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  • 2010-2014  (3,127)
  • 1985-1989  (9)
  • Washington, D.C : The World Bank  (3,136)
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  • 1
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Study on Accounting Regulation for Business Combinations (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Abstract: Running a business involves continuous growth. Such growth can be organic, stemming from resources created internally in the enterprise. However, in many cases an external development strategy is adopted, based on acquisition of other entities. Such an acquisition may involve creation of a capital group, within which each of the companies maintains its separate legal personality. However, if a capital group is not the optimal form for the given business activity, acquisition of another entity may take form of a business combination. In such case, assets and liabilities of the acquire are directly incorporated into the books of the acquirer. The overriding principle of accounting regulation is primacy of economic substance over legal format. Pursuant to this principle, economic transactions must be recorded in the accounting records in accordance with their economic nature1. In order to determine properly the economic nature of a business combination, an analysis must be performed of economic impacts of such a combination. Economic consequences for merging entities are described in the provisions of commercial law
    DOI: 10.1596/24803
    URL: Deutschlandweit zugänglich
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    MPI Ethno. Forsch.
  • 2
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Libya -- Managing Public Investment After the Revolution : Background, Activities, Results and Proposals (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Public Investment Review
    Abstract: This report is intended to provide in one single document the background, principal recent and current World Bank activities and the proposed program of technical assistance to the Government in the area of public investment programming and management in post-revolution Libya. Aside from the convenience, both for the Bank and other international partners, of a synthesis of all major assessments and advice provided by the Bank in this central area of public sector management, this report shows the substantial continuity of diagnosis and assistance from the immediate aftermath of the Revolution through mid-2014. The first section recounts the early activities and, against that background, the second section summarizes the activities conducted and initial results achieved during FY2014. The concluding section lists the preliminary agreements with the Government on how to build on those initial results with complementary activities and deepening of a number of initiatives, specifically during FY2015 and with general indications for the subsequent years. The text of the report is limited to a summary of key issues and recommendations, with full details provided in the several annexes
    DOI: 10.1596/24462
    URL: Deutschlandweit zugänglich
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  • 3
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Development Committee Closing Press Conference (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Speeches of World Bank Presidents
    Abstract: Marek Belka, Chairman of the Development Committee, stated that there was a very broad, uniform support for the twin goals of the World Bank Group. He noted the resounding support for internal reforms at the World Bank Group. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, spoke about the change process and the success in developing and bringing together Global Practices and cross-cutting solution areas throughout the world. He noted the IDA replenishment and new financial arrangements that will allow increased lending in the next few years. He concludes by noting the need for a carbon price and the need to reduce fossil fuel subsidies, the importance of energy efficiency and improved performance standards, and and also long-term finance for renewable energy. Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director, affirms that the IMF will continue to work on the issues of inequality, gender inclusion, growth, and the job market, and the fiscal aspect of climate change and how those matters of macroeconomic criticality can be addressed using fiscal tools. They fielded questions on IMF governance reform, the impact of technological change on employment, and the pace of the Global Infrastructure Facility
    DOI: 10.1596/24335
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  • 4
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Remarks at the Development Committee Press Conference, IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, Washington, D.C., October 11, 2014 (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Speeches of World Bank Presidents
    Abstract: Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, discusses the problem of global inequality. He speaks about the commitment for building the platform which would bring the expertise of not only the World Bank, but the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multilateral development banks, to prepare projects and bridge the gap in what is a market failure. He speaks about the companies that were represented, sovereign wealth funds, the countries that had signed on, including China, which has made very strong commitments to finding a price on carbon for the world. He highlights about the need for some source of funding that will disperse immediately on the occasion of the next epidemic, and the global community needs to come together to decide what the response will be. Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director, commended Kim on his efforts in the fight against Ebola. Lagarde noted that much of Africa is growing and creating jobs. The two fielded questions on Ebola, the role of China in these institutions, China's investment-led growth strategy, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
    DOI: 10.1596/24321
    URL: Deutschlandweit zugänglich
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  • 5
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    The Importance of Safety Nets : Mexico's Leadership (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Speeches of World Bank Presidents
    Abstract: Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group discusses the importance of safety nets and social protection that countries provide to their citizens. He announces supporting for Mexico's second-generation safety net program PROSPERA, which provides a financial cushion to poor people, allowing them to achieve a higher level of health and security and giving them the chance to learn skills and to find good jobs to become more productive workers, to raise their income levels, and to promote economic growth. He talks about Mexico that played a crucial role in sharing lessons learned from its leadership in the sector and responding to presentations on the experiences of other countries that have faced similar challenges
    DOI: 10.1596/24312
    URL: Deutschlandweit zugänglich
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    MPI Ethno. Forsch.
  • 6
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Sending a Signal from Paris : Transforming the Economy to Achieve Zero Net Emissions (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Speeches of World Bank Presidents
    Abstract: Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, focuses on economic policy as the key to mobilizing a coordinated global response to climate change. He talks about the need to confront climate change, without which there will be no hope of ending poverty or boosting shared prosperity. He adds that the longer the delay in tackling climate change, the higher the cost will be to do the right thing for our planet and our children. He affirms that from the Paris meeting we will make the rallying cry for effective management of local, national and global economies to fight climate change. The Paris agreement needs to speak as loudly of economic transformation as it does of pollution or carbon emissions targets. Carbon pricing that can raise revenues and can be used to generate more economic and social benefits. Specific efforts are needed to scale up renewable energy and develop carbon capture and sequestration technology, at a pace that will allow us to reach carbon neutrality by the end of the century. He concludes by saying that he will drive the World Bank Group and all its capabilities--financial, technical, and human--to support this development transition toward the goal of preserving our planet for all future generations
    DOI: 10.1596/24311
    URL: Deutschlandweit zugänglich
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  • 7
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Quality Education for the World We Want (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Speeches of World Bank Presidents
    Abstract: Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, emphasized that children learned better when we level the playing field at an early stage. He stressed the need for stronger basic education with immediate investment, and a focus on recruitment, grooming, and motivation of teachers. He concluded that we must sustain this momentum and use all available resources and evidence to make sure that every child is in school and learning
    DOI: 10.1596/24327
    URL: Deutschlandweit zugänglich
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  • 8
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Republic of Kiribati Early Childhood Development : SABER and NSA-ECD Country Report 2014 (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)
    Abstract: This report presents an analysis of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) subsector, including programs and policies that affect young children in the Republic of Kiribati. This was a collaborative effort between UNICEF and the World Bank Group; it combines the World Bank Group's Systems Approach for Better Education Results SABER-ECD framework, which includes analysis of early learningand child p, health, nutrition, and social rotection policies and interventions in Kiribati, along with regional and international comparisons, as well as the regionally developed UNICEF National Situational Analysis ECD, which takes a greater in-depth look at the following system components, which have been highlighted by the Pacific Region as priority components for quality Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) implementation: policy, legislation, and governance; human resources; curriculum, child assessment, and environment; performance monitoring and assessment; and community partnerships. In 2008, the Ministry of Education (MOE) drafted the Kiribati Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy, which was formally endorsed by Cabinet in 2010. The ECCE policy, targeting ages three to five, calls ECCE a "national responsibility" with a mission "to culturally nurture young children in a loving and caring environment to enhance through interactive play the fullest potential of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional and spiritual growth in line with trends and development". This country report presents a framework to benchmark Kiribati's ECD system; each of the nine policy levers and five system components are examined in detail, and policy options to strengthen ECD are offered. This report is intended to serve as a first step for decision making within the government of Kiribati to improve the ECD system. Now that some areas in need of policy attention have been identified, the country can move forward in prioritizing policy options to promote healthy and robust development for all children during their early years
    DOI: 10.1596/24473
    URL: Deutschlandweit zugänglich
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  • 9
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Corporate Financial Reporting in Austria : An Overview (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Abstract: The purpose of this report on corporate financial reporting in Austria is to describe the key features of Austria's corporate financial reporting environment as well as its practical application in regard to small and medium enterprises (SMEs') financial reporting practices in Austria. This report builds on the World Bank accounting and auditing reports on standards and codes (ROSC) methodology to give an overview of the Austrian corporate financial reporting system. It selectively provides good practice examples that can give incentives to overcome impediments to financial reporting reform. Based on the findings of two surveys conducted among Austrian SMEs and Austrian financial institutions, the report focuses particularly on aspects relevant to SME financial reporting. This report forms part of the activities of the center for financial reporting reform (CFRR) within the road to Europe program of accounting reform and institutional strengthening (REPARIS), which also provided funding
    DOI: 10.1596/24463
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  • 10
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Food Safety Toolkit : Introduction and Quick Start Guide (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Abstract: Legislation based on international standards and harmonized between trade partners facilitates trade and enables products from developing countries to be competitive in the international market. Countries looking to export to the EU should aim to harmonize legislation with EU rules. If exporting to EU markets is not a priority, countries should follow requirements of the WTO SPS agreement and thus ensure that their products can access markets of all WTO member states. Both the EU and WTO legislative models for food safety require a risk-based approach to food safety controls, prioritizing funds and activity on the most risky areas. Reforms in this area should be primarily focused on ensuring food safety, although ensuring that consumers are receiving the quality of food that they expect is also a consideration. When planning legislative reform, the burden on business should be carefully considered, and consultation with the business community is strongly recommended to obtain a good understanding of the business perspective. Public awareness on the need for reforms can be important and it is essential to outline the benefits of improved food safety legislation to consumers and their representative bodies as they can help to support reforms and sustain their results
    DOI: 10.1596/25204
    URL: Deutschlandweit zugänglich
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  • 11
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Applying Results-Based Financing in Water Investments (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Water Papers
    Abstract: Given the broad array of issues and the complexity faced by the water sector as a whole (from irrigation to flood protection, to water conservation and hydropower), there is great demand for future exploring the potential of RBF and tackling the questions still unanswered about many of its operational dimensions. This document takes a closer look at some of the practical aspects of implementing various RBF water schemes. Chapter 2 provides an analytical framework to explore if and when RBF can be a viable option, shedding light on some key factors and preconditions that are necessary for RBF to work--with the understanding that it can be used either as an alternative or a complement to a more traditional input-based funding scheme. Chapter 3 then revisits the concepts discussed in the analytical framework through the analysis of various case studies of RBF approaches in different water-related areas. Some of the case studies are based on actual projects already implemented or ongoing, while others are an illustrative elaboration, given the lack of practical cases to use as sources. Chapter 4 presents some conclusions and lessons learned. The key challenges that are likely to be encountered in designing an RBF scheme deal with: the clarity and level of certainty of the relationships from input to output to outcomes (causal links); the ease and availability of measurable indicators; and, consequently, the optimal determination of the necessary incentive(s) to align the goals of the principal with the agents' deliverables. Appendix A presents a glossary of RBF concepts and acronyms. Appendix B presents specific results and indicators which may be relevant for different sectors
    DOI: 10.1596/20041
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  • 12
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Trade and Humanitarian Emergencies : A Survey of Trade Policy Issues Affecting Disaster Response, Recovery and Reconstruction (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Other papers
    Abstract: The initial hours and days after a humanitarian emergency are generally seen as the most important. Because they affect the rapid deployment of relief to people in need, international trade policies, and the way in which they are implemented, can make an enormous difference to the effectiveness of the humanitarian response, in many cases, the difference between life and death. The same issues that affect trade on a daily basis, such as costly, inefficient and onerous borders procedures, are magnified in times of humanitarian emergencies where speed and reliability of delivery are so critical. Trade also plays a key role in recovery and reconstruction well beyond the initial phase of an emergency. This report surveys three main areas at the intersection of trade-related policies and humanitarian emergencies: (i ) border procedures and trade facilitation; (ii) trade and disaster recovery and reconstruction; and (iii) other trade policies affecting humanitarian response
    DOI: 10.1596/24993
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  • 13
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Count on Us (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Speeches of World Bank Presidents
