The report is the third in a series of reports that evolved from a collaboration between the local government of the City of Johannesburg, and the World Bank in 1999-2000 on the theme of local economic development. It presents the main findings of the 1999 World Bank informal sector survey,...

Thailand has made good progress in closing gender gaps in various dimensions, especially human capital development. However, the progress, though obvious, has not done much to get rid of the main deterrents discouraging Thai women from participating more actively in the labor market. Thailand's...

Undeclared work and incomes are a serious concern for the Government of Hungary, primarily because of the negative consequences for the country's already difficult fiscal situation. The Government has already introduced a number of reforms intended to reduce undeclared economic activity. Much of...

This paper tells a story about conditions in Tanzania's hidden economy, the parts of the natural resource sector often ignored in conventional economic analyses and studies, and makes recommendations for future policy actions. The paper draws primarily from extensive background studies...

"Over the past decade the United States has experienced widening current account deficits and a steady deterioration of its net foreign asset position. During the second half of the 1990s, this deterioration was fueled by foreign investment in a booming U.S. stock market. During the first half...

"Chen focuses on the effects of age structure changes on the size of budget deficits of national governments. More specifically, he determines whether differences in age structure can account for the observed differences in budget deficits across countries as well as across time. By way of an...