Independent evaluation of International Finance Corporations (IFC's) development results 2009 takes stock of the development performance of IFC's investment operations, and examines, for the first time, the development effectiveness of its Advisory Services (AS), thus offering the first holistic...

Doing Business 2011: making a difference for entrepreneurs is the eighth in a series of annual reports investigating regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property...

The little data book 2008 is a pocket edition of World development indicators (WDI) 2008. It is intended as a quick reference for users of the World development indicators 2008 book and CD-ROM and WDI online, and the World Bank electronic subscription database. Together, they cover more than 800...

The mission of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) is to promote foreign direct investment (FDI) into developing countries to support economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve people's lives. As part of this mandate, the agency seeks to foster a better understanding of...

The report covers several types of structured finance with such capital market instruments as mortgage-backed securities, structured bond issues for infrastructure financing, securitization of small and medium enterprises (SME)-related assets, and securitization of loans to SMEs. The report also...

Intergovernmental reforms in the Russian Federation: one step forward, two steps back? Is a critical analysis of Russia's intergovernmental reform program which began in the early 1990s. It assesses the effects of a broad range of reforms adopted over two tumultuous decades during which the...

This year's Africa development indicators, which covers some 1,700 macroeconomic, sectoral, and human development indicators dating to the 1960s, comes at a critical time for Sub-Saharan Africa's 48 countries and 841 million people. After a decade of economic growth at nearly 5 percent a year,...

The financial and food crises are reminders of the growing challenges countries face in sustaining economic growth and lifting the living standards of the poor. Equally, the emerging impacts of global warming on natural disasters and on agriculture are warning signs of the urgency to care for...

Market nervousness concerning the fiscal positions of several European high-income countries poses a new challenge for the world economy. This arises as the recovery is transitioning toward a more mature phase during which the influence of rebound factors (such as fiscal stimulus) fades, and...

This volume presents a preliminary framework designed to help international development partners consider the relevance of political economy issues for their programmatic support to decentralization and local government reform. The intention is neither to advocate decentralization in general or...