This book proposes a simple framework for understanding the political economy of subsidy reform and applies it to four in-depth country studies covering more than 30 distinct episodes of reform. Five key lessons emerge. First, energy subsidies often follow a life cycle, beginning as a way to...

Urbanization is occurring at a rapid pace in Bangladesh, accompanied by the proliferation of slum settlements, whose residents have special health needs given the adverse social, economic, and public environmental conditions they face. Over the past 45 years, the country's health and nutrition...

While adoption of new technologies is understood to enhance long-term growth and average per-capita incomes, its impact on lower-skilled workers is more complex and merits clarification. Concerns abound that advanced technologies developed in high-income countries would inexorably lead to job...

Front Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- About the Authors -- Executive Summary -- Chapter 1 Study Background, Motivation, and Approach -- Introduction -- Conceptual Framework for Examining Women's Labor Market Outcomes in Sri Lanka -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 2 Summary of Descriptive...

Named peril index insurance has great potential to address unmet risk management needs for agricultural insurance in developing economies, potentially contributing to increased agricultural sustainability and improved food security. However, the development and appraisal of index insurance...

Government strategies for setting energy prices are not uniform across the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region—or even across fuels. Instead, they cover a full spectrum, ranging from discretionary price-fixing at one end to pure market-based approaches at the other. In between is a...

Front Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- About the Editors and Contributors -- Executive Summary -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1 Overview -- Key Findings -- Policy Directions -- Organization of the Study -- Summary of Results, by Country -- Annex 1A: Relevant Literature on...

Ukraine's economic progress since its independence in the early 1990s has been uneven, in part due to the slow pace of reforms, unfavorable demographic factors, and low productivity. One of the key factors limiting success is the inadequacy of the skills of Ukraine's workforce with the needs of...