    Abstract: Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, discusses fundamental issues in global development and the World Bank Group's role in helping countries and the private sector meet the greatest challenges in development. He speaks about the twin goals, to end extreme poverty by 2030 and to boost shared prosperity. Due to television, everyone knows how everyone else lives. We must not remain voluntarily blind to the impact of economic choices on the poor and vulnerable. He added that we must ensure that our economic progress does not irreparably compromise our children's future due to climate change. World Bank's lending capacity - or the amount of loans we can carry on our balance sheet -- will increase by USD 100 billion dollars in the next decade, to roughly USD 300 billion dollars. He concludes by saying that all parts of our global society must unite to translate the vision of a more just, sustainable economy into the resolute action. That will be our legacy to the future. Dr. Kim fielded questions
    DOI: 10.1596/24338
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  • 14
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Solomon Islands Student Assessment : SABER Country Report 2014 (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)
    Abstract: The Solomon Islands has focused on increasing studentlearning outcomes by improving the quality of educationin the country. An effective student assessment systemis an important component of efforts to improveeducation quality and learning outcomes because itprovides the necessary information to meet stakeholders' decision-making needs. In order to gain abetter understanding of the strengths and weaknesses ofits existing assessment system, the Solomon Islands decided to benchmark this system using standardized tools developed under The World Bank's Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) program.SABER is an evidence-based program to help countriessystematically examine and strengthen the performanceof different aspects of their education systems. The goal ofSABER-Student Assessment is to promote stronger assessment systems that contribute to improved education quality and learning for all
    DOI: 10.1596/24468
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  • 15
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Uganda School Health : SABER Country Report 2014 (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)
    Abstract: This report presents an assessment of school health policies and institutions that affect young children in Uganda. The analysis is based on a World Bank tool developed as part of the systems approach for better education results (SABER) initiative that aims to systematically assess education systems against evidence based global standards and good practice to help countries reform their education systems to help ensure learning for all. School health policies are a critical component of an effective education system, given that children's health impacts their school attendance, ability to learn, and overall development. SABER school health collects, analyzes, and disseminates comprehensive information on school health policies around the world. The overall objective of the initiative is to help countries design effective policies to improve their education systems, facilitate comparative policy analysis, identify key areas to focus investment, and assist in disseminating good practice
    DOI: 10.1596/24472
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  • 16
    Online Resource
    Online Resource
    Identification for Development : Morocco (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (1 pages)
    Series Statement: World Bank E-Library Archive
    Series Statement: Other Public Sector Study
    Abstract: The report is organized as follows. Section two reviews the identity ecosystem in Morocco. The section discusses in detail five identification programs that seem to have complementary strengths and that can be considered as assets. These are the national identity (CNIE), the civil register, the children school register (MASSAR), the register of health assistance (RAMED), and the social security register (CNSS). Section three, provides a global analysis of the data collected and highlights the findings within a holistic view. Section 4 presents some options that may be explored to improve the identification systems in the country. In annex one, the color coded performance matrix for the What Matters factors is given for reference. The methodology of the research is briefly presented in annex two along with the raw data collected through the SPA ID Questionnaire tool, and in annex three some population data from HCP that is used in this report is provided for convenience. It is important to emphasize that in developing options for consideration we worked within the constraint of leveraging existing assets and avoided strategies that would result in activities that overlap with what has been done in the past. This is particularly true for enrollment of the population, which is a costly process. This approach recognizes the need to leverage the existing enrollment databases and procedures
    DOI: 10.1596/25075
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  • 17
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    Education in Sub-Saharan Africa : comparing faith-inspired, private secular, and public schools (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    ISBN: 9780821399651
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    DDC: 370.96
    Keywords: Education ; Education Statistics ; Education and state ; Education ; Education Statistics ; Education and state ; Education ; Education ; Education and state
    Note: Includes bibliographical references and index
    DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-9965-1
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 18
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    Right-to-work? : assessing India's employment guarantee scheme in Bihar (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    ISBN: 9781464801303
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Series Statement: Equity and development
    DDC: 331.01/10954123
    Keywords: Guaranteed annual income ; Manpower policy, Rural ; Right to labor ; Unemployment ; Guaranteed annual income ; Manpower policy, Rural ; Right to labor ; Unemployment ; Guaranteed annual income ; Manpower policy, Rural ; Right to labor ; Unemployment
    Note: Includes bibliographical references and index
    DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0130-3
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 19
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    The Little Data Book on Information and Communication Technology 2014 (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    ISBN: 9781464801785
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (244 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Series Statement: World Development Indicators
    Abstract: This Little Data Book presents tables for over 213 economies showing the most recent national data on key indicators of information and communications technology (ICT), including access, quality, affordability, efficiency,sustainability, and applications
    DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0177-8
    URL: Volltext  (Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
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  • 20
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    The Little Green Data Book 2014 (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    ISBN: 9781464801761
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (248 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Series Statement: World Development Indicators
    Abstract: The Little Green Data Book is a pocket-sized ready reference on key environmental data for over 200 countries. Key indicators are organized under the headings of agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, oceans, energy, emission and pollution, and water and sanitation. For the second year, The Little Green Data Book presents a new set of ocean-related indicators, highlighting the role of oceans in economic development
    DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0175-4
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  • 21
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    Analyzing food security using household survey data (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    ISBN: 1464801339 , 9781464801334
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (xiv, 257 pages) , illustrations , 24 cm
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Series Statement: Streamlined analysis with ADePT software
    DDC: 363.8
    Keywords: ADEPT (Computer program) ; ADEPT (Computer program) ; Food security Computer programs ; Food security Data processing ; Food security Statistical methods ; Household surveys Data processing ; Household surveys Statistical methods ; Food security Computer programs ; Food security Data processing ; Food security Statistical methods ; Household surveys Data processing ; Household surveys Statistical methods ; ADEPT (Computer program) ; Food security ; Food security ; Food security ; Household surveys ; Household surveys
    Description / Table of Contents: Machine generated contents note:ch. 1Food SecurityIntroductionBackgroundSources of Food Consumption DataSummaryADePT-Food Security ModuleNotesReferencesBibliographych. 2Theoretical ConceptsIntroductionFood Data Collected in Household SurveysStandardization ProceduresIndicators on Food SecurityAnnexesNotesReferencesBibliographych. 3Guide to Output TablesIntroductionOutput TablesGlossary of IndicatorsNotesReferencesBibliographych. 4DatasetsIntroductionDatasets DescriptionExogenous ParametersNotesReferencesch. 5Guide to Using ADePT-FSMIntroductionSystem RequirementsInstalling ADePTRegistering ADePTLaunching ADePTUsing the ADePT-FSM Main WindowUsing ADePT-FSMExamining the TablesViewing Basic Information about a Dataset's VariablesWorking with ProjectsExiting ADePTUsing ADePT in a Batch ModeDebug ModeReference.
    Note: Includes bibliographical references and index
    DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0133-4
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  • 22
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    Accelerating Health Reforms through Collective Action : Experiences from East Africa (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    ISBN: 9781464802881
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (140 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Series Statement: World Bank Studies
    Abstract: This publication briefly describes the processes and methodologies for building and sustaining multistakeholder coalition to drive reforms in the health sector. It is based on the experiences of three East African countries -- Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. It outlines, by chapter, each country's experience in identifying, mobilizing, and coalescing key stakeholders to address governance bottlenecks in pharmaceutical procurement and supply chain management. It highlights challenges, successes as well as lessons learned to guide other countries
    DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0287-4
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  • 23
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    Global Monitoring Report 2014/2015 : Ending Poverty and Sharing Prosperity (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    ISBN: 9781464803376
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (240 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Series Statement: Global Monitoring Report
    Abstract: The Global Monitoring Report 2014/2015: Ending Poverty and Sharing Prosperity was written jointly by the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund, with substantive inputs from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This year's report details, for the first time, progress toward the WBG's twin goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and promoting shared prosperity and assesses the state of policies and institutions that are important for achieving them. The report continues to monitor progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Also for the first time, the report includes information about high-income countries. It finds that while gaps in living standards have been closing in many countries, the well-being of households in the bottom 40 percent, as measured by the non-income MDGs such as access to education and health services, remains below that of households in the top 60 percent. The focus of this year's report is on three elements needed to make growth more inclusive and sustainable: investment in human capital that favors the poor, the best use of safety nets, and steps to ensure the environmental sustainability of economic growth. These three elements are imperative to all countries' development strategies, and are also fundamental to global efforts to achieve the twin goals, the MDGs, and the Sustainable Development Goals that will succeed the MDGs. Global Monitoring Report 2014/2015 was prepared in collaboration with regional development banks and other multilateral partners
    DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0336-9
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    The Challenge of Measuring Hunger (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (28 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: De Weerdt, Joachim The Challenge of Measuring Hunger
    Keywords: Ernährungssicherung ; Unterernährung ; Messung ; Tansania
    Abstract: There is widespread interest in the number of hungry people in the world and trends in hunger. Current global counts rely on combining each country's total food balance with information on distribution patterns from household consumption expenditure surveys. Recent research has advocated for calculating hunger numbers directly from these same surveys. For either approach, embedded in this effort are a number of important details about how household surveys are designed and how these data are then used. Using a survey experiment in Tanzania, this study finds great fragility in hunger counts stemming from alternative survey designs. As a consequence, comparable and valid hunger numbers will be lacking until more effort is made to either harmonize survey designs or better understand the consequences of survey design variation
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6736
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  • 25
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    Sanitation and Externalities : Evidence from Early Childhood Health in Rural India (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (39 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Andres, Luis A Sanitation and Externalities
    Abstract: This paper estimates two sources of benefits related to sanitation infrastructure access on early childhood health: a direct benefit a household receives when moving from open to fixed-point defecation or from unimproved sanitation to improved sanitation, and an external benefit (externality) produced by the neighborhood's access to sanitation infrastructure. The paper uses a sample of children under 48 months in rural areas of India from the Third Round of District Level Household Survey 2007-08 and finds evidence of positive and significant direct benefits and concave positive external effects for both improved sanitation and fixed-point defecation. There is a 47 percent reduction in diarrhea prevalence between children living in a household without access to improved sanitation in a village without coverage of improved sanitation and children living in a household with access to improved sanitation in a village with complete coverage. One-fourth of this benefit is due to the direct benefit leaving the rest to external gains. Finally, all the benefits from eliminating open defecation come from improved sanitation and not other sanitation solutions
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6737
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  • 26
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    Does Migration Foster Exports? : Evidence from Africa (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (30 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Ehrhart, Hélène Does Migration Foster Exports?
    Abstract: This paper aims at assessing the impact of migration on export performance and more particularly the effect of African migrants on African trade. Relying on a new data set on international bilateral migration recently released by the World Bank spanning from 1980 to 2010, the authors estimate a gravity model that deals satisfactorily with endogeneity. The results first indicate that the pro-trade effect of migration is higher for African countries, a finding that can be partly explained by the substitution between migrants and institutions (the existence of migrant networks compensating for weak contract enforcement, for instance). This positive association is particularly important for the exports of differentiated products, suggesting that migrants also play an important role in reducing information costs. Moreover, focusing on intra-African trade, the pro-trade effect of African migrants is larger when migrants are established in a more geographically and ethnically distant country. All these findings highlight the ability of African migrants to help overcome some of the main barriers to African trade: the weakness of institutions, information costs, cultural differences, and lack of trust
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6739
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  • 27
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    What Explains Rwanda's Drop in Fertility between 2005 and 2010? (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (43 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Bundervoet, Tom What Explains Rwanda's Drop in Fertility between 2005 and 2010?
