This report reviews loan classification and provisioning practices in a broad sample of countries that differ in size, location and level of financial development. The survey conducted for the report compares the regulatory approaches adopted by industrial and emerging economies, and is intended...

Transition has been a wrenching process for the labor markets of Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs), and the prospect of joining the European Union gives rise to both hopes and misgivings among their population. Similarly among other member countries, a new resolve to shake off a...

Nothing impacts the welfare of individuals and households more directly than employment and earnings opportunities. In developing countries, labor market reform is a crucial component for the success of overall economic policy reforms. Despite success in other areas of economic reform over the...

This paper attempts to describe and assess the achievements of the countries of South Eastern Europe - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Romania, and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - in pursuing structural economic reforms in the period since the end of the...

This book explores the short- to medium-term corporate governance issues that China is encountering during the course of corporation and ownership transformation of its enterprise sector. The study looks at companies participating in the two main forms of ownership diversification: listed...

In the preface to this report, it is asserted that, "history hovers... over any discussion of fiscal federalism in Russia." This report not only reviews that history, but also follows it to the present situation with respect to the difficult policy choices facing the new Putin-led government,...

The volume is divided into five traditional areas of finance: the macroeconomy, banking, securities markets, pension issues, and regulations. Four cross-cutting messages emerge. First, the erosion of national frontiers by trade, tourism, migration, and capital account liberalization means that...

Despite widespread agreement among economists that labor-intensive manufacturing has contributed mightily to rapid development in China and other fast-growing economies, most developing countries have had little success in raising the share of manufacturing in production, employment, or exports....

This book on light manufacturing in Zambia is part of broader World Bank work on light manufacturing in Africa. The focus on light manufacturing, with its emphasis on labor-intensive economic activities, is particularly appropriate for a resource-based economy such as that of Zambia. While...