An important objective of public spending is to raise household living standards, particularly for the poor. But how can final impacts on this objective best be assessed? Evaluating a policy's impact requires assessing how different things would have been in its absence. But the counterfactual...

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the institutional reforms in the World Bank's sector adjustment operations (SECALs) and to assess the Bank's experience in implementing them. The review covers institutional reforms in 55 of the 65 SECALs approved by the Bank during fiscal...