    Abstract: Following a decade-and-a-half stall, fertility in Rwanda dropped sharply between 2005 and 2010. Using a hierarchical age-period-cohort model, this paper finds that the drop in fertility is largely driven by cohort effects, with younger cohorts having substantially fewer children than older cohorts observed at the same age. An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition is applied on two successive rounds of the Demographic and Health Survey. The findings show that improved female education levels account for the largest part of the fertility decline, with improving household living standards and the progressive move toward non-agricultural employment being important secondary drivers. The drop in fertility has been particularly salient for the younger cohorts, for whom the fertility decline can be fully explained by changes in underlying determinants, most notably the large increase in educational attainment between 2005 and 2010
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6741
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  • 28
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    Evaluating Aid for Trade : A Survey of Recent Studies (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (27 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Cadot, Olivier Evaluating Aid for Trade
    Abstract: The demand for accountability in aid-for-trade is increasing but monitoring has focused on case studies and impressionistic narratives. The paper reviews recent evidence from a wide range of studies, recognizing that a multiplicity of approaches is needed to learn what works and what does not. The review concludes that there is some support for the emphasis on reducing trade costs through investments in hard infrastructure (like ports and roads) and soft infrastructure (like customs). But failure to implement complementary reform-especially the introduction of competition in transport services-may erode the benefits of these investments. Direct support to exporters does seem to lead to diversification across products and destinations, but it is not yet clear that these benefits are durable. In general, it is difficult to rely on cross-country studies to direct aid-for-trade. More rigorous impact evaluation is an underutilized alternative, but situations of clinical interventions in trade are rare and adverse incentives (because of agency problems) and costs (because of the small size of project) are a hurdle in implementation
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6742
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  • 29
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    Financial Sector Policy in Practice : Benchmarking Financial Sector Strategies around the World (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (43 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Maimbo, Samuel Munzele Financial Sector Policy in Practice
    Abstract: Policy makers use financial sector strategies to formulate a holistic policy for their national financial sectors. This paper examines and rates financial sector strategies around the world based on how well they formulate development targets, arrangements for systemic risk management, and implementation plans. The strategies are also rated on whether they consider policy trade-offs between financial development and systemic risk management. The rated strategies are then benchmarked against a wide range of country characteristics. The analysis finds that the scope and quality of national strategies for the financial sector are influenced by the country's type of legal system, its level of income and macroeconomic stability, the existing financial depth and inclusion, the share of foreign ownership in the national financial sector, and the experience of past financial crises. Giving due consideration to policy trade-offs, particularly between financial development and systemic risk management, remains the weakest part of these strategies. Countries with civil- and religious-based law and those with a higher share of foreign ownership in their financial system address the policy trade-offs more often
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6746
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  • 30
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    School Resource and Performance Inequality : Evidence from the Philippines (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (16 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Yamauchi, Futoshi School Resource and Performance Inequality
    Abstract: This paper examines inequality patterns of school and teacher resources as well as student performance in the Philippines. School and teacher resources, measured by pupil classroom and teacher ratios and per-pupil teacher salary, became more unequal over time. Strikingly, a large portion of the variation is attributed to their within-division distributions, especially the non-city areas in each province (rural schools), where pupil classroom and teacher ratios have significantly positive returns in terms of student test scores. Concavity built into the education production function implies that reallocation of teachers and classrooms within a division can potentially increase average test scores. The estimates also imply that it is optimal to deploy young, inexperienced teachers to rural schools and reassign them to urban schools when the teachers are more experienced
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6748
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  • 31
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    Structural Change in Ethiopia : An Employment Perspective (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (42 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Martins, Pedro Structural Change in Ethiopia
    Abstract: This paper investigates whether the Ethiopian economy is undergoing a virtuous process of structural change. In particular, it assesses the relative contributions of within-sector and between-sector productivity to output per capita growth. Based on data disaggregated into eight sectors for the period 1996-2011, the analysis suggests that the structure of output has changed considerably-predominantly from agriculture to services-but changes in the composition of employment have lagged behind. Labor productivity growth has been strong across most sectors, albeit mainly driven by within-sector productivity improvements. Nonetheless, the pace of structural change is accelerating and its relative contribution to output growth is increasing
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6749
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  • 32
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    Regulation and Noncompliance : Magnitudes and Patterns for India's Factories Act (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (25 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Chatterjee, Urmila Regulation and Noncompliance
    Keywords: Gesellschaftsrecht ; Arbeitsrecht ; Normbefolgung ; Informelle Wirtschaft ; Betriebsgröße ; Produktivität ; Rechtsdurchsetzung ; Indien
    Abstract: Noncompliance with regulations by enterprises is said to be rife in developing countries. Yet there is limited systematic evidence of the magnitude of noncompliance at the enterprise level. Making innovative use of two complementary data sources, this paper quantifies noncompliance for India's Factories Act without the question of illegality ever being raised directly with enterprises. The paper finds that more than twice as many firms are not complying as are complying. Further, the number of noncompliant firms is much larger than the number of firms adjusting out of the regulation. Thus noncompliance with the Factories Act is a key feature of the "missing middle" in India. The paper explores the main trends and patterns of noncompliance and highlights a number of key issues for further analytical and policy research
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6755
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  • 33
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    Trade Policy Instruments over Time (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (31 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Bown, Chad P Trade Policy Instruments over Time
    Abstract: This paper surveys political-economic research on the variety of instruments that governments use to conduct international trade policy. It presents key insights on the relationships between instruments such as tariffs, quotas, voluntary export restraints, and other nontariff barriers, as well as the ebb and flow of the national use of temporary trade barriers such as antidumping, countervailing duties, and safeguards. The survey examines trends in use of these trade policy instruments over recent history; and it reviews the major theoretical and empirical explanations behind, and interrelationships between, their uses. Finally, the paper highlights potential institutional impacts of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and subsequent World Trade Organization (WTO) on choice of policy instruments, as well as how multilateral, unilateral, and preferential tariff liberalization may introduce political-economic shocks and affect incentives over time for how governments rely on different instruments
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6757
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  • 34
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    Imports of Intermediate Inputs and Country Size (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (12 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Amin, Mohammad Imports of Intermediate Inputs and Country Size
    Abstract: The paper analyzes the relationship between country size and the use of imported intermediate inputs by firms in 76 developing countries. Recent evidence indicates that the use of imported inputs can have a large, positive effect on productivity and growth, thus motivating a better understanding of the determinants of foreign inputs. The results confirm that, as is the case with exports, use of imported intermediate inputs is much higher at the extensive and intensive margins in small relative to large countries. The results for imported inputs are comparable in magnitude with those for exports
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6758
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  • 35
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    What Goes up Must Come Down : Cyclicality in Public Wage Bill Spending (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (28 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Eckardt, Sebastian What Goes up Must Come Down
    Abstract: This paper analyzes the cyclicality of public sector wage bill spending in Europe and Central Asia and assesses the impact of wage bill spending on fiscal discipline before, during, and after the global financial crisis of 2008/09. While there are important differences across countries, the results show that public sector wage bill spending tends to behave strongly pro-cyclically, especially in transition economies. Moreover, while wage bill spending is pro-cyclical during both good and bad times, adjustments during economic downturns tend to be sharper than expansions during periods of economic booms. In addition, there is evidence of political cycles, with stronger wage bill growth in pre-election periods. Finally, the analysis reveals that while the size of the wage bill does not seem to systematically affect fiscal discipline across countries, expansions within countries over time are associated with deteriorating fiscal positions. These findings provide a strong impetus for public wage and employment policies that aim to restrain excessive growth of the wage bill during boom periods. This prospective management of the wage bill would not only reduce the need for painful adjustments during periods of fiscal consolidation, but also contribute to strengthening the overall countercyclical and stabilizing impact of fiscal policies
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6760
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  • 36
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    Measuring the Impact of Debt-Financed Public Investment (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (31 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Cavalcanti, Carlos B Measuring the Impact of Debt-Financed Public Investment
    Abstract: While debt-financed productive public investment raises a country's debt ratios in the short run, it can also generate higher growth, revenues, and exports, leading over time to lower debt ratios. This paper develops a framework to assess whether countries meet the conditions for realizing the net benefits over the costs of public investment debt financing. While it is possible to achieve debt sustainability with an appropriate mix of concessional and non-concessional financing, this is a necessary but not sufficient condition. It is also important to ensure the operational viability of public investment projects by having in place adequate project management: (i) project screening and appraisal, (ii) a clear connection between capital and recurrent expenditures once the projects are launched, and (iii) safeguards for appropriate project implementation and facilities operations. To illustrate the strength of these results, the paper carries out three measurement exercises: (a) a simulation of the degree to which the ratio of optimal public investment responds to changes in key parameters related to project management in a general equilibrium model; (b) application of the public investment management (PIMa) index to benchmark a country's public investment management capacity; and (c) presentation of the results of the Investment, Savings, and Macroeconomic Vulnerabilities tool aimed at tracking country choices in public finance and the impact of public projects on private investments
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6766
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  • 37
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    Development through Seasonal Worker Programs : The Case of New Zealand's RSE Program (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (30 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Gibson, John Development through Seasonal Worker Programs
    Abstract: Seasonal worker programs are increasingly seen as offering the potential to be part of international development policy. New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer program is one of the first and most prominent of programs designed with this perspective. This paper provides a detailed examination of this policy through the first six seasons. This includes the important role of policy facilitation measures taken by governments and aid agencies. The evolution of the program in terms of worker numbers is discussed, along with new data on the (high) degree of circularity in worker movements, and new data on (very low) worker overstay rates. There appears to have been little displacement of New Zealand workers, and new data show Recognised Seasonal Employer workers to be more productive than local labor and that workers appear to gain productivity as they return for subsequent seasons. The program has also benefitted the migrants participating in the program, with increases in per capita incomes, expenditure, savings, and subjective well-being. Taken together, this evidence suggests that the program is largely living up to its promise of a "triple win" for migrants, their sending countries in the Pacific, and New Zealand
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6762
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    Making Informed Investment Decisions in an Uncertain World : A Short Demonstration (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (22 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Bonzanigo, Laura Making Informed Investment Decisions in an Uncertain World
    Abstract: Governments invest billions of dollars annually in long-term projects. Yet deep uncertainties pose formidable challenges to making near-term decisions that make long-term sense. Methods that identify robust decisions have been recommended for investment lending but are not widely used. This paper seeks to help bridge this gap and, with a demonstration, motivate and equip analysts better to manage uncertainty in investment decisions. The paper first reviews the economic analysis of ten World Bank projects. It finds that analysts seek to manage uncertainty but use traditional approaches that do not evaluate options over the full range of possible futures. Second, the paper applies a different approach, Robust Decision Making, to the economic analysis of a 2006 World Bank project, the Electricity Generation Rehabilitation and Restructuring Project, which sought to improve Turkey's energy security. The analysis shows that Robust Decision Making can help decision makers answer specific and useful questions: How do options perform across a wide range of potential future conditions? Under what specific conditions does the leading option fail to meet decision makers' goals? Are those conditions sufficiently likely that decision makers should choose a different option? Such knowledge informs rather than replaces decision makers' deliberations. It can help them systematically, rigorously, and transparently compare their options and select one that is robust. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that analysts can use the same data and models for Robust Decision Making as are typically used in economic analyses. Finally, the paper discusses the challenges in applying such methods and how they can be overcome
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6765
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  • 39
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    Credit Constraints, Agricultural Productivity, and Rural Nonfarm Participation : Evidence from Rwanda (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (30 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Ali, Daniel Ayalew Credit Constraints, Agricultural Productivity, and Rural Nonfarm Participation
    Abstract: Although the potentially negative impacts of credit constraints on economic development have long been discussed conceptually, empirical evidence for Africa remains limited. This study uses a direct elicitation approach for a national sample of Rwandan rural households to assess empirically the extent and nature of credit rationing in the semi-formal sector and its impact using an endogenous sample separation between credit-constrained and unconstrained households. Being credit constrained reduces the likelihood of participating in off-farm self-employment activities by about 6.3 percent while making participation in low-return farm wage labor more likely. Even within agriculture, elimination of all types of credit constraints in the semi-formal sector could increase output by some 17 percent. Two suggestions for policy emerge from the findings. First, the estimates suggest that access to information (education, listening to the radio, and membership in a farm cooperative) has a major impact on reducing the incidence of credit constraints in the semi-formal credit sector. Expanding access to information in rural areas thus seems to be one of the most promising strategies to improve credit access in the short term. Second, making it easy to identify land owners and transfer land could also significantly reduce transaction costs associated with credit access
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6769
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  • 40
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    Institutional Investment in Infrastructure in Developing Countries : Introduction to Potential Models (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (21 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Inderst, Georg Institutional Investment in Infrastructure in Developing Countries
    Abstract: The link between infrastructure and economic growth is widely acknowledged-as is the infrastructure gap, which can act as a break on growth in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). Since the global economic and financial crisis, the challenges of raising financing for infrastructure projects in EMDEs are also well known. The challenges come from stretched government finances and restrictions on global bank lending. Hence much attention has been focused on the potential for institutional investors as a growing potential source of financing. This paper argues that infrastructure projects can potentially deliver long-term returns, but investments, particularly in EMDEs need to be carefully structured to meet the needs of both sides. The paper first considers the existing types of institutional investors and their potential for filling the infrastructure financing gap. The challenges of adjusting asset allocations, particularly toward EMDE infrastructure, are discussed and examples of projects where institutional investors have been involved are given. Finally, the paper considers a range of models for the involvement of institutional investors in EMDEs and makes initial proposals for how to determine which model fits best in a particular country context
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6780
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  • 41
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    The Impact of Funding Models and Foreign Bank Ownership on Bank Credit Growth : Is Central and Eastern Europe Different? (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (59 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Feyen, Erik The Impact of Funding Models and Foreign Bank Ownership on Bank Credit Growth
    Abstract: This paper provides new evidence on the factors affecting protracted credit contraction in the wake of the global financial crisis. The paper applies panel vector autoregressions to a global panel that consists of quarterly data for 41 countries for the period 2000-2011 and documents that domestic private credit growth is highly sensitive to cross-border funding shocks around the world. This relationship is significantly stronger in Central and Eastern Europe, a region with considerably stronger foreign presence, higher cross-border funding, and elevated loan-to-deposit ratios compared with the rest of the world. The paper shows that high foreign ownership per se does not appear to explain credit response differences to foreign funding shocks. Rather, there is a stronger response in countries that exhibit high loan-to-deposit ratios and a high reliance on foreign funding relative to local deposits. The results suggest that funding model differences were at the heart of the post-crisis credit contraction in several Central and Eastern European countries. These findings have important regulatory and supervisory implications for emerging countries in Central and Eastern Europe as well as for other countries
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6783
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  • 42
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    Impact of Intermittent Screening and Treatment for Malaria among School Children in Kenya : A Cluster Randomized Trial (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (69 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Halliday, Katherine E Impact of Intermittent Screening and Treatment for Malaria among School Children in Kenya
    Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of intermittent screening and treatment of malaria on the health and education of school children in an area of low-to-moderate malaria transmission. A cluster randomized trial was implemented with 5,233 children in 101 government primary schools on the south coast of Kenya in 2010-12. The intervention was delivered to children randomly selected from classes 1 and 5 who were followed up twice across 24 months. Once during each school term, public health workers used malaria rapid diagnostic tests to screen the children. Children who tested positive were treated with a six-dose regimen of artemether-lumefantrine. Given the nature of the intervention, the trial was not blinded. The primary outcomes were anemia and sustained attention and the secondary outcomes were malaria parasitaemia and educational achievement. The data were analyzed on an intention-to-treat basis. Anemia in this setting in Kenya, intermittent screening and treatment, as implemented in this study, is not effective in improving the health or education of school children. Possible reasons for the absence of an impact are the marked geographical heterogeneity in transmission, the rapid rate of reinfection following artemether-lumefantrine treatment, the variable reliability of malaria rapid diagnostic tests, and the relative contribution of malaria to the etiology of anemia in this setting
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6791
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  • 43
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    Labor Mobility, Economic Shocks, and Jobless Growth : Evidence from Panel Data in Morocco (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (27 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Verme, Paolo Labor Mobility, Economic Shocks, and Jobless Growth
    Abstract: During the past 20 years, Morocco has implemented a wide range of macroeconomic, social, and labor market reforms that have delivered in terms of growth of gross domestic product and household welfare. Yet, these positive developments are not reflected by the main labor market indicators, a phenomenon observed elsewhere in developed and developing economies alike and labeled as "jobless growth." For the first time for Morocco, this paper uses quarterly panel data to investigate the question of labor mobility in an effort to determine whether people have moved to better sectors and jobs. The results point to significant labor mobility between labor statuses with quite distinct features across population groups. All groups experience some form of labor market mobility every quarter and women are as mobile as men. However, the transitions that women experience are very different from the transitions than men experience and women's performance is worse than men's performance in almost all aspects of labor mobility
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6795
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  • 44
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    What Factors Predict How Public Sector Projects Perform? : A Review of the World Bank's Public Sector Management Portfolio (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (59 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Blum, Jürgen René What Factors Predict How Public Sector Projects Perform?
