This report discusses the contours of a possible strategic direction, the necessary basic institutional set up for implementation, and key reform policy options to be tackled in order to complete the foundations of the decentralization reform initiated in 2001. Croatia is still a highly...

"Keefer proposes a new approach to explain why the costs of crisis are greater in some countries than in others. He begins with the premise that many crises result from the willingness of politicians to cater to special interests at the expense of broad social interests. A parsimonious model...

This note presents practical guidance on how to implement a framework for managing fiscal commitments from Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). It draws on specific regional operational experience and on World Bank Institute (WBI)'s wider thematic engagement with different partners worldwide. The...

Eswatini's fundamental policy challenge is to address the longstanding factors that have constrained growth and hindered broad-based improvements in living standards. Given the state's significant role in the economy, the build-up of macro imbalances, and slow improvements in social indicators,...

"This paper analyzes characteristics of nonfarm enterprises, their employment growth patterns, and constraints in doing business in rural Tanzania. Using unique survey data, the authors describe a low-return sector struggling to compete in a difficult business environment. However, about...

"The authors examine whether financial development boosts the growth of small firms more than large firms and hence provides information on the mechanisms through which financial development fosters aggregate economic growth. They define an industry's technological firm size as the firm size...

Facilitating the growth of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is central to creating jobs for an underutilized and growing labor force in Turkey as SMEs account for 79 percent of jobs in Turkey. Creating jobs for Turkey's unemployed and for the rapidly growing labor force, though partly...