In most developing countries, poverty is more widespread and severe in rural than in urban areas. The author reviews some important aspects of rural poverty and draws key implications for public policy. He presents a policy framework for reducing poverty, taking into account the functional...

This Annual Progress Report focuses on The Gambia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). It provides information and analysis regarding the achievements and shortfalls experienced between July 2002 and December 2003 with respect to the poverty targets, priority public actions, and the...

This Selected Issues paper for Japan illustrates the impact of fiscal and structural reforms on the Japanese and world economies. Japan faces a sizable fiscal deficit, against a backdrop of weak trend growth and growing imbalances in the world economy. Moreover, upward pressure on health care...

Empirical evidence on the relationship between democracy and economic reforms is limited to few reforms, countries, and years. This paper studies the impact of democracy on the adoption of economic reforms using a new dataset on reforms in the financial, capital and banking sectors, product...

The Welfare Improvement Strategy (WIS) of Uzbekistan has the objective of improving living standards of its people with the help of strong economic policies for all priority areas of development. The report reviews economic and social policies and assesses the living standards of its people. It...