Municipalities play a large role in the Bulgarian public sector. They provide primary and secondary education. They own and operate about one-third of the hospitals in the country. Until 2003, they administered all the major social assistance programs (except pensions and unemployment...

The study assesses Bulgaria's progress in its transition to a market economy, and in its preparation for accession to the European Union (EU), through an analysis of economic developments during the 1990s, with special emphasis on the 1997-1999 period. It identifies the major challenges the...

As Bulgaria approaches European Union accession, it has the opportunity to narrow the income gap, and raise productivity and investment, and set the economy on a higher growth path. To address these challenges and accelerate convergence with the European Union, this report proposes a reform...

This is an internal status report to ESMAP and Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) which summarizes their ongoing work under a joint energy study entitled INGENS - Income Generation through Energy and. Complementary Services. INGENS has proposed (and started to test) a pragmatic,...

"This paper proposes that individuals care about the relative income of proximate reference groups. Making use of self-reported life satisfaction as a proxy for unobservable utility, the relative income of siblings is tested for relevance as a reference point for new sample data from Venezuela....

"Formal and informal commercial sex work is a way of life for many poor women in developing countries. Though sex workers have long been identified as crucial in affecting the spread of HIV/AIDS, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, the nature of sex-for-money transactions remains poorly...

"This paper explores how the elimination of Madagascar's Marketing Board in 1995 affected prices paid to farmers, incentives, and regional indicators of poverty and inequality. After steadily losing market share, Madagascar has been able to regain some of the lost ground since the mid-1990s....