"The authors use a sample of 147 countries to investigate the link between democracy and reforms. Democracy may be conducive to reforms, because politicians have the incentive to embrace growth-enhancing reforms to win elections. By contrast, authoritarian regimes do not have to worry as much...

This Report discusses the challenge of budget financing of core structural reforms, within a broader framework of fiscal management reforms in Russia. It argues that explicit financing of structural reforms is fully justifiable because these are the investments in the institutional...

This economic report records the economic activities of Armenia for the year 2013. A steep decline in construction caused economic growth to weaken to 0.6 percent in the second quarter of 2013 (year-on-year) from 7.5 percent in the first quarter and 7.2 percent in 2012 as a whole. Developments...

Following the East Asian financial crisis, the Bank's involvement in Thailand intensified, enabling a multifaceted stabilization, and structural reform dialogue, which deepened the economic, financial, and sector knowledge of the country. The study benefits from this analytical work, and...

"This paper re-emphasizes the link from structural policies to enhanced macroeconomic stabilization using a small structural model estimated on quarterly data for Macedonia and Slovakia over 1995-2007. The success of macroeconomic stabilization, typically in the hands of monetary policy, is not...

"This paper analyzes the process of institutional transformation in Bulgaria and assesses the extent to which it has established institutions and policies fostering domestic economic activity and integration into global markets. After a brief review of characteristics and achieved progress in...