The World Bank relies in part on economic benefit estimates to evaluate the merits of investment projects. Recent lending operations for revenue administrations in Vietnam have led to some rethinking of these calculations. This Note shares their findings and it also provides some pointers that...

Compensation provides a major incentive for workers to perform well. Accordingly, bonus payments are often used to enhance staff effectiveness and efficiency-and have become increasingly common in revenue departments around the world. A recent World Bank study analyzed the bonus systems applied...

Successful trade policy reform, often requires customs reform. In the 1990s Morocco's trade policies were strongly influenced by its agreement with the European Union, with the World Trade Center, and the Multi-fiber Agreement, which led the Customs and Indirect Taxes Administration to examine...

The proclaimed priority of exports contained in many development plans, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, and similar documents will remain hollow if it is not supported by forceful reforms that counter biases against exports. Once such reforms are implemented, much can be gained from reforming...

World Bank-supported efforts to reform public institutions--including tax and customs administration--increasingly rely on institutional analysis. But there are no formal, generally accepted guidelines for analyzing tax systems. As a result the Bank's task managers and team leaders conduct these...