World Bank: 627 books

Europe’s pension systems –among the most celebrated features of its social welfare model— face tremendous challenges. With only 11 percent of the world’s population, Europe spends about 60 percent of global outlays on social protection, largely in pensions. In many countries, pension rules have...

The human resources crisis in the health sector has been gathering attention on the global stage. To date however most of this attention has focused on shortages of health human resources (HRH) at the national level. At least as important are problems at the sub-national level. Massive geographic and...

Trade policy reforms in recent decades have sharply reduced the distortions that were harming agriculture in developing countries. Yet global trade in farm products continues to be far more distorted than trade in nonfarm goods, and in ways that reduce some forms of poverty and inequality but worsen...

Distortions to Agricultural incentives in Asia is the third volume in a series of books that brings together analytical narratives of the evolution over the past half-century of policy-imposed distortions to farmer incentives and food prices in 80 countries. Drawing on new consistent set of estimates...

Developing countries have much greater leverage in the Doha Round negotiations, due at least in part to their large and growing share of world trade. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen whether this influence will be translated into a final agreement that is truly more development-friendly. This volume...

The Schumpeterian process of creative destruction is an essential ingredient of a dynamic economy. In many countries around the world however this process is weakened by pervasive regulation of product and factor markets. This book documents the regulatory obstacles faced by firms particularly in developing...

The last twenty years has witnessed a growing recognition of the importance of considering cultural and ethnic diversity in the design and implementation of development programs. The increasing cultural diversity of societies throughout the world and the important role of culture in identity formation...

Pollution from fossil fuels and degraded natural lands are raising the earth’s temperature. The evidence of the causes of global warming is clear, as are its consequences. The economic impacts of climate change are already apparent and they threaten development gains. Extreme weather events have...

The economic successes of China and India are viewed with admiration but also with concern because of the effects that the growth of these Asian economies may have on the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. The evidence in China's and India's Challenge to Latin America indicates that...

Customers in the US and Canada please order from Stanford University Press at (800) 621-2736 or visit their website at www.sup.org. For decades, the prevailing sentiment was that since geography is unchangeable, there is no reason why public policies should take it into account. In fact, charges that...

Governments around the world face ongoing pressures from citizens to provide more and better services, and to do this while restraining taxation levels. This provides the context for government efforts to ensure their policies and programs are as effective, and as efficient, as possible. An emphasis...

Questions of equity and inequality have moved to the center of debates on development and poverty reduction. This reflects growing awareness that even countries with high rates of growth can experience stagnating or increasing inequality, and that inequality can itself limit the poverty reducing effects...

A growing concern among those interested in economic development is the realization that hundreds of billions of dollars are illicitly flowing out of developing countries to tax havens and other financial centers in the developed world. This volume assesses the dynamics of these flows, much of which...

A new economic opportunity for sub-Saharan Africa is looming large: biofuel production. Rapidly rising energy prices are expected to remain high for an extended period of time because of the increasing demand in prospering and populous countries such as China and India the depletion of easily accessible...