"A major challenge facing regulators in industrial and developing countries alike is the need to strike the right balance between ensuring certainty for market players and preserving flexibility of the regulatory process to accommodate the rapidly changing market, technological, and policy...

Brazil is confronted with steadily increasing demands for electricity. The country has the ability to meet that demand by developing its considerable hydropower potential, but the regulatory process that governs the approval of new hydroelectric plants imposes unnecessary delays that push up...

This study points out that hydroelectric plants will continue to play a prominent role in the Brazilian electric matrix. A significant portion of the potential hydroelectric plants of the country is located in the Amazon, environmentally sensitive region. The licensing of hydroelectric projects...

In order to enrich discussions on improving federal environmental licensing, this study covers a baseline of other studies and research done in recent years, to bring out key challenges arising in the various stages of the licensing process, as well as several bills of law recently presented in...

This paper examines the general purpose licensing imposed by central or local authorities, and the need to eliminate unnecessary licensing regulations imposed on businesses. This paper does not address the issue of reform of sector-specific or professional licensing regulation, but provides...

Digital technologies, such as digital payments or social media, have the potential to boost business growth; however, female entrepreneurs face barriers to digital adoption. EAPGIL partnered with the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice at the World Bank and the Indonesian...

Recognizing that this agenda spans virtually all of the World Bank's policy areas, this brief focuses on policies under the purview of the World Bank's Social Protection and Jobs (SPJ) agenda, especially those related to employment and skills development. Within the Bank, the productive...

"This paper explores an empirical methodology to assess the impacts of trade reforms on household behavior in developing countries. It focuses on consumption and income responses: when price reforms take place, households modify consumption and production decisions and local labor markets...

"While there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence on the economic effects of adverse health shocks, there is relatively little hard empirical evidence. The author builds on recent empirical work to explore in the context of postreform Vietnam two related issues: (1) how far household income and...

While Myanmar responded early and decisively to the COVID-19 pandemic thereby limiting adverse health impacts, evidence from the Myanmar COVID-19 Monitoring Platform shows that impacts on households’ welfare were significant. Border movement restrictions starting in February and a complete...