Books published by World Bank Publications

Poorly implemented energy subsidies are economically costly to taxpayers and damage the environment. This report aims at providing the emerging lessons form a representative sample of case studies in 20 developing countries that could help policy makers to address implementation challenges, including overcoming political economy and affordability constraints.

Provides diagnostic tools to inform policy dialogue and investment priorities on urbanization by operationalizing the framework for urban policy developed in the 2009 World Development Report, Reshaping Economic Geography and the Bank's new Urban and Local Government Strategy, System of Cities: Harnessing Urbanization for Growth and Poverty Reduction.

Provides a hands-on approach, tested in the World Bank's field work in many countries, for assessing the pharmaceutical sector, recognizing typical 'patterns of dysfunction' and developing strategies to quickly deal with the most urgent problems while at the same time building a platform for sustainable long term policy.

Offers a comprehensive overview of the financial and economic crises of 2008-2009 and the economic and financial policy implications for growth in developing countries.

This Peru Country Program Evaluation for the World Bank Group, 2003-2009 is part of IEG's country program evaluation series. To date, IEG's in-depth country evaluations have comprised IEG-WB Country Assistance Evaluations (CAEs) and IEG-IFC Country Impact Reviews (CIRs). Both the CAEs and CIRs have involved comprehensive evaluations of the respective institutions' activities in a country.

Brings together global and national empirical studies that estimate the effects of policies that distort the world's agricultural markets and other trade on poverty and inequality globally, and in various developing countries.

Provides an analysis of the strategic and regulatory dimension of convergence. This book offers policymakers and regulators examples from countries around the world as they address convergence.

The increasing role of individual pension savings accounts requires the development of better performance measurement techniques for these funds to provide retirement income to aging populations worldwide. This book reviews the pension funds performance and identifies benchmarks that allow a better evaluation of their actual performance.

Discusses the main implications for the functioning of mandatory defined contribution pensions of consumers' inability to make rational choices; describes how jurisdictions have tried to address these problems through ad hoc policy interventions; and proposes new policy directions in the areas of industrial organization models and investment products to address these concerns more effectively.

Assesses the impact of the CEFTA multilateral free trade agreement on trade in Southeast Europe, and assesses the benefits of two complementary policies: introducing labour mobility in the region, and adopting the Common External Tariff structure of the European Union.

Intends to fill the significant research gap on women's entrepreneurship and labour force participation in Egypt, as well as provide suggestions for addressing continued gender inequalities in these arenas.

Providing more appropriate financial services to the majority of the population in a country like Bangladesh requires a centralized microfinance platform that ensures transparency, reduces overlap, increases outreach, and integrates microfinance with the formal financial system using technology.

Examines financial reporting and auditing in the LAC region in an effort to distill lessons learned and suggest priorities for accounting and auditing reform in the region.

Exploring the contrasting development options available to Beijing and Shanghai, this book proposes strategies for these cities based on their acquired capabilities, experience of other world cities, the demand in the national market, and likely trends in global trade.

Trade liberalization holds both promises and perils for workers around the world. This book uses a fresh analytical framework to show that while globalization has been associated with improvements in working conditions in the exposed sectors (apparel and textile), questions remain about the durability and generalization of such improvements.

This study uses several different modelling environments including hydrologic models, an agro-economic optimisation model of the irrigation system, and a computable general equilibrium model of the Pakistan economy. The models used here are among the best mathematical representations available of the physical and economic responses to these exogenous future climate risks.