Walter Korpi argues in a previous issue of Challenge (March/April 2000) that Swedish economists' claim that Sweden's growth performance has been inferior to that of other industrialized countries is at odds with the facts. Since Sweden has not grown slowly relative to other countries, there is...

Liberia's post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation has been successful. Peace, stability and security gradually returned and provided an enabling environment for the rebuilding of this war-torn country. Over the next five years (2013-2017), the Bank will focus on building infrastructure...

This report is the output of the finalize toolkit phase (phase three) for the project sustainability toolkit for transport projects. The overall objective, as defined in the terms of reference, is 'to make development projects more sustainable by reducing the risk of failure of projects...

"Anderson, Damania, and Jackson develop a common-agency lobbying model to help understand why North America and the European Union have adopted such different policies toward genetically modified (GM) food. Their results show that when firms (in this case farmers) lobby policymakers to influence...

The Mongolian economy has grown very rapidly following the discovery of significant mineral deposits. Large investments in the mining sector have led to increased capital inflows, resulting in cheap external funding for banks and rapid credit expansion. Loans to households increased at the...

In 2010, over 92 percent of the assets in the Nicaraguan financial system were concentrated in the banking sector, while microfinance managed over 5 percent, and all the remaining segments covered less than 3 percent. Starting in the late 1990s and until 2007, the microfinance sector in...

The objectives of the diagnostic review of consumer protection and financial literacy for Armenia are: (i) to assess the existing financial consumer protection framework, by reviewing laws, regulations and practices in Armenia compared to international good practices; and (ii) to provide...

Iranian government budget on military over the last decade has been higher than the average of the world. The current increasing international sanctions aim to reduce the military capabilities and capacities of the Iranian government. In this study, we analyze the response of the Iranian economy...