While there are strong theoretical arguments for ways in which public spending influences growth, robust empirical links have been difficult to establish. More recently, many of the methodological problems that plagued the earlier literature have been overcome and interesting policy lessons...

This note summarizes available research on the impact of schooling and employment of adolescent girls and young women on earnings and poverty reduction, demographic outcomes, child development outcomes, and female empowerment. It identifies key implications of this research for the formulation...

In 1999, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) introduced poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) as a condition for highly indebted countries to receive debt relief under the HIPC initiative. Since then, PRSPs have become a condition for aid to International Development...

This note outlines the challenges of retaining and attracting high-skilled professionals, briefly assesses both the 'brain gain' and the 'brain drain' in the health sector, and examines some of the existing programs that encourage return. It provides an overview of the role of the diaspora in...

Researchers are giving more attention to aid predictability. In part, this is because of increases in the number of aid agencies and aid dollars and the growing complexity of the aid community. A growing body of research is examining key questions: Is aid unpredictable? What causes...

This PREM note provides some perspectives on the ongoing financial turmoil and the present complicated situation in the world economy. Two unifying themes can help to organize the discussion. First, the world economy is working its way through the aftershocks of a major global credit...

Over the last several years, the World Bank has increasingly engaged in impact evaluations as means of building evidence for results. During this process, the Bank has also produced an extensive variety of knowledge products. However, there are several institutional and resource issues that...

This report summarize on the burden of environmental policies within countries. Climate change policies will have distributional consequences across and within countries. Most of the current environmental policy instruments tend to be regressive and impose a higher burden on the poor. Despite...

This note argues that a carbon tax system is more practical to implement, monitor and enforce than tradable permit-based approaches to global climate-change action. It suggests that a sensible design will be an upstream carbon tax on the fossil fuel supply chain, which can also include other...

Developing countries are most exposed to the impact of climate change and within these countries, the poor face the brunt of the burden. Climate change is not a discrete problem that can be dealt with through isolated reforms: impacting economic growth, health, and institutional capacity, it...