The report aims to advance a policy dialogue on how to address sustainability challenges from lowland developments. The specific approach discussed in this report is the "landscape approach" which, in turn, calls for improved "landscape governance." As a technical background study, the report...

The European Union's Cohesion Policy is its biggest investment instrument. It supports the Europe 2020 strategy of smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. With a budget of EUROS 351.8 billion for 2014-2020, the Cohesion Policy accounts for around one-third of the EU budget. The Cohesion Policy...

Global evidence suggests better infrastructure governance results in more efficient spending and better growth outcomes at the national and subnational levels of government. Several studies (International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2015; OECD, 2015; World Bank 2014; OECD, 2013a) demonstrate that improvements in...

News headlines over the last few years have been filled with global scandals involving corruption on an unprecedented scale. They touch virtuallyevery continent, from Asia to Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The scale, magnitude, and sophistication of the operations has increasingly risen to...

In this paper, I summarize the results of empirical studies in the areas of schooling and health, public programs and infant mortality, and government regulation of teenage smoking. My review is selective and is based on my own research. It is neutral with respect to the question of whether the...

This paper develops a simple theoretical framework to study a set of regions, each with its own regional government, who share a union or central government. These governments must decide whether to implement or discard a large number of projects that produce local benefits for the region that...

What are the incentives faced by local officials in China? Without democratic institutions, there is no mechanism for local residents to exercise "voice". Given the hukou registration system, local residents have little opportunity to threaten "exit" if they are unhappy with local taxes and...

This paper employs a new empirical approach for identifying the impact of government spending on the private sector. Our key innovation is to use changes in congressional committee chairmanship as a source of exogenous variation in state-level federal expenditures. In doing so, we show that...

Agriculture occupies a key position in the Kazakhstan economy. Although accounting for only 5 percent of GDP, agriculture continues to employ almost one third of the population. Studies of agriculture in Kazakhstan confirm significant un-tapped productive and export potential for the sector....