    Abstract: This paper uses regression analysis to identify which country context, reform content, process, and project management variables predict the performance of public sector management projects, as measured by the Independent Evaluation Group's project outcome ratings. The paper draws on data from a large sample of World Bank public sector management projects that were approved between 1990 and 2013. It contributes to an emerging literature that uses cross-country regressions to analyze public sector management reform patterns. The findings suggest that political context factors have a greater impact on the performance of public sector management projects than on other projects. Specifically, public sector management projects perform better in countries with democratic regimes than autocratic ones. They fare better in the presence of programmatic political parties and in more aid-dependent countries. Project managers' subjective risk assessments predict performance in public sector management operations better than objective risk indicators. These findings suggest that the performance of public sector management projects would benefit from a better alignment of project design with political context and from a more open dialogue about risk between task team leaders and management
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6798
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  • 45
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    Re-Re-Reply to "The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the Evidence" (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (25 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Pitt, Mark M Re-Re-Reply to "The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the Evidence
    Abstract: "The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the Evidence," by David Roodman and Jonathan Morduch (2014) (henceforth RM) is the most recent of a sequence of papers and web postings that seeks to refute the findings of the Pitt and Khandker (1998; henceforth PK) article "The Impact of Group-Based Credit on Poor Households in Bangladesh: Does the Gender of Participants Matter?" that microcredit for women had significant, favorable effects on household consumption and other outcomes. In this version of RM, the authors have backed off many of their prior claims and methods after earlier replies noted their faults (see Pitt (1999), Pitt (2011a), Pitt (2011b), and Pitt and Khandker (2012)). Nonetheless, important claims against PK remain in this new version of RM and are addressed below. Readers should refer to Pitt and Khandker (2012) for a discussion of other issues with RM, including a discussion of the bimodal likelihood
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6801
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  • 46
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    Why are Adult Women Missing? : Son Preference and Maternal Survival in India (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (53 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Milazzo, Annamaria Why are Adult Women Missing?
    Abstract: This paper is the first to show that excess mortality among adult women can be partly explained by strong preference for male children, the same cultural norm widely known to cause excess mortality before birth or at young ages. Using pooled individual-level data for India, the paper compares the age structure and anemia status of women by the sex of their first-born and uncovers several new findings. First, the share of living women with a first-born girl is a decreasing function of the women's age at the time of the survey. Second, while there are no systematic differences at the time of birth, women with a first-born girl are significantly more likely to develop anemia when young (under the age of 30) and these differences disappear for older women. Moreover, among those in the older age group, they appear to be significantly better off in terms of various predetermined characteristics. These findings are consistent with a selection effect in which maternal and adult mortality is higher for women with first-born girls, especially the poor and uneducated with limited access to health care and prenatal sex diagnostic technologies. To ensure the desired sex composition of children, these women resort to a fertility behavior medically known to increase their risk of death. The observed sex ratios for first births imply that 2.2-8.4 percent of women with first-born girls are 'missing' because of son preference between the ages of 30 and 49
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6802
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  • 47
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    Fiscal Challenges after the Global Financial Crisis : A Survey of Key Issues (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (37 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Lopez-Claros, Augusto Fiscal Challenges after the Global Financial Crisis
    Abstract: The global financial crisis and the response to it have contributed to a sharp increase in public indebtedness in a large number of countries. While there have been episodes of high debt in the past, there are a number of long-term challenges today that are likely to complicate the implementation of sustainable fiscal policies in the coming years. Population aging and climate change are factors that are likely to contribute to rising fiscal pressures and the crisis has highlighted the risks and vulnerabilities stemming from reduced fiscal space. This paper argues that heightened fiscal challenges can only be dealt with successfully by adopting a long-term fiscal planning horizon. The paper analyzes a range of available policy tools that countries have used in the past to improve fiscal management. Particular attention is paid to the role of rules-based policies, improvements in the budget process, better accounting of long-term liabilities in the government budget, the deleterious effects of unproductive expenditures, and the painful trade-offs created by the crisis and the toolkit at hand to address them
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6805
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  • 48
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    The Nexus between Gender, Collective Action for Public Goods, and Agriculture : Evidence from Malawi (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (55 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: McCarthy, Nancy The Nexus between Gender, Collective Action for Public Goods, and Agriculture
    Abstract: Across the developing world, public goods exert significant impacts on the local rural economy in general and agricultural productivity and welfare outcomes in particular. Economic and social-cultural heterogeneity have, however, long been documented as detrimental to collective capacity to provide public goods. In particular, women are often under-represented in local leadership and decision-making processes, as are young adults and minority ethnic groups. While democratic principles dictate that broad civic engagement by women and other groups could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of local governance and increase public goods provision, the empirical evidence on these hypotheses is scant. This paper develops a theoretical model highlighting the complexity of constructing a "fair" schedule of individual contributions, given heterogeneity in costs and benefits that accrue to people depending, for instance, on their gender, age, ethnicity, and education. The model demonstrates that representative leadership and broad participation in community organizations can mitigate the negative impacts of heterogeneity on collective capacity to provide public goods. Nationally-representative household survey data from Malawi, combined with geospatial and administrative information, are used to test this hypothesis and estimate the relationship between collective capacity for public goods provision and community median estimates of maize yields and household consumption expenditures per capita. The analysis shows that similarities between the leadership and the general population, in terms of gender and age, and active participation by women and young adults in community groups alleviate the negative effects of heterogeneity and increase collective capacity, which in turn improves agricultural productivity and welfare
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6806
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  • 49
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    Explaining Gender Differentials in Agricultural Production in Nigeria (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (59 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Oseni, Gbemisola Explaining Gender Differentials in Agricultural Production in Nigeria
    Abstract: This paper uses data from the General Household Survey Panel 2010/11 to analyze differences in agricultural productivity across male and female plot managers in Nigeria. The analysis utilizes the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method, which allows for decomposing the unconditional gender gap into (i) the portion caused by observable differences in the factors of production (endowment effect) and (ii) the unexplained portion caused by differences in returns to the same observed factors of production (structural effect). The analysis is conducted separately for the North and South regions, excluding the west of the country. The findings show that in the North, women produce 28 percent less than men after controlling for observed factors of production, while there are no significant gender differences in the South. In the decomposition results, the structural effect in the North is larger than the endowment at the mean. Although women in the North have access to less productive resources than men, the results indicate that even if given the same level of inputs, significant differences still emerge. However for the South, the decomposition results show that the endowment effect is more important than the structural effect. Access to resources explains most of the gender gap in the South and if women are given the same level of inputs as men, the gap will be minimal. The difference in the results for the North and South suggests that policy should vary by region
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6809
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  • 50
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    Remittances and Vulnerability in Developing Countries (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (30 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Bettin, Giulia Remittances and Vulnerability in Developing Countries
    Keywords: 2005 - 2011 ; Rücküberweisungen ; Schock ; Konjunktur ; Gravitationsmodell ; Italien ; Entwicklungsländer
    Abstract: This paper examines how international remittances are affected by structural characteristics, macroeconomic conditions, and adverse shocks in both source and recipient economies. The paper exploits a novel, rich panel data set, covering bilateral remittances from 103 Italian provinces to 87 developing countries over the period 2005-2011. Remittances are negatively correlated with the business cycle in recipient countries and increase especially strongly in response to adverse exogenous shocks, such as natural disasters or large terms-of-trade declines. Financial development in the source economy, which eases access to financial services for migrants and reduces transaction costs, is positively associated with remittances. Conversely, recipient-country financial development is negatively associated with remittances, suggesting that remittances help alleviate credit constraints
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6812
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  • 51
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    Engineers, Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (66 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Maloney, William F Engineers, Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas
    Keywords: Innovation ; Ingenieure ; Innovationsdiffusion ; Humankapital ; Wirtschaftswachstum ; Entwicklung ; Wirtschaftsgeschichte ; Vergleich ; Lateinamerika ; Nordamerika
    Abstract: Using newly collected national and sub-national data, and historical case studies, this paper argues that differences in innovative capacity, captured by the density of engineers at the dawn of the Second Industrial Revolution, are important to explaining present income differences, and, in particular, the poor performance of Latin America relative to North America. This remains the case after controlling for literacy, other higher order human capital, such as lawyers, as well as demand side elements that might be confounded with engineering. The analysis then finds that agglomeration, certain geographical fundamentals, and extractive institutions such as slavery affect innovative capacity. However, a large effect associated with being a Spanish colony remains suggesting important inherited factors
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6814
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  • 52
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    Implementation of REDD+ Mechanisms in Tanzania (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (42 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Salas, Paula Cordero Implementation of REDD+ Mechanisms in Tanzania
    Abstract: This paper explains the major issues and lessons derived from the national forest management program and REDD+ initiatives in Tanzania. It finds that addressing the most important drivers of forest degradation and deforestation, in particular the country energy needs and landownership, is essential for success in reducing emissions regardless of the type of program implemented. It also finds that, through the national program, forest users have learned to maximize profit from the sustainable use of the forest; however, the program reports great variability in the success of forest conservation. REDD+ may complement the national program by adding funding and other resources to start projects at the local level while giving additional payments for the permanence of carbon stocks may help to improve the social outcomes of those villages practicing sustainable forest management. However, a careful characterization of the national projects is necessary to generalize how REDD+ can be effectively implemented so that additional economic and environmental benefits are generated over what the national program is already achieving. Addressing this issue is key for identifying the conditions under which REDD+ achieves environmental additionality in Tanzania
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6815
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  • 53
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    Growing through Cities in Developing Countries (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (56 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Duranton, Gilles Growing through Cities in Developing Countries
