dynamics in Albania
    Abstract: Since 1990 migration flows from Albania have been massive, relative to the size of the country and its population, but they have also fluctuated over time. This paper presents and discusses various descriptive trends, mainly in graphical form. The data come from the Albanian Living Standards Measurement Survey, 2005 round, and cover the period 1990-2004. The resulting observed trends reflect changing push and pull factors in Albania and the two main host countries, Greece and Italy. The paper also presents a hazard approach to modeling Albanian emigration and return migration. This analysis highlights, among other things, the relevance of networks in Albanian migration dynamics, both to promote emigration and to delay return
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  • 93
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (41 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Cull, Robert Does Regulatory Supervision Curtail Microfinance Profitability and Outreach?
    Abstract: Regulation allows microfinance institutions to evolve more fully into banks, particularly for institutions aiming to take deposits. But there are potential trade-offs. Complying with regulation and supervision can be costly. The authors examine the implications for the institutions’ profitability and their outreach to small-scale borrowers and women. The tests draw on a new database that combines high-quality financial data on 245 of the world’s largest microfinance institutions with newly-constructed data on their prudential supervision. Ordinary least squares regressions show that supervision is negatively associated with profitability. Controlling for the non-random assignment of supervision via treatment effects and instrumental variables regressions, the analysis finds that supervision is associated with substantially larger average loan sizes and less lending to women than in ordinary least squares regressions, although it is not significantly associated with profitability. The pattern is consistent with the notion that profit-oriented microfinance institutions absorb the cost of supervision by curtailing outreach to market segments that tend to be more costly per dollar lent. By contrast, microfinance institutions that rely on non-commercial sources of funding (for example, donations), and thus are less profit-oriented, do not adjust loan sizes or lend less to women when supervised, but their profitability is significantly reduced
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  • 94
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (31 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Raschky, Paul A On the Channel and Type of International Disaster Aid
    Abstract: Research suggests that a donor country’s decision to provide post-disaster assistance is not only driven by the severity of a disaster and the resulting humanitarian needs in the recipient country, but also by strategic considerations. The authors argue that the identification of the determinants of the size of disaster assistance is a first step in the analysis of the donor’s behavior. Since all aid is not motivated by the same reasons, the evaluation of the donor country’s behavior requires a second step accounting for the type and the channel of aid provided. Using data on international disaster assistance between 2000 and 2007, the analysis examines both the donor countries' decision on the channel (bilateral versus multilateral) and the type of disaster relief (cash versus in-kind). The empirical results suggest that international disaster relief is not as much driven by the needs of the recipient country, but also by strategic interests (for example, oil or trade relationships) of the donor country. Bilateral and cash transfers are used as a vehicle to signal strategic interests, while multilateral and in-kind transfers are chosen to control for misuse in badly governed recipient countries
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  • 95
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (25 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Lofgren, Hans Scaling Up Aid Or Scaling Down
    Abstract: Rwanda is not on track to achieve most of the Millennium Development Goals at a time when hopes for scaled-up aid are mixed with concerns that, in the context of the global economic crisis, aid instead will be scaled down. This paper analyzes the effects of alternative scenarios for grant aid, government spending allocations (between infrastructure, agriculture, and human development), and government efficiency. The authors use an economy-wide model for development strategy analysis, Maquette for Millennium Development Goal Simulations. Under a plausible scenario for increased aid, annual growth in gross domestic product increases by as much as 0.6 percentage points relative to a baseline with a growth rate of 6 percent; by 2020, the headcount poverty rate declines to 32 percent, 3 percentage points lower than for the baseline. A plausible scenario for reduced aid leads to a symmetric growth reduction but a more pronounced increase in poverty, at 40 percent in 2020. When aid increases, the most positive growth and poverty reduction impacts occur if spending increases are allocated to infrastructure and agriculture; progress in human health and education is significant but weaker than if additional spending is focused on these areas. Given synergies and diminishing marginal returns from expansion in a limited area, the scenarios that may appear most attractive and politically feasible have a broad and balanced expansion across government functions, promoting both growth and human development
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  • 96
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (39 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Bardasi, Elena Working Long Hours and Having No Choice
    Abstract: This paper provides a new definition of 'time poverty' as working long hours and having no choice to do otherwise. An individual is time poor if he/she is working long hours and is also monetary poor, or would fall into monetary poverty if he/she were to reduce his/her working hours below a given time poverty line. Thus being time poor results from the combination of two conditions. First, the individual does not have enough time for rest and leisure once all working hours (whether spent in the labor market or doing household chores such as cooking, and fetching water and wood) are accounted for. Second, the individual cannot reduce his/her working time without either increasing the level of poverty of his/her household (if the household is already poor) or leading his/her household to fall into monetary poverty due to the loss in income or consumption associated with the reduction in working time (if the household is not originally poor). The paper applies the concepts of the traditional poverty literature to the analysis of time poverty and presents a case study using data for Guinea in 2002-03. Both univariate and multivariate results suggest that women are significantly more likely to be time poor than men
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  • 97
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (28 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Gauri, Varun Do International Treaties Promote Development?
