Strong cyclical dynamics, together with an easing of macroeconomic policies in the United States and elsewhere, have boosted large parts of the global economy, into the initial phase of a recovery in 2002. Nonetheless, the global recovery is fragile, because investment spending is insufficient...

The World Bank's Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) was held in Bangalore, India on May 21-23, 2003. The ABCDE, one of the world's best-known conferences on development, was held for the first time in a developing country. "Accelerating Development" was the theme of the 2003...

The objective of this paper is to discuss some obstacles and opportunities presented by population processes in order to prioritize areas for investment and analytical work as background information for the 2007 HNP Sector Strategy. Within HNP, two areas fall within population: (1) reproductive,...

This paper looks at firm-level evidence on the African business environment from surveys undertaken for Investment Climate Assessments by the World Bank in 2000-2004. These surveys confirm a pattern of generally low "factory-floor" productivity, and show that this is partly due to business...

Uganda is urbanizing rapidly. If not proactively managed, Uganda will miss a major opportunity for structural transformation. The purpose of this report is to provide Ugandan policymakers with economic analyses on the role of Greater Kampala in achieving Uganda's economic goals outlined in...