Unusually rich administrative data sets covering both firms and workers enabled the authors to study displacement in Slovenia during 1987-93. They describe displacement trends and the characteristics of displaced workers comparing them to those in North America during a major recession. They...

Excessive budget deficits can lead to inflation, exchange crises, external debt crises, and high real interest rates - with implications for real exchange rate, the trade account, and investment. But the links are not automatic, for there are choices in the sources of financing - and lags in the...

From the mid-1950s to 1990, sub-Saharan Africa's share of global exports fell from 3.1 to under 1.2 percent, a decline that implies associated export earning losses of about $65 billion annually. Previous studies show that foreign trade barriers do not account for this poor performance. Indeed,...

The extent to which households should be allowed to transfer their land rights in post-socialist transition economies is of considerable policy interest. The authors use data from Vietnam, a transition country that allows rental and sales of land use rights, to identify factors conducive to the...

What causes developing countries to receive different levels of international remittances? This paper addresses this question by using new data on such variables as the skill composition of migrants, poverty, and interest and exchange rates to examine the determinants of remittances. The paper...

The author examines experiences in Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, and Thailand in confronting systemic financial crises during the 1990s. He draws on the knowledge and experience of World Bank staff who managed the Bank's financial and technical assistance to those countries. In reviewing the...

Using an integrated simulation model, the authors estimate the scope and speed of population-aging in China, the cost of supporting the old, and the impact of different reform options and pension arrangements. Among their conclusions: The scope and speed of population-aging in China make the...

Since its peak in 1980-82, medium- and long-term commercial bank lending to sub-Saharan Africa has been declining - partly because of many banks'perception that lending to the African market represents high risks unjustified by the available returns. The prospects for an appreciable increase in...

Lithuania is a transition economy undergoing rapid enterprise restructuring associated with substantial job turnover. At the same time, unemployment in Lithuania is high and of long duration. This presents a puzzle: high job turnover epitomizes labor market flexibility, while high unemployment...

Before financing major urban transport projects, decisionmakers should attempt to put in place the basic elements for long-term sustainability of the sector. Specifically, the author contends that each large metropolitan area in Brazil should incorporate into its urban transport strategy, and...