    Abstract: This paper examines the effects of urbanization on development and growth. It begins with a labor market perspective and emphasizes the importance of agglomeration economies, both static and dynamic. It then argues that more productive jobs in cities do not exist in a void and underscores the importance of job and firm dynamics. In turn, these dynamics are shaped by the broader characteristics of urban systems. A number of conclusions are drawn. First, agglomeration effects are quantitatively important and pervasive. Second, the productive advantage of large cities is constantly eroded and must be sustained by new job creation and innovation. Third, this process of creative destruction in cities, which is fundamental for aggregate growth, is determined in part by the characteristics of urban systems and broader institutional features. The paper highlights important differences between developing countries and more advanced economies. A major challenge for developing countries is to reinforce the role of their urban systems as drivers of economic growth
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6818
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  • 54
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    Labor Market Regulations : What Do We Know about Their Impacts in Developing Countries? (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (34 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Betcherman, Gordon Labor Market Regulations
    Abstract: Labor market regulation is a high-profile, and often contentious, area of public policy. Although these regulations have been studied most extensively in developed countries, there is a growing body of literature on their effects in developing countries. This paper reviews that literature and focuses on the impacts of two important types of labor market regulation, minimum wages and employment protection legislation (EPL), on employment, earnings, and productivity. Strong and opposing views exist regarding the costs and benefits of these regulations, but the results of this review suggest that their impacts are generally smaller than the heat of the debates would suggest. Efficiency effects are found sometimes, but not always, and the effects can be in either direction and are usually modest. The distributional impacts of both minimum wage and employment protection legislation are clearer, with two effects predominating: an equalizing effect among covered workers, but with groups such as youth, women, and the less skilled disproportionately outside the coverage and its benefits. Although the overall conclusion is one of modest effects in most cases, the policy implication is not that these regulations do not matter. On the one hand, both minimum wages and EPL can affect distributional objectives. On the other hand, these regulations can generate undesirable economic or social impacts if they are established or operate in ways that exacerbate the labor market imperfections that they were designed to address
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6819
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  • 55
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    Convergence to the Managerial Frontier (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (48 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Maloney, William F Convergence to the Managerial Frontier
    Abstract: Using detailed survey data on management practices, this paper uses recent advances in unconditional quantile analysis to study the changes in the within country distribution of management quality associated with country convergence to the managerial frontier. It then decomposes the contribution of potential explanatory factors to the distributional changes. The United States emerges as the frontier country, not because of better management on average, but because its best firms are far better than those of its close competitors. Part of the process of convergence to the frontier across the development process represents a trimming of the left tail, much is movement of the central mass and, for rich countries, it is actually the best firms that lag the frontier benchmark. Among potential explanatory variables that may drive convergence, ownership and human capital appear critical, the former especially for poorer countries and that latter for richer countries suggesting that the mechanics of convergence change across the process. These variables lose their explanatory power as firm and average country management quality rises. Hence, once in the advanced country range, the factors that improve management quality are less easy to document and hence influence
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6822
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  • 56
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    The Heterogeneous Effects of HIV Testing (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (38 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Baird, Sarah The Heterogeneous Effects of HIV Testing
    Keywords: AIDS ; Infektionskrankheit ; Gesundheitsvorsorge ; Jugendliche ; Frauen ; Gesundheitsrisiko ; Verhalten ; Malawi
    Abstract: An extensive multi-disciplinary literature examines the effects of learning one's HIV status on subsequent risky sexual behaviors. However, many of these studies rely on non-experimental designs; use self-reported outcome measures, or both. This study investigates the effects of a randomly assigned home based HIV testing and counseling (HTC) intervention on risky sexual behaviors and schooling investments among school-age females in Malawi. The study finds no overall effects on HIV, Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-2), or achievement test scores at follow-up. However, among the small group of individuals who tested positive for HIV, a large increase in the probability of contracting HSV-2 is found, with this effect stronger among those surprised by their test results. Similarly, those surprised by HIV-negative test results see a significant improvement in achievement test scores, consistent with increased returns to investments in human capital. The finding of increased HSV-2 prevalence among HIV-positive individuals suggests that the conventional wisdom that those who learn they are HIV-positive will adopt safer sexual practices should be treated with caution
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6823
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  • 57
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    Trust and Identity in a Small, Post-Socialist, Post-Crisis Society (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (58 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Bjørnskov, Christian Trust and Identity in a Small, Post-Socialist, Post-Crisis Society
    Abstract: The principal focus in the substantial literature on impediments to economic development has been on the inadequacies of policies and governance. However, successful economic development requires effectiveness of markets and incentives for investment, which in turn require trust. This paper reports on trust in a development context. The paper uses trust experiments, a post-experiment survey, and econometric analysis relating trust to identity and other personal attributes in the setting of Montenegro, a small, recently-independent, post-socialist, post-crisis society. External validity was sought by providing sufficient material reward to balance identity-related expressive motives and by having two groups of subjects, one usual university students and another group that, while also students, was somewhat older and had had greater market or commercial experience. The paper reviews cultural priors that can be expected to affect trust and distinguishes between generalized trust that can be socially beneficial and particularized trust that can be disadvantageous for development. The empirical results suggest that trust among private individuals is not an impediment to development in Montenegro. As a result, policy reform can improve economic and social outcomes. However, the results redirect the focus to issues of governance and political entrenchment as potential explanations for impediments to development
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6828
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  • 58
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    Post-Harvest Loss in Sub-Saharan Africa : What Do Farmers Say? (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (34 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Kaminski, Jonathan Post-Harvest Loss in Sub-Saharan Africa
    Abstract: The 2007-2008 global food crisis has renewed interest in post-harvest loss, but estimates remain scarce, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper uses self-reported measures from nationally representative household surveys in Malawi, Uganda, and Tanzania. Overall, on-farm post-harvest loss adds to 1.4-5.9 percent of the national maize harvest, substantially lower than the Food and Agriculture Organization's post-harvest handling and storage loss estimate for cereals, which is 8 percent. Post-harvest loss is concentrated among less than a fifth of households. It increases with humidity and temperature and declines with better market access, post-primary education, higher seasonal price differences, and possibly improved storage practices. Wider use of nationally representative surveys in studying post-harvest loss is called for
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6831
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  • 59
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    Can Latin America Tap the Globalization Upside? (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (53 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: de la Torre, Augusto Can Latin America Tap the Globalization Upside?
    Abstract: This paper discusses the theoretical arguments in favor of and against economic globalization and, with a view to ascertaining whether Latin America may be able to capture the globalization upside, examines the trends and salient features of Latin America's globalization as compared with that of Southeast Asia. The paper focuses on trade and financial integration as well as the aggregate demand structures (domestic demand-driven versus external demand-driven) that underpin the globalization process. It finds that Latin America is mitigating some bad side effects of financial globalization by moving toward a safer form of international financial integration and improving its macro-financial policy frameworks. Nonetheless, Latin America's progress in raising the quality of its international trade integration has been scant. The region's commodity-heavy trade structures and relatively poor quality of trade connectivity can hinder growth potential to the extent that they are less conducive to technology and learning spillovers. Moreover, Latin America's domestic demand-driven growth pattern (a reflection of relatively low domestic savings) may become an additional drag to growth by accentuating the risk of a low savings-low external competitiveness trap
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6837
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  • 60
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    Toward Economic Diversification in Trinidad and Tobago (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (35 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Longmore, Rohan Toward Economic Diversification in Trinidad and Tobago
    Abstract: This paper contributes to the predominant diversification debate that has been ongoing in Trinidad and Tobago for more than three decades. The paper makes a determination of the key impediments to the country's attempts at diversification. Econometric techniques are applied on panel data to identify the most significant obstacles to economic diversification for a set of 183 countries. The results indicate that openness to foreign direct investment inflows is the most fundamental driver of diversification. The findings are then applied to the specific case of Trinidad and Tobago through a detailed analysis of the links in the trends followed by foreign direct investment and diversification between 1980 and 2011. Greater openness to foreign direct investment and improving the business climate appear to be key policies the twin-island republic could implement further in order to expand the range of activities of its economic structure
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6840
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  • 61
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    Growth, Inequality, and Social Welfare : Cross-Country Evidence (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (49 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Dollar, David Growth, Inequality, and Social Welfare
    Abstract: Social welfare functions that assign weights to individuals based on their income levels can be used to document the relative importance of growth and inequality changes for changes in social welfare. In a large panel of industrial and developing countries over the past 40 years, most of the cross-country and over-time variation in changes in social welfare is due to changes in average incomes. In contrast, the changes in inequality observed during this period are on average much smaller than changes in average incomes, are uncorrelated with changes in average incomes, and have contributed relatively little to changes in social welfare
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6842
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  • 62
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    Co-Movement of Major Commodity Price Returns : Time-Series Assessment (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (38 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: de Nicola, Francesca Co-Movement of Major Commodity Price Returns
    Abstract: This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the degree of co-movement among the nominal price returns of 11 major energy, agricultural and food commodities based on monthly data between 1970 and 2013. A uniform-spacings testing approach, a multivariate dynamic conditional correlation model and a rolling regression procedure are used to study the extent and the time-evolution of unconditional and conditional correlations. The results indicate that (i) the price returns of energy and agricultural commodities are highly correlated; (ii) the overall level of co-movement among commodities increased in recent years, especially between energy and agricultural commodities and in particular in the cases of maize and soybean oil, which are important inputs in the production of biofuels; and (iii) particularly after 2007, stock market volatility is positively associated with the co-movement of price returns across markets
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6845
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  • 63
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    What Drives the Volatility of Firm Level Productivity in China? (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (26 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Luo, Xubei What Drives the Volatility of Firm Level Productivity in China?
