Books published by World Bank Publications

The first of a new annual series, this legal publication presents legal scholarship, lessons from experience, legal and judicial innovations, and the results of recent research in all of these subject areas from within the World Bank and around the world.

This reproductive health review of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region provides an overview of the issues and establishes a base of knowledge upon which a strategy could be constructed.

Modernizing sovereign debt management is paramount for governments in managing volatile capital flows. This book offers valuable insights to assist government policy-makers in understanding what is involved in implementing sound practice in sovereign debt management.

This work outlines various approaches that can be integrated to help close the ""access gap"" to telecommunications where needed. These include: designing and implementing appropriate policies and regulations; and analyzing, refining, and publishing new approaches.

The purpose of this guide is to facilitate the ratification or acceptance of the 1993 FAO Compliance Agreement and the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement. It presents an outline of some of the most important provisions contained in the two agreements.

The key message of the New Institutional Economics is that incentives matter. This book applies this fundamental insight to fiscal/budgetary analysis and public service delivery, giving the reader tools and real world examples from around the globe of institutional arrangements to help citizens hold government accountable for their performance.

Offering a comprehensive view of government performance measurement, this book provides powerful tools to: development practitioners to evaluate projects, to policymakers to reform their government's policies, and to public interest groups that wish to pressure their government for improvements in government services.

Provides an account of the current understanding of social capital and covers both theoretical and empirical studies. Included in this volume is the 1987 article by James Coleman, 'Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital', which formed the basis for the development of social capital as an organizing concept in the social sciences.

This work provides an analysis of factors reducing maternal mortality through three retrospective case studies in China, Honduras and Zimbabwe; and four research studies in Bolivia, Egypt, Indonesia and Jamaica.

This text provides a comprehensive overview of topics dealing with the assessment, analysis and management of financial risks in banking. In this revised edition, the authors have added a chapter on the organization of the Treasury Function.

The objectives of this strategy paper are to offer a better common understanding of urban transportation problems in developing and transitional economies and to identify an urban transport strategy framework for national and city government.

Reviews techniques and tools that can be used to evaluate the poverty and distributional impact of economic policy choices. This title describes the most robust techniques and tools, from the simplest to the most complex, and aims to identify best practices. It also addresses an evaluation technique and its applications.

Research into the causes of conflict and civil war finds that developing countries' economic dependence on natural resources and commodities is associated with the risk of conflict. This book presents reports and case studies that explore what the international community can do to reduce this risk.

The three objectives of this text are: to provide newcomers with a basic guide to the structures and processes of government; to provide reformers with some understanding of how to work with the grain of the existing institutional arrangements; and to pay tribute to the people who have kept the system running and who are now reforming it.

During the 1990s, the role of the private sector in economic development received increasing attention, with controversy surrounding such issues as privatization and corporate scandals. This text provides a comprehensive treatment of the topic.

Faiths can take direct action by leadership in the initiation of conservation projects, and they can seek to persuade their members that each individual has a moral obligation to contribute to the ecological conservation. This work describes the logic for conservation afforded by the major faiths.

This paper identifies issues arising from the spread of e-finance including the readiness of telecommunications infrastructure, public policy and regulatory requirements, and financial sector development approaches.

Latin America has often been regarded as a region with deep ethnic and class conflicts. This book uses a variety of methodological tools to explore the extent to which discrimination against women and demographic minorities is pervasive in Latin America.

Documents the regulatory obstacles faced by firms, particularly in developing countries, and assesses their implications for firm renewal and macroeconomic performance. This book provides evidence that streamlining the regulatory framework would have a social pay-off, particularly in developing countries also burdened by weak governance.