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...