    Abstract: Little evidence is available on whether changing global rules so as to promote human rights can enhance development outcomes. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was almost universally ratified by the mid-1990s, but it is unclear whether treaty ratification was associated with better or wider protection of children’s rights. This paper uses an instrumental variable approach to investigate whether treaty ratification was associated with stronger effort at the country level on child survival, and particularly with higher rates of immunization coverage. The paper finds that ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child was correlated with a subsequent increase in immunization rates, but only in upper middle and high-income countries. Treaties can promote development outcomes, but require institutional support to do so
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  • 98
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (52 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Demirguc-Kunt, Asli Finance and Inequality
    Abstract: This paper critically reviews the literature on finance and inequality, highlighting substantive gaps in the literature. Finance plays a crucial role in most theories of persistent inequality. Unsurprisingly, therefore, economic theory provides a rich set of predictions concerning both the impact of finance on inequality and about the relevant mechanisms. Although subject to ample qualifications, the bulk of empirical research suggests that improvements in financial contracts, markets, and intermediaries expand economic opportunities and reduce inequality. Yet, there is a shortage of theoretical and empirical research on the potentially enormous impact of formal financial sector policies, such as bank regulations and securities law, on persistent inequality. Furthermore, there is no conceptual framework for considering the joint and endogenous evolution of finance, inequality, and economic growth
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  • 99
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (40 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Considine, Timothy J Substitution and Technological Change Under Carbon Cap and Trade
    Abstract: The use of carbon-intense fuels by the power sector contributes significantly to the greenhouse gas emissions of most countries. For this reason, the sector is often key to initial efforts to regulate emissions. But how long does it take before new regulatory incentives result in a switch to less carbon intense fuels? This study examines fuel switching in electricity production following the introduction of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System, a cap-and-trade regulatory framework for greenhouse gas emissions. The empirical analysis examines the demand for carbon permits, carbon based fuels, and carbon-free energy for 12 European countries using monthly data on fuel use, prices, and electricity generation. A short-run restricted cost function is estimated in which carbon permits, high-carbon fuels, and low-carbon fuels are variable inputs, conditional on quasi-fixed carbon-free energy production from nuclear, hydro, and renewable energy capacity. The results indicate that prices for permits and fuels affect the composition of inputs in a statistically significant way. Even so, the analysis suggests that the industry’s fuel-switching capabilities are limited in the short run as is the scope for introducing new technologies. This is because of the dominant role that past irreversible investments play in determining power-generating capacity. Moreover, the results suggest that, because the capacity for fuel substitution is limited, the impact of carbon emission limits on electricity prices can be significant if fuel prices increase together with carbon permit prices. The estimates suggest that for every 10 percent rise in carbon and fuel prices, the marginal cost of electric power generation increases by 8 percent in the short run. The European experience points to the importance of starting early down a low-carbon path and of policies that introduce flexibility in how emission reductions are achieved
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  • 100
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (41 p)
    Edition: 2009 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Calvo-Pardo, Hector The ASEAN Free Trade Agreement
    Abstract: Using detailed data on trade and tariffs from 1992-2007, the authors examine how the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement has affected trade with nonmembers and external tariffs facing nonmembers. First, the paper examines the effect of preferential and external tariff reduction on import growth from ASEAN insiders and outsiders across HS 6-digit industries. The analysis finds no evidence that preferential liberalization has led to lower import growth from nonmembers. Second, it examines the relationship between preferential tariff reduction and MFN tariff reduction. The analysis finds that preferential liberalization tends to precede external tariff liberalization. To examine whether this tariff complementarity is a result of simultaneous decision making, the authors use the scheduled future preferential tariff reductions (agreed to in 1992) as instruments for actual preferential tariff changes after the Asia crisis. The results remain unchanged, suggesting that there is a causal relationship between preferential and MFN tariff reduction. The findings also indicate that external liberalization was relatively sharper in the products where preferences are likely to be most damaging, proving further support for a causal effect. Overall, the results imply that the ASEAN agreement has been a force for broader liberalization
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