This note discusses the external environment, economic outlook, and key policy challenges for the six South East European Countries (SEE6)—Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH), Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia—as they seek to reignite economic...

ÒWhat will it take?Ó World Bank President Jim Kim has reinvigorated debate on how the development community can better achieve its mission to reduce poverty. As President Kim has highlighted in his address at the World Bank and International Monetary FundÕs (IMF) annual meetings, there is an...

The geography of poverty has changed. More than 70 percent of the world’s poor live not in low-income countries, but in middle-income countries. In 2008, nearly 570 million people lived on less than US$1.25 a day in South Asia, compared to 385 million in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, nearly...

This note outlines a framework for assessing the extent of fiscal risks inherent in the operations of public bodies (PBs), highlighting eight applications in Jamaica. Scenario analysis and stress testing are two components used to determine the combined effects of company- and sector-specific...

The global economic crisis that broke out in 2008 has reawakened interest in fiscal policy. In the early stages of the crisis, there was a widespread turn to countercyclical fiscal stimulus. Furthermore, the recent euro area crisis has underlined the importance of long-term fiscal sustainability...

As the year 2012 unfolds, its main legacy will be its game changing impact on global financial markets. Waning global growth along with central banksÕ bold monetary easing policies in advanced economies (AEs) to try to reverse it are changing market dynamics in unexpected ways, across both AEs...

Mongolia’s mineral-rich economy was hit extremely hard by the global downturn during 2008–9, when copper prices plunged, external demand fell, and growth collapsed. The shock exposed serious underlying weaknesses in the management of the country’s natural resource wealth,...

Since the 1950s, rapid growth has allowed a significant number of countries to reach middle-income status; yet, very few have made the additional leap needed to become high-income economies. Rather, many developing countries have become caught in what has been called a middle-income trap,...

Under what conditions is service provision by donors and nonstate actors likely to undermine or strengthen citizensÕ legitimating beliefs? A new study assesses associations between donor and nonstate actor service provision and the sense of obligation that these associations produce for...

Should developing countries focus on the development of urban infrastructure and in general facilitate the location of employment in its large cities to exploit the still important agglomeration economies? Or should they develop infrastructure in medium-density locations to remove some of the...