    Abstract: The enterprise reforms of the 1990s profoundly changed the structure of the economy in China. With the deepening of market economy, the share of the state-owned and collective enterprises declined. Expansion and contraction, as well as establishment and closure, of firms became a common phenomenon. The level and volatility of firm productivity have become increasingly important aspects of the micro performance of the economy. This paper uses a firm-level data set collected annually by the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 1998-2007 to examine the role of different firm characteristics in productivity volatility. The paper measures productivity volatility at the firm level as the standard deviation of the annual growth rate of productivity. The main objectives are twofold: first, it examines the variation of productivity volatility across firms of different characteristics and their evolution over time; second, it investigates the sources of productivity volatility at the firm level in China. The results suggest that in general, productivity volatility at the firm level has declined over time in China. Among firms with different characteristics, large firms, old firms, foreign firms, and firms located in the coastal provinces are less volatile. Firm size and location are the two major factors that drive changes in productivity volatility, one in a positive way and one in a negative way. Although the gaps of volatility between smaller firms and larger firms declined, the gaps between firms located in the coastal provinces and inland provinces increased
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6846
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  • 64
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    Fiscal Policy as an Instrument of Investment and Growth (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (19 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Basu, Kaushik Fiscal Policy as an Instrument of Investment and Growth
    Abstract: This paper investigates the role of fiscal guarantees in promoting infrastructure investment. Infrastructure is a critical driver of economic growth, but infrastructure entails significant up-front costs that yield benefits after a time lag. Investors hesitate to put their money down on private infrastructure ventures because of the long lag and governments do not give guarantees for reasons of fiscal prudence. The paper argues that governments and large investment guarantee agencies can in many situations give suitably-calibrated guarantees to private projects by exploiting the fact that a guarantee on one project can reduce the risk of another one failing. The paper works out the architecture of such guarantees, which can be fiscally prudent and yet boost investment, especially in infrastructure, and thereby promote growth
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6850
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  • 65
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    Transition to Clean Capital, Irreversible Investment and Stranded Assets (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (29 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Rozenberg, Julie Transition to Clean Capital, Irreversible Investment and Stranded Assets
    Abstract: This paper uses a Ramsey model with two types of capital to analyze the optimal transition to clean capital when polluting investment is irreversible. The cost of climate mitigation decomposes as a technical cost of using clean instead of polluting capital and a transition cost from the irreversibility of pre-existing polluting capital. With a carbon price, the transition cost can be limited by underutilizing polluting capital, at the expense of a loss in the value of polluting assets (stranded assets) and a drop in income. In contrast, policy instruments that focus on redirecting investments-such as feebates or environmental standards-prevent underutilization of existing capital, avoid stranded assets, and reduce short-term losses; but they reduce emissions more slowly and increase the intertemporal cost of the transition. The paper investigates inter- and intra-generational distributional impacts and the political acceptability of climate change mitigation policy instruments
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6859
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  • 66
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    CATA Meets IMPOV : A Unified Approach to Measuring Financial Protection in Health (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (41 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Wagstaff, Adam CATA Meets IMPOV
    Abstract: Up to now catastrophic and impoverishing payments have been seen as two alternative approaches to measuring financial protection in health. Building on the previous literature, the authors propose a unified methodology in which impoverishing and catastrophic payments are mutually exclusive outcomes. They achieve this by expressing out-of-pocket payments as a ratio of ‘discretionary’ consumption, defined as the amount by which total consumption (gross of out-of-pocket payments) exceeds the poverty line. This allows the authors to identify both households who are impoverished by out-of-pocket payments (their ratio exceeds one) and households who are pushed even further into poverty by out-of-pocket payments (their ratio is negative); the authors call such payments ‘immiserizing’. Households experiencing ‘catastrophic’ payments are a subset of those who incur out-of-pocket payments but who are neither impoverished nor immiserized by them. Two alternative definitions of catastrophic payments are offered: those that absorb more than a pre-specified fraction of discretionary consumption; and those that leave a household's nonmedical consumption (total consumption net of out-of-pocket spending) below a pre-specified multiple of the poverty line. The authors also offer a simple financial protection index that reflects the percentages of households incurring immiserizing, impoverishing, catastrophic, non-catastrophic, and zero out-of-pocket payments. They illustrate their unified approach with data from the World Health Survey, using international poverty lines and a catastrophic payment threshold of 40 percent
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6861
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  • 67
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    A Global Assessment of Human Capital Mobility : The Role of Non-OECD Destinations (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (63 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Artuç, Erhan A Global Assessment of Human Capital Mobility
    Keywords: 1990 - 2000 ; Hochqualifizierte Arbeitskräfte ; Internationale Migration ; Arbeitsmobilität ; Brain Drain ; Welt
    Abstract: Discussions of high-skilled mobility typically evoke migration patterns from poorer to wealthier countries, which ignore movements to and between developing countries. This paper presents, for the first time, a global overview of human capital mobility through bilateral migration stocks by gender and education in 1990 and 2000, and calculation of nuanced brain drain indicators. Building on newly collated data, the paper uses a novel estimation procedure based on a pseudo-gravity model, then identifies key determinants of international migration, and subsequently uses estimated parameters to impute missing data. Non-OECD destinations account for one-third of skilled-migration, while OECD destinations are declining in relative importance
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6863
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  • 68
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    International Asset Allocations and Capital Flows : The Benchmark Effect (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (59 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Raddatz, Claudio International Asset Allocations and Capital Flows
    Keywords: 1996 - 2012 ; Index ; Ansteckungseffekt ; Internationale Wirtschaftspolitik ; Indexderivat ; Portfolio-Investition ; Investmentfonds
    Abstract: This paper studies channels through which well-known benchmark indexes impact asset allocations and capital flows across countries. The study uses unique monthly micro-level data of benchmark compositions and mutual fund investments during 1996-2012. Benchmarks have important effects on equity and bond mutual fund portfolios across funds with different degrees of activism. Benchmarks explain, on average, around 70 percent of country allocations and have significant impact even on active funds. Benchmark effects are important after controlling for industry, macroeconomic, and country-specific, time-varying effects. Reverse causality does not drive the results. Exogenous, pre-announced changes in benchmarks result in movements in asset allocations mostly when these changes are implemented (not when announced). By impacting country allocations, benchmarks affect capital flows across countries through direct and indirect channels, including contagion. They explain apparently counterintuitive movements in capital flows, generating outflows from countries when upgraded and with large market capitalization and better relative performance
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6866
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  • 69
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    Son Preference, Fertility and Family Structure : Evidence from Reproductive Behavior among Nigerian Women (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (46 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Milazzo, Annamaria Son Preference, Fertility and Family Structure
    Abstract: Strong boy-bias and its consequences for young and unborn girls have been widely documented for Asia. This paper considers a country in Sub-Saharan Africa and finds that parental gender preferences do affect fertility behavior and shape traditional social institutions with negative effects on adult women's health and well-being. Using individual-level data for Nigeria, the paper shows that, compared to women with first-born sons, women with first-born daughters have (and desire) more children and are less likely to use contraceptives. Women with daughters among earlier-born children are also more likely to have shorter birth intervals, a behavior medically known to increase the risk of child and maternal mortality. Moreover, they are more likely to end up in a polygynous union, to be divorced, and to be head of the household. The preference for sons is also supported by child fostering patterns in which daughters are substitutes for foster girls, while the same does not hold for sons and foster boys. These results can partly explain excess female mortality among adult women in Sub-Saharan Africa
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6869
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  • 70
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    All in the Family : State Capture in Tunisia (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (48 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Rijkers, Bob All in the Family
    Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between regulation and the business interests of President Ben Ali and his family, using firm-level data from Tunisia for 1994-2010. Data on investment regulations are merged with balance sheet and firm-level census data in which 220 firms owned by the Ben Ali family are identified. These connected firms outperform their competitors in terms of employment, output, market share, profits, and growth and sectors in which they are active are disproportionately subject to authorization requirements and restriction on foreign direct investment. Consistent with theories of capture, performance differences between connected firms and their peers are significantly larger in highly regulated sectors. In addition, the introduction of new foreign direct investment restrictions and authorization requirements in narrowly defined five-digit sectors is correlated with the presence of connected firms and with their startup, suggesting that regulation is endogenous to state capture. The evidence implies that Tunisia's industrial policy was used as a vehicle for rent creation for the president and his family
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6810
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  • 71
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    Urbanization as Opportunity (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (16 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Fuller, Brandon Urbanization as Opportunity
    Abstract: Urbanization deserves urgent attention from policy makers, academics, entrepreneurs, and social reformers of all stripes. Nothing else will create as many opportunities for social and economic progress. The urbanization project began roughly 1,000 years after the transition from the Pleistocene to the milder and more stable Holocene interglacial. In 2010, the urban population in developing countries stood at 2.5 billion. The developing world can accommodate the urban population growth and declining urban density in many ways. The most important citywide projects-successes like New York and Shenzhen-show even more clearly how influential human intention can be. The developing world can accommodate the urban population growth and declining urban density in many ways. One is to have a threefold increase in the average population of its existing cities and a six fold increase in their average built-out area. Another, which will leave the built-out area of existing cities unchanged, will be to develop 625 new cities of 10 million people-500 new cities to accommodate the net increase in the urban population and another 125 to accommodate the 1.25 billion people who will have to leave existing cities as average density falls by half
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6874
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  • 72
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    Urbanization and the Geography of Development (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (32 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Henderson, J. Vernon Urbanization and the Geography of Development
    Abstract: This paper focuses on three interrelated questions on urbanization and the geography of development. First, although we herald cities with their industrial bases as “engines of growth,” does industrialization in fact drive urbanization? While such relationships appear in the data, the process is not straightforward. Among developing countries, changes in income or industrialization correlate only weakly with changes in urbanization. This suggests that policy and institutional factors may also influence the urbanization process. In fact, the relationship between industrialization and urbanization is absent in Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, do development policies have a big-city bias and, if so, what does this imply for growth and inequality? Intelligent public infrastructure investment inevitably involves picking winners. One hopes that such choices are based on market indicators, such as where industry is starting to agglomerate and where there are clear needs. Yet governments seem to favor the biggest cities which in turn draw firms and migrants to these cities. To try to avoid excessive in-migration and oversized, congested cities, favored cities might adopt policies that make living conditions for migrants more unpleasant. This can result in increased inequality and social tension. Finally, the paper examines city sizes and city-size distributions. Factors determining both aspects are complex and poorly understood. It is hard to be proscriptive about either individual city sizes or overall city-size distributions. The best policies strengthen institutions in the relevant markets so that market forces can move the economy toward better outcomes
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6877
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  • 73
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    Proving Incentives for Long-Term Investment by Pension Funds : The Use of Outcome-Based Benchmarks (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (26 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Stewart, Fiona Proving Incentives for Long-Term Investment by Pension Funds
    Abstract: A fundamental goal of any pension system is to ensure that members receive an adequate income when they retire. Although traditional defined benefit pension plans set out how pension income will be determined in advance and then strive to deliver this, the growing number of defined contribution plans accumulate a sum of assets which can then be turned into a pension income on retirement. However, the amount of this retirement income is not predefined This frequently leads to a focus by not only most pension providers, but also regulators and pension plan members themselves on the short-term accumulation of pension assets rather than the longer-term goal of securing an adequate retirement income. This paper discusses a possible solution to this challenge: the use of benchmarks to encourage pension funds to invest with the longer-term goal of delivering adequate retirement income in mind. Examples are provided of leading pension funds that already work with long-term, outcome-based benchmarks. The paper suggests a methodology for pension regulators to use in order to incentivize pension funds in their jurisdictions to adopt a similar approach
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6885
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  • 74
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    Informal Economy and the World Bank (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (36 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Benjamin, Nancy Informal Economy and the World Bank
    Abstract: Many countries have expressed an interest in the size, performance and motivation of the informal sector, especially where the informal sector provides the livelihood and employment for a critical segment of the population. This essay reviews recent literature, methodologies, and relevant Bank studies as a way to share information with country teams interested in expanding their knowledge of the informal sector and related policy debates. Research in a number of regions points to four main areas where development policy can be improved by taking the informal sector into account. First, improvements should be made along a continuum; the heterogeneity among informal firms points to different policy approaches for different types of firms. Second, there should be public-private collaboration on mutual reforms. Many efforts to improve firm performance focus on elements of the production function (labor skills, credit) while treating government mainly as a cost (taxes, cost of compliance with regulations). Yet research reveals that many characteristics of the public regime strongly influence the decisions of firms regarding informality. Third, research indicates a strong relation between basic skills and labor outcomes, particularly in the informal sector, despite the sector's lower average returns. Research also indicates the benefits of targeted training programs. Business services programs have a decidedly mixed record, yet ongoing research is refining results on what works best. Fourth, informal trade is pervasive in developing countries and the networks developed in informal trade-wholesalers, credit suppliers and money-changers, transporters-are a strong presence in the informal sector. Yet these kinds of complex and nontransparent trading systems can be discouraging to foreign investors and can otherwise undermine trade policy and the international competitiveness of developing countries. The paper concludes with recommendations
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6888
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  • 75
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    Progress toward the Health MDGs : Are the Poor Being Left behind? (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (37 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Wagstaff, Adam Progress toward the Health MDGs
    Abstract: This paper looks at differential progress on the health Millennium Development Goals between the poor and better-off within countries. The findings are based on original analysis of 235 Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, spanning 64 developing countries over the period 1990-2011. Five health status indicators and seven intervention indicators are tracked for all the health Millennium Development Goals. In most countries, the poorest 40 percent have made faster progress than the richest 60 percent. On average, relative inequality in the Millennium Development Goal indicators has been falling. However, the opposite is true in a sizable minority of countries, especially on child health status indicators (40-50 percent in the cases of child malnutrition and mortality), and on some intervention indicators (almost 40 percent in the case of immunizations). Absolute inequality has been rising in a larger fraction of countries and in around one-quarter of countries, the poorest 40 percent have been slipping backward in absolute terms. Despite reductions in most countries, relative inequalities in the Millennium Development Goal health indicators are still appreciable, with the poor facing higher risks of malnutrition and death in childhood and lower odds of receiving key health interventions
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6894
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  • 76
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    What Do We Know about Preferential Trade Agreements and Temporary Trade Barriers? (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (38 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Bown, Chad P What Do We Know about Preferential Trade Agreements and Temporary Trade Barriers?
