Pakistan s population is growing and becoming more urbanized. By 2020, Karachi and Lahore will each have a population of well over 10 million people and several other cities will have a population of at least one million. These trends offer both risks and opportunities. Badly managed urban...

Most countries in the world aspire to protect poorest and most vulnerable families from destitution and thus provide some type of income support to those who are very poor. These programs are often layered into social policy along with other transfers, subsidies, or services. The way to best...

To address the growth in resultant out-of-pocket (OOP) payments and associated problems of financial barriers to access, the government issued several policies aimed at expanding coverage throughout the 1990s and 2000s, particularly for the poor and other vulnerable groups. Universal coverage...

Pakistan's urban air pollution is among the most severe in the world and it engenders significant damages to human health and the economy. Air pollution, inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene are the top environmental priority problems in Pakistan. Industrialization and urbanization,...

The goals of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) are to ensure that all people can access quality health services, to safeguard all people from public health risks, and to protect all people from impoverishment due to illness, whether from out-of-pocket payments for health care or loss of income...

Education has played an important role in making Vietnam a development success story over the last 20 years. In the 1990s and early 2000s Vietnam experienced rapid economic growth. The accelerated growth was driven predominantly by productivity increases that came in the wake of a rapid shift of...

This report analyzes the paths by which developing country labor markets adjust to permanent trade-related shocks. Trade shocks can bring about reallocation of labor between industries, but the presence of labor mobility costs implies economy-wide losses because they extend the period of...

Central Asia is often associated with the silk route or road, the longest overland trade route connecting China to Europe and one of the oldest in history. Growth opportunities and the future prosperity of the region are highly dependent upon the efficiency of its internal and external...

The aim of this publication is to examine how labor and health economics can be used to analyze and better understand the role and functions of health worker labor markets. Health workforce shortages stem not only from inadequate overall supply, but also from suboptimal allocation of health...

This report assesses progress in implementing the government of India's power sector reform agenda and examines the performance of the sector along different dimensions. India has emphasized that an efficient, resilient, and financially robust power sector is essential for growth and poverty...