The experience of many countries around the world clearly shows that while financial sector development can spur economic growth, financial fragility and instability can seriously harm growth. Following the financial crises of the late 1990s, there has been increasing interest in the systematic...

This issue of environment matters celebrates the 2010 international year of biodiversity and describes some of the challenges and opportunities in protecting biodiversity for the benefit of humankind. From the world's highest mountain ranges to the lowland plains, and from the great oceans and...

A vigorous economic rebound is under way in East Asia since the second quarter of 2009, following the sharp impact from the financial crisis and the global recession that began in late 2008. As much as the reduction in exports and industrial production across the region in the fourth quarter of...

The Africa competitiveness report 2011 comes out as the world emerges from the most significant financial and economic crisis in generations. While many advanced economies are still struggling to get their economies back on a solid footing, Africa has, for the most part, weathered the storm...

This report emphasizes that cross-border tertiary education refers to the movement of people, programs, providers, curricula, projects, research and services in tertiary (or higher) education across national jurisdictional borders. Cross-border education is a subset of educational...

This fact book for 2008 attempts to present numbers and facts behind the stories of international migration and remittances, drawing on authoritative, publicly available data. It provides a snapshot of statistics on immigration, emigration, skilled emigration, and remittance flows for 194...

The publication of this year's Africa Competitiveness Report 2007 (ACR) marks a new level of cooperation in Africa. It is the first report on the region's business environment to present a dual perspective based on a combination of aggregate perception data and firm-level data capturing the...

Protection of sound management of coastal and marine areas is acknowledged as important mechanisms for alleviating poverty in the developing tropics. Tanzania has had considerable practical experience with a diversity of models that rely on private sector partnerships, community co-management...

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a challenge the global community has set for itself. They are a challenge to poor countries to demonstrate good governance and a commitment to poverty reduction. And they are a challenge to wealthy countries to make good on their promise to support...

A main goal of this study is to determine the variables responsible for the lower formality of women-owned businesses. The companion study (the World Bank 2007a) shows that Bolivia's informal sector is the largest in Latin America by many definitions and measures. It also provides a rationale...