    Abstract: Two of the most important trade policy developments to take place since the 1980s are the expansion of preferential trade agreements and temporary trade barriers, such as antidumping, safeguards, and countervailing duties. Despite the empirical importance of preferential trade agreements and temporary trade barriers and the common feature that each can independently have quite discriminatory elements, relatively little is known about the nature of any relationships between them. This paper surveys the literature on some of the political-economic issues that can arise at the intersection of preferential trade agreements and temporary trade barriers and uses four case studies to illustrate variation in how countries apply the World Trade Organization's global safeguards policy instrument. The four examples include recent policies applied by a variety of types of countries and under different agreements: large and small countries, high-income and emerging economies, and free trade areas and customs unions. The analysis reveals important measurement and identification challenges for research that seeks to find evidence of systematic relationships between the formation of preferential trade agreements, the political-economic implications of their implementation, and the use of subsequent temporary trade barriers
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6898
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  • 77
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    Financial (Dis-)Information : Evidence from an Audit Study in Mexico (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (26 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Giné, Xavier Financial (Dis-)Information
    Abstract: An audit study was conducted in peri-urban Mexico to understand the quality of information and products offered to low-income potential customers. Trained auditors visited multiple financial institutions seeking credit and savings products. Consistent with Gabaix and Laibson (2006), staff voluntarily provides little information about avoidable fees, especially to auditors trained to reveal little knowledge about the market. In addition, clients are almost never offered the cheapest product, most likely because staff is incentivized to offer more expensive products that are thus more profitable to the institution. This suggests that disclosure and transparency policies may be ineffective if they undermine the commercial interest of financial institutions
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6902
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  • 78
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    Agreeing on Robust Decisions : New Processes for Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (37 Seiten)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Kalra, Nidhi Agreeing on Robust Decisions
    Abstract: Investment decision making is already difficult for any diverse group of actors with different priorities and views. But the presence of deep uncertainties linked to climate change and other future conditions further challenges decision making by questioning the robustness of all purportedly optimal solutions. While decision makers can continue to use the decision metrics they have used in the past (such as net present value), alternative methodologies can improve decision processes, especially those that lead with analysis and end in agreement on decisions. Such "Agree-on-Decision" methods start by stress-testing options under a wide range of plausible conditions, without requiring us to agree ex ante on which conditions are more or less likely, and against a set of objectives or success metrics, without requiring us to agree ex ante on how to aggregate or weight them. As a result, these methods are easier to apply to contexts of large uncertainty or disagreement on values and objectives. This inverted process promotes consensus around better decisions and can help in managing uncertainty. Analyses performed in this way let decision makers make the decision and inform them on (1) the conditions under which an option or project is vulnerable; (2) the tradeoffs between robustness and cost, or between various objectives; and (3) the flexibility of various options to respond to changes in the future. In doing so, they put decision makers back in the driver's seat. A growing set of case studies shows that these methods can be applied in real-world contexts and do not need to be more costly or complicated than traditional approaches. Finally, while this paper focuses on climate change, a better treatment of uncertainties and disagreement would in general improve decision making and development outcomes
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6906
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  • 79
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    Hybrid Survey to Improve the Reliability of Poverty Statistics in a Cost-Effective Manner (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (40 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Ahmed, Faizuddin Hybrid Survey to Improve the Reliability of Poverty Statistics in a Cost-Effective Manner
    Abstract: This paper studies the benefits, in terms of reliability and frequency of poverty statistics, of conducting a hybrid survey that collects non-consumption data from all surveyed households and consumption data from only a small subsample. Collecting detailed consumption or income data for the purpose of estimating poverty is costly and many low-income countries cannot afford to carry out such surveys on a regular basis. One option is to collect only non-consumption data and use consumption models developed from a previous round of household survey data to project poverty data. Although this approach is cost-effective because collection of non-consumption data is much cheaper than collection of consumption data, it is vulnerable to a structural change between the current and previous household surveys and might produce poverty estimates that are not comparable with the previous ones. Instead, the hybrid approach creates consumption models from a subsample of the current survey and applies them to the entire survey to project consumption data for all households in the sample. This paper examines the hybrid approach with data from the Bangladesh Household Income Expenditure Surveys of 2000 and 2005. Improvements in accuracy are achieved even with subsamples of just 320 or 640 households. Budget simulations confirm that the additional cost of collecting consumption data for such small subsamples is minimal
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6909
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  • 80
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    Regional Diversity and Inclusive Growth in Indian Cities (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (49 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Ghani, Ejaz Regional Diversity and Inclusive Growth in Indian Cities
    Abstract: This paper examines the employment growth of Indian districts from 2000 to 2010 in the manufacturing and services sectors. Specialization and diversity metrics that combine industries in both sectors are calculated and related to subsequent job growth. The analysis finds robust and consistent evidence that the diversity of industries in the district across the two sectors links to subsequent job growth. Somewhat surprisingly, this link finds its strongest expression outside typical stories about the role of diversity. For example, the growth is strongest in rural areas of districts and in districts with low population density. Diversity correlates with disproportionately higher employment growth in the informal sector and plays a role in generating employment in the district's smaller industries. These findings point toward the "inclusive" nature of diversity-driven growth and highlight a potentially important agenda item for policy makers concerned with inclusive development
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6919
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  • 81
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    The Trade-Reducing Effects of Restrictions on Liner Shipping (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (38 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Bertho, Fabien The Trade-Reducing Effects of Restrictions on Liner Shipping
    Abstract: This paper examines how policy governing the liner shipping sector affects maritime transport costs and seaborne trade flows. The paper uses a novel data set and finds that restrictions, particularly on foreign investment, increase maritime transport costs, strongly but unevenly. The cost-inflating effect ranges from 24 to 50 percent and trade on some routes may be inhibited altogether. Distance increases maritime transport costs, but also attenuates the cost impact of policy barriers. Overall, policy restrictions may lower trade flows on specific routes by up to 46 percent and therefore deserve greater attention in national reform programs and international trade negotiations
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6921
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  • 82
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    Who Will Feed China in the 21st Century? : Income Growth and Food Demand and Supply in China (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (52 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Fukase, Emiko Who Will Feed China in the 21st Century?
    Keywords: Ernährungssicherung ; China
    Abstract: This paper uses resource-based cereal equivalent measures to explore the evolution of China's demand and supply for food. Although demand for food calories is probably close to its peak level in China, the ongoing dietary shift to animal-based foods, induced by income growth, is likely to impose considerable pressure on agricultural resources. Estimating the relationship between income growth and food demand with data from a wide range of countries, China's demand growth appears to have been broadly similar to the global trend. On the supply side, output of food depends strongly on the productivity growth associated with income growth and on the country's agricultural land endowment, with China appearing to be an out-performer. The analyses of income-consumption-production dynamics suggest that China's current income level falls in the range where consumption growth outstrips production growth, but that the gap is likely to begin to decline as China's population growth and dietary transition slow down. Continued agricultural productivity growth through further investment in research and development, and expansion in farm size and increased mechanization, as well as sustainable management of agricultural resources, are vital for ensuring that it is primarily China that will feed China in the 21st century
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6926
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  • 83
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    Confronting the Food-Energy-Environment Trilemma : Global Land Use in the Long Run (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (87 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Steinbuks, Jevgenijs Confronting the Food-Energy-Environment Trilemma
    Abstract: Economic, agronomic, and biophysical drivers affect global land use, so all three influences need to be considered in evaluating economically optimal allocations of the world's land resources. A dynamic, forward-looking optimization framework applied over the course of the coming century shows that although some deforestation is optimal in the near term, in the absence of climate change regulation, the desirability of further deforestation is eliminated by mid-century. Although adverse productivity shocks from climate change have a modest effect on global land use, such shocks combined with rapid growth in energy prices lead to significant deforestation and higher greenhouse gas emissions than in the baseline. Imposition of a global greenhouse gas emissions constraint further heightens the competition for land, as fertilizer use declines and land-based mitigation strategies expand. However, anticipation of the constraint largely dilutes its environmental effectiveness, as deforestation accelerates prior to imposition of the target
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6928
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  • 84
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    Asymmetric Punishment as an Instrument of Corruption Control (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (21 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Basu, Karna Asymmetric Punishment as an Instrument of Corruption Control
    Keywords: Korruption ; Strafrecht ; Whistleblowing ; Nash-Gleichgewicht ; Entwicklungsländer
    Abstract: The control of bribery is a policy objective in many developing countries. It has been argued that asymmetric punishments could reduce bribery by incentivizing whistle-blowing. This paper investigates the role played by asymmetric punishment in a setting where bribe size is determined by Nash bargaining, detection is costly, and detection rates are set endogenously. First, when detection rates are fixed, the symmetry properties of punishment are irrelevant to bribery. Bribery disappears if expected penalties are sufficiently high; otherwise, bribe sizes rise as expected penalties rise. Second, when detection rates are determined by the bribe-giver, a switch from symmetric to asymmetric punishment either eliminates bribery or allows it to persist with larger bribe sizes. Furthermore, when bribery persists, multiple bribe sizes could survive in equilibrium. The paper derives parameter values under which each of these outcomes occurs and discusses how these could be interpreted in the context of existing institutions
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6933
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  • 85
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    Is Green Growth Good for the Poor? (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (23 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Dercon, Stefan Is Green Growth Good for the Poor?
    Abstract: The developing world is experiencing substantial environmental change, and climate change is likely to accelerate these processes in the coming decades. Due to their initial poverty and their relatively high dependence on environmental capital for their livelihoods, the poor are likely to suffer most due to their low resources for mitigation and investment in adaptation. Economic growth is essential for any large-scale poverty reduction. Green growth, a growth process that is sensitive to environmental and climate change concerns, can be particularly helpful in this respect. We focus on the possible trade-offs between the greening of growth and poverty reduction, and we highlight the sectoral and spatial processes behind effective poverty reduction. High labor intensity, declining shares of agriculture in GDP and employment, migration, and urbanization are essential features of poverty-reducing growth. We contrast some common and stylized green-sensitive growth ideas related to agriculture, trade, technology, infrastructure, and urban development with the requirements of poverty-sensitive growth. We find that these ideas may cause a slowdown in the effectiveness of growth to reduce poverty. The main lesson is that trade-offs are bound to exist; they increase the social costs of green growth and should be explicitly addressed. If they are not addressed, green growth may not be good for the poor, and the poor should not be asked to pay the price for sustaining growth while greening the planet
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6936
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  • 86
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    Benchmarking Public Policy : Methodological Insights from Measurement of School Based Management (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (32 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Parandekar, Suhas D Benchmarking Public Policy
    Abstract: This working paper presents a benchmarking analysis of School Based Management (SBM) using empirical data from the Philippines. School based management is widely used as a policy tool in many countries that seek to improve the quality of service delivery through decentralization. School based management typically takes many years to have an impact on educational outcomes, but policy makers need to know sooner how well the policy is being implemented. The paper extends the well-known Rasch methodology from the literature on student achievement, including the Programme for International Student Assessment, to the measurement of the implementation of school based management by computing a Rasch measure of the implementation of school based management. To test whether the resulting benchmarked measure is plausible and has practical policy value, the measure is tested for correlations with standardized measures of personality and political skills of school principals, developed in the psychology and political science literatures. The paper will be useful for readers interested in studying school based management as well as those interested more generally in the methodology of benchmarking implementation of public policy where the ultimate results are subject to long implementation periods. The methodology presented in this paper can be applied to enhance the rigor of the ongoing Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) exercise to benchmark educational policies in various domains. That exercise is set to become one of the flagship policy analytical tools being developed by the World Bank and partner agencies
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6938
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  • 87
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    Culture, Politics, and Development (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (23 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Woolcock, Michael Culture, Politics, and Development
    Abstract: Whether in the domains of scholarship or practice, important advances have been made in recent years in our understanding of how culture, politics, and development interact. Today's leading theorists of culture and development represent a fourth distinctive perspective vis-à-vis their predecessors, one that seeks to provide an empirically grounded, mechanisms-based account of how symbols, frames, identities, and narratives are deployed as part of a broader repertoire of cultural "tools" connecting structure and agency. A central virtue of this approach is less the broad policy prescriptions to which it gives rise-indeed, to offer such prescriptions would be something of a contradiction in terms-than the emphasis it places on making intensive and extensive commitments to engaging with the idiosyncrasies of local contexts. Deep knowledge of contextual realities can contribute constructively to development policy by enabling careful intra-country comparisons to be made of the conditions under which variable responses to otherwise similar problems emerge. Such knowledge is also important for discerning the generalizability (or "external validity") of claims regarding the efficacy of development interventions, especially those overtly engaging with social, legal, and political issues
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6939
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  • 88
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    Carbon Price Efficiency : Lock-in and Path Dependence in Urban Forms and Transport Infrastructure (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: 1 Online-Ressource (26 Seiten)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Avner, Paolo Carbon Price Efficiency
    Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of carbon or gasoline taxes on commuting-related CO2 emissions in an urban context. To assess the impact of public transport on the efficiency of the tax, the paper investigates two exogenous scenarios using a dynamic urban model (NEDUM-2D) calibrated for the urban area of Paris: (i) a scenario with the current dense public transport infrastructure, and (ii) a scenario without. It is shown that the price elasticity of CO2 emissions is twice as high in the short run if public transport options exist. Reducing commuting-related emissions thus requires lower (and more acceptable) tax levels in the presence of dense public transportation. If the goal of a carbon or gasoline tax is to change behaviors and reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions (not to raise revenues), then there is an incentive to increase the price elasticity through complementary policies such as public transport development. The emission elasticity also depends on the baseline scenario and is larger when population growth and income growth are high. In the longer run, elasticities are higher and similar in the scenarios with and without public transport, because of larger urban reconfiguration in the latter scenario. These results are policy relevant, especially for fast-growing cities in developing countries. Even for cities where emission reductions are not a priority today, there is an option value attached to a dense public transport network, since it makes it possible to reduce emissions at a lower cost in the future
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6941
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  • 89
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    Insurance and Inclusive Growth (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (50 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Lester, Rodney Insurance and Inclusive Growth
    Abstract: While the real sector and governments (along with a few micro economists) have long recognized the core economic role that the insurance function plays, the mainstream economics profession has largely treated it as invisible background. This literature review of the relevant research, most of which has been carried out in the past few decades, demonstrates that the insurance sector contributes at a basic level to inclusive economic growth and the effectiveness of the credit function. It also shows that the latter impact may be particularly fundamental in assisting the poor to avoid poverty traps and to progress economically. However, the research and the theoretical models underpinning it also highlight certain constraints to the efficient utilization of the insurance function. The literature dealing with innovations designed to overcome these constraints is reviewed and successful initiatives and remaining challenges are identified
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6943
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  • 90
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    Fiscal Adjustment and Income Inequality : Sub-National Evidence from Brazil (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (32 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Azevedo, João Pedro Fiscal Adjustment and Income Inequality
    Abstract: The paper combines state-level fiscal data with household survey data to assess the links between sub-national fiscal policy and income inequality in Brazil over the period 1995-2011. The results indicate that a tighter fiscal stance at the sub-national level is not associated with a deterioration in inequality measures. This finding contrasts with the conclusions of several papers in the burgeoning literature on the effects of fiscal consolidation on inequality using national data for OECD economies. In addition, the authors find that a tighter stance is typically positively associated with a measure of "shared prosperity". Hence, the results caution against extrapolating policy implications of the literature focusing on advanced economies to other settings
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6945
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  • 91
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    Institutional Arrangements for the Promotion of Regional Integration of Electricity Markets : International Experience (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (39 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Oseni, Musiliu O Institutional Arrangements for the Promotion of Regional Integration of Electricity Markets
    Abstract: This paper focuses on the institutional arrangements needed for facilitating regional electricity cooperation. The paper begins by discussing the theory of international trade cooperation in electricity, with a view to discussing what preconditions might be important in facilitating wide area trading across national borders. It then discusses two sets of case studies. The first set focuses on three regional developing country power pools-the Southern African Power Pool, the West African Power Pool, and the Central American Power Market. The second set focuses on three regional power pools in more developed countries-one in the United States, the Single Electricity Market in Ireland, and the South East Europe market. These cases highlight the potential and difficulty of having cross-jurisdictional power pools. In the light of the theory and evidence presented, key lessons are drawn in the areas of preconditions for trading, necessary institutional arrangements, practicalities of timetabling, reasons to be hopeful about future prospects, and suggestions for future research
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6947
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  • 92
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    New Coincident and Leading Indicators for the Lebanese Economy (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (30 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Matta, Samer New Coincident and Leading Indicators for the Lebanese Economy
    Abstract: Weak economic statistics in Lebanon impede economic analysis and decision making. This paper presents a new coincident indicator and a leading indicator for the Lebanese economy. A new methodology, based on the National Bureau of Economic Research-Conference Board approach, was used to construct these indicators. The indicators can be used as monthly proxies for the evolution of real gross domestic product with a relatively small time lag (four to five months). Notwithstanding the relatively small sample period, the results reveal promising statistical properties that should make these new indications valuable coincident and leading (one-year ahead) indicators for analyzing the dynamics of the Lebanese economy. However, given limitations on the length of the gross domestic product time series in Lebanon, the accuracy of these indicators in tracking the business cycle of the Lebanese economy is expected to improve over time as more data points become available
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6950
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  • 93
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    Climate Change, Industrial Transformation, and "Development Traps" (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (18 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Golub, Alexander Climate Change, Industrial Transformation, and "Development Traps
    Abstract: This paper examines the possibility of environmental "development traps," or "brown poverty traps," caused by interactions between the impacts of climate change and increasing returns in the development of "clean-technology" sectors. A simple specification is used in which the economy can produce a single homogeneous consumption good with two different technologies. In the "old" sector, technology has global diminishing returns to scale and depends on the use of fossil energy that gives rise to long-lived, damaging climate change. In the "new" sector, the technology has convex-concave production and is not dependent on the polluting energy input. If the new sector does not grow fast enough to move through the phase of increasing returns, then the economy may linger at a low level of income indefinitely or it may achieve greater progress but then get driven back down to a lower level of income by environmental degradation. Stimulating growth in the new sector thus may be a key element for avoiding an environmental poverty trap and achieving higher, sustained income levels
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6951
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  • 94
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    Parallel Systems and Human Resource Management in India's Public Health Services : A View from the Front Lines (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (36 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Forgia, Gerard La Parallel Systems and Human Resource Management in India's Public Health Services
    Abstract: There is building evidence in India that the delivery of health services suffers from an actual shortfall in trained health professionals, but also from unsatisfactory results of existing service providers working in the public and private sectors. This study focusses on the public sector and examines de facto institutional and governance arrangements that may give rise to well-documented provider behaviors such as absenteeism, which can adversely affect service delivery processes and outcomes. The paper considers four human resource management subsystems: postings, transfers, promotions, and disciplinary practices. The four subsystems are analyzed from the perspective of front line workers, that is, physicians working in rural health care facilities operated by two state governments. Physicians were sampled in one post-reform state that has instituted human resource management reforms and one pre-reform state that has not. The findings are based on quantitative and qualitative measurement. The results show that formal rules are undermined by a parallel modus operandi in which desirable posts are often determined by political connections and side payments. The evidence suggests an institutional environment in which formal rules of accountability are trumped by a parallel set of accountabilities. These systems appear so entrenched that reforms have borne no significant effect
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6953
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  • 95
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    Contracting for the Second Best in Dysfunctional Electricity Markets (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (40 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Nikandrova, Arina Contracting for the Second Best in Dysfunctional Electricity Markets
    Abstract: Power pools constitute a set of sometimes complex institutional arrangements for efficiency-enhancing coordination among power systems. Where such institutional arrangements do not exist, there still can be scope for voluntary electricity-sharing agreements among power systems. This paper uses a particular type of efficient risk-sharing model with limited commitment to demonstrate that second-best coordination improvements can be achieved with low to moderate risks of participants leaving the agreement. In the absence of an impartial market operator who can observe fluctuations in connected power systems, establishing quasi-markets for trading excess electricity through the kind of mechanism described here helps achieve sustainable cooperation in mutually beneficial electricity sharing
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6955
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  • 96
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    The Environmental Implications of Russia's Accession to the World Trade Organization (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (152 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Böhringer, Christoph The Environmental Implications of Russia's Accession to the World Trade Organization
    Abstract: This report investigates the environmental impacts of Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization. A 10-region, 30-sector model of the Russian economy is developed. The model is innovative and more accurate empirically in that it contains foreign direct investment, imperfectly competitive sectors, and endogenous productivity effects triggered by World Trade Organization accession along with environmental emissions data in Russia for seven pollutants that are tracked for all 30 sectors in each of the 10 regions. The decomposition analysis shows that despite the fact that World Trade Organization accession allows Russia to import better technologies and reduce pollution from the “technique effect,” on balance World Trade Organization accession alone will increase environmental pollution in Russia through a shift toward dirty industries (the “composition effect”) and the expansion of output with its associated increase in pollution (“scale effect”). The paper assesses the costs of three types of environmental regulations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent. The paper simultaneously implements a central case scenario with each of the carbon dioxide emission reduction policy initiatives. The analysis finds that the welfare gains of World Trade Organization accession are large enough to pay for the costs of any of the three environmental abatement policies, while leaving a net welfare gain. But the political economy implications are that the non-market-based policies are more costly and the command and control policy, which is not well targeted, is very costly. Based on a constant returns to scale model, the estimated welfare gains are insufficient to finance the costs of environmental regulation
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6957
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  • 97
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    Estimation of Normal Mixtures in a Nested Error Model with an Application to Small Area Estimation of Poverty and Inequality (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (33 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Elbers, Chris Estimation of Normal Mixtures in a Nested Error Model with an Application to Small Area Estimation of Poverty and Inequality
    Abstract: This paper proposes a method for estimating distribution functions that are associated with the nested errors in linear mixed models. The estimator incorporates Empirical Bayes prediction while making minimal assumptions about the shape of the error distributions. The application presented in this paper is the small area estimation of poverty and inequality, although this denotes by no means the only application. Monte-Carlo simulations show that estimates of poverty and inequality can be severely biased when the non-normality of the errors is ignored. The bias can be as high as 2 to 3 percent on a poverty rate of 20 to 30 percent. Most of this bias is resolved when using the proposed estimator. The approach is applicable to both survey-to-census and survey-to-survey prediction
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6962
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  • 98
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    How Regional Integration and Transnational Energy Networks have Boosted FDI in Turkey (And May Cease to Do so) : A Case Study: How Geo-Political Alliances and Regional Networks Matter (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (37 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Sánchez Martín, Miguel Eduardo How Regional Integration and Transnational Energy Networks have Boosted FDI in Turkey (And May Cease to Do so)
    Abstract: Turkey has historically struggled to attract foreign investors. This paper argues that not only macroeconomic and political stability, but also regional integration explains the upsurge in foreign direct investment observed since 2005. The analysis draws from a qualitative framework. It discusses how, contrary to the Customs Union Treaty for industrial products with the European Union, the official start of the European Union's accession to negotiations in 2005 encompassed a wide set of reforms in several chapters directly or indirectly affecting the business climate. The reforms helped to enhance foreign direct investment attraction in Turkey. However, it seems that the global economic slowdown starting in 2009 and increasing Euro-skepticism have already started to erode this effect. Only large foreign investment in the energy sector observed in 2009-13, explained by the energy security strategy of the European Union and the privatization agenda, has prevented the collapse of foreign direct investment inflows to Turkey
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6970
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  • 99
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    Evolving Wage Cyclicality in Latin America (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (30 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Messina, Julián Evolving Wage Cyclicality in Latin America
    Abstract: A vector autoregression model with time-varying coefficients is used to examine the evolution of wage cyclicality in four Latin American economies: Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, during the period 1980-2010. Wages are highly pro-cyclical in all countries up to the mid-1990s except in Chile. Wage cyclicality declines thereafter, especially in Brazil and Colombia. This decline in wage cyclicality is in accordance with declining real-wage flexibility in a low-inflation environment. Controlling for compositional effects caused by changes in labor force participation along the business cycle does not alter these results
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6978
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  • 100
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    How to Assess Agricultural Water Productivity? : Looking for Water in the Agricultural Productivity and Efficiency Literature (2014)
    Washington, D.C : The World Bank
    Details
    Language: English
    Pages: Online-Ressource (44 p)
    Edition: 2014 World Bank eLibrary
    Parallel Title: Scheierling, Susanne M How to Assess Agricultural Water Productivity?
    Abstract: Given population and income growth, it is widely expected that the agricultural sector will have to expand the use of water for irrigation to meet rising food demand; at the same time, the competition for water resources is growing in many regions. As a response, it is increasingly recommended that efforts should focus on improving water productivity in agriculture, and significant public and private investments are being made with this goal in mind. Yet most public communications are vague on the meaning of agricultural water productivity, and on what should be done to improve it. They also tend to emphasize water as if it were the only input that mattered. This paper presents findings from a first attempt to survey the agricultural productivity and efficiency literature with regard to the explicit inclusion of water aspects in productivity and efficiency measurements, with the aim of contributing to the discussion on how to assess and possibly improve agricultural water productivity. The focus is on studies applying single-factor productivity measures, total factor productivity indices, frontier models, and deductive models that incorporate water. A key finding is that most studies either incorporate field- and basin-level aspects but focus only on a single input (water), or they apply a multi-factor approach but do not tackle the basin level. It seems that no study on agricultural water productivity has yet presented an approach that accounts for multiple inputs and basin-level issues. However, deductive methods do provide the flexibility to overcome many of the limitations of the other methods
    DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-6982
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