"The authors explore the relationship between transaction costs and generalized trust. Using panel data from 2,100 households in 135 rural communities of the Philippines, the paper shows that where transaction costs are reduced (proxied by road construction), there is an increase in generalized...

This book examines progress within Russia's financial sector and provides a road map for promoting dialogue on and implementing improvements. The book is intended to complement and support the joint strategic plan of Russia's government and Central Bank for banking reform, a plan that includes...

The Lebanon Economic Monitor provides an update on key economic developments and policies overthe past six months. It also presents findings from recent World Bank work on Lebanon. It places them in a longer-term and global context, and assesses the implications of these developments and other...

"This paper explores an empirical methodology to assess the impacts of trade reforms on household behavior in developing countries. It focuses on consumption and income responses: when price reforms take place, households modify consumption and production decisions and local labor markets...

"While there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence on the economic effects of adverse health shocks, there is relatively little hard empirical evidence. The author builds on recent empirical work to explore in the context of postreform Vietnam two related issues: (1) how far household income and...

This note provides: (1) an overview of new manifestations of consumer risks that are significant and cross-cutting across four key fintech products: digital microcredit, P2PL, investment-based crowdfunding, and e-money; and (2) examples of emerging regulatory approaches to target such risks....

Open banking schemes provide consumers with more choice and new financial products and services through the use of technology, particularly application programing interfaces (API's). The main objective of this paper is to provide guidance on how to implement consumer consent protocols to access...

This technical note is intended to provide regulators with concrete, practical information on operating price-comparison websites and the strategic considerations necessary to take into account when designing such sites. The technical note examines price-comparison websites operated by public...