This Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions (EFI) note reviews international experiences and lessons in promoting local government mergers and municipal associations. It seeks to inform efforts to advance institutional reforms in Croatia and address the problem of low local government...

"The authors jointly analyze the static, selection, and dynamic effects of domestic, foreign, and state ownership on bank performance. They argue that it is important to include indicators of all the relevant governance effects in the same model. "Nonrobustness" checks (which purposely exclude...

This report examines the status of reading acquisition in Timor-Leste's primary schools. It is written for education stakeholders and policy makers in Timor-Leste, including government officials, politicians, educators, parents, Timor-Leste's donor partners and Non Governmental Organizations...

"Using a unique sample of net domestic product data for districts in India, I investigate the connection between banking sector development, human capital, and economic growth at the sub-national level. Using disaggregate data avoids many of the omitted variable problems that plague...

"This paper argues that the dominant policy paradigm on financial development is increasingly insufficient to address big emerging issues that are particularly relevant for financial systems in Latin America. This paradigm was shaped over the past decades by a fundamental shift in thinking...