The Country Opinion Survey in Somalia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Somalia perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector,...

The origins and characteristics of the religious and secular cleavage in Israeli society is one that has lots of historical precedences. The secular European Jews that have made Israel into the home of the Jews is a paradox that has created room for interpretation and is where the origins of...

The law in Saint Lucia provides for the same legal status and rights for women as for men, requires equal pay for equal work, and provides equal treatment of men and women for family property, nationality, and inheritance. Its economy is heavily dependent on tourism and services, both of which...

The Country Opinion Survey in Somalia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Somalia perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the...

The notion that democracies rarely wage wars against each other has gained remarkable acceptance in scholarly and policy circles. At the same time, a number of observers have expressed concern that incipient democratization in some Arab countries may pose a threat to the nascent peace between...

This paper develops a new analysis of the U. S. economy in the 1920s that is illuminated by contrasts with the 1990s, and it also re-examines the causes of the Great Depression. In both the 1920s and the 1990s the acceleration of productivity growth linked to the delayed effects of previously...

This study analyzes the current model of the Russian political system from the point of view of its influence on the political landscape of Central Europe (European states). Modern political system of Russia (with minor changes) has existed for almost 20 years, demonstrating amazing stability....

Soon after reaching the HIPC Decision Point and embarking on a new IMFsupported program aimed at supporting the implementation of the authorities' National Development Plan and lifting growth, Somalia was hit by a triple shock of flooding, desert locusts, and, importantly, the coronavirus...

Tax policy in Ukraine is engaged in two fronts at once. On one front, very significant work has been done over the years on the gradual improvement and updating of the tax system; on the other, it questions essential tenets of the existing system, exploring fundamental changes to it. While...

The Covid-19 shock this year has imposed an enormous strain on Mexico. Beside the staggering human cost, the economy faces a historic drop in output and employment and a sharp spike in poverty. It is expected to take many years for employment, income, and poverty to return to pre-pandemic levels

Nicaragua faces an acute crisis as the COVID-19 shock comes on top of a two- year recession. So far, the speed of transmission of the pandemic in Nicaragua, in terms of officially confirmed cases, has been slower than in neighboring countries, but this may understate the true spread of the...

In response to a request from Mr. Ignacio Briones Rojas, Minister of Finance of Chile, a remote mission was conducted by a joint team of staff from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the secretariat of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) during April -...

After five years of civil conflict, the warring parties came to a peace agreement in September 2018. Until the COVID-19 crisis broke out, improved political stability and an uptick in international oil prices led to significant progress, with a rebound in economic growth, a decline in inflation,...

The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted a heavy economic and social toll, amplifying the challenges of the armed conflict and fragility. Activity contracted sharply, and new external and fiscal financing needs emerged since the approval of the Rapid Credit Facility disbursement. President Ghani and...

This paper discusses Haiti's Request for Disbursement Under the Rapid Credit Facility. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses a major challenge for Haiti, a country in a fragile situation with very limited healthcare services, just emerging from two years of socio-political instability and...

Parliaments and councils do exist in the Arab region more than ever. It is indeed an age of parliaments in the region. However, assessing the role and efficiency of Arab parliaments is one of the most difficult tasks to tackle. One can find no credible answers to many simple questions concerning...

Katar bietet der Welt eine glänzende Kulisse aus Hochhäusern, internationalen Unternehmensbeteiligungen, kulturellen Events und einer Fussball-WM. Dahinter verbergen sich Öl- und Gasexporte, die durch den Krieg Russlands gegen die Ukraine noch stärker nachgefragt sind, aber auch die...

The picture of Chinese law that many Western scholars and commentators portray is an increasingly bleak one: since the mid-2000s, China has been retreating from legal reform back into unchecked authoritarianism. This article argues that, much to the contrary, Chinese politics have in fact become...

This essay reviews Elizabeth Anderson's book, Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk About It), based on her 2015 Tanner Lectures. It explores Anderson's overarching theme of employer domination from several perspectives: the rise and decline and animating logic...

Facilitating state policy experimentation is an oft-cited justification for the U.S. federalism system. Despite growing recognition of risk aversion, free riding, and other disincentives to state-led experimentation, the mythology of state laboratories still dominates these accounts. We propose...

Introducing Asia Pacific / Katherine Palmer Kaup -- A Geographic Preface / Stanley Toops -- The Historical Context / Colin MacKerras -- Political Systems / Katherine Palmer Kaup -- Economies / Kailash Khandke -- International Relations / Derek McDougall -- Civil-Military Relations / Jongseok Woo...

Personality research is a growing field in political behavior, but most research to date is confined to democracies. We expand the scope to Russia, an authoritarian regime, and find that the impact of personality on political behavior is substantial but different from the existing literature. We...