This book is about inventing successes and good practices of governments that are "closer to the people." Numerous examples throughout Latin America indicate-often despite macroeconomic instability, high inflation, and strong top-down regulation-that subnational actors have repeatedly achieved...

The Berlin workshop series 2009 presents a selection of papers from meetings held on September 30-October 2, 2007, at the tenth annual Berlin workshop, jointly organized by InWent-Capacity Building International, Germany, and the World Bank in preparation for the World Bank's World Development...

The main objective of the book is to analyze Slovenia's threefold transition in the context of a broader transition process in Central and Eastern Europe and to contribute toward filling the obvious gap in the literature on this subject. The book provides an overview of the most important...

Governments have long recognized the vital role that modern infrastructure services play in economic growth and poverty alleviation. For much of the post-Second World War period, most governments entrusted delivery of these services to state-owned monopolies. But in many developing countries,...

This year, the workshop examined the conceptual foundation of the workshop sessions by discussing the definition of equity itself. What do we mean by equity, and how does equity differ from equality? Whereas equity is commonly associated positively with impartiality and justice, economists...

This paper aims to develop a detailed analysis of quasi-fiscal deficits and subsidies, and their impact on Armenia's fiscal performance in the second part of the 1990s. Based on the flow-of-funds approach, we estimate the magnitude of the quasi-fiscal deficits and the incidence of quasi-fiscal...

A universal concern in infrastructure reforms is the effect such reforms have on labor. State-owned infrastructure firms often employ more people than required for efficiency, and often under favorable terms and conditions of service, leading to lower labor productivity and higher labor costs...

This is the sixth Annual Review of Development Effectiveness (ARDE), covering the year 2002. its findings indicate that the Bank's country, sector, and global programs are consistent with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) themes, increasingly focused on poverty reduction. The review...

Development is often defined in terms of its economic aspects, as increased material well-being through ensured employment and income for all who want it. But as knows anyone whose children go to schools of poor quality, have no clean water to drink, or face the threat of violence, development...

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...