Globalization offers developing countries the opportunities to create wealth through export-led growth, to expand international trade in goods and services, and to gain access to new ideas, technologies, and institutional designs. But globalization also entails problems and tensions that must be...

The author assesses the performance of Latvia's system of social transfers, in three ways: First, he analyzes the incidence (who receives transfers) of pensions, family allowances, unemployment benefits, and social assistance. Per capita analysis shows pensions tending to be pro-rich, and...

Contractual savings institutions include national provident funds, life insurance companies, private pension funds, and funded social pension insurance systems. They have long-term liabilities and stable cash flows and are therefore ideal providers of term finance, not only to government and...

This paper examines issues relating to subsidies and countervailing measures and makes recommendations for changes in existing rules on the basis of economic considerations. This is done by analyzing, successively, the concepts of subsidies (Section I), countervailing measures and serious...

Structural reforms are often designed to change the prices of key goods and services. Since the overall intention of such reforms is the reduction of poverty, it is important to understand how the resulting price changes affect the poor. However, organizations seeking to provide timely advice to...

This paper contains abstracts of Policy Research working paper series, numbers 2754 - 2802.

Little of the literature on nutrition between 1960 and the 1980s included assessments of effective nutrition programs. In this important study, the author focuses on factors associated with successful nutrition programs in Africa. This report concentrates on summarizing the information received...

The authors use new data from Brazil and Mexico to analyze relationships linking economic development, the size distribution of manufacturing plants, and exposure to industrial pollution. For lack of data, prior work in this field has been limited largely to water pollution and medium-size...

Zimbabwe has the uncommon combination of a high public deficit, a balanced current account, low inflation, and low levels of investment and growth. Despite a surplus in the current account, the nonfinancial public sector has run deficits exceeding 10 percent of GDP since 1981. Inflation is low...

Latin American countries provide the best living laboratory to study inflationary processes and stabilization programs. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the experience with orthodox stabilization policies, which are based on a tight fiscal stance and not supported by a system of price...