This Note on public management of pension funds concludes that publicly-managed pension reserves are often used to finance non-pension policy. Public pension fund managers tend to invest based on objectives unrelated to pension provision. These include social and economically target investments...

This concept note presents the strategic engagement of the World Bank in the areas of public sector management and governance in Colombia. It describes the short and medium term approach through which the Bank will provide support to the country on those areas of reform, as well as their links...

Transition to a more democratic organization of the political environment led to the adoption of four laws in 1998 - Decentralization Laws - that provide for local governments' semi-autonomy, and define the overall context in which decentralization would occur, outlining the principles for...

"Empirical evidence suggests that the higher-order effects of natural disasters, which affect intangible assets, may be even more important than the material inter-industry effects. However, most existing general equilibrium models ignore higher order effects concerning human capital. Moreover,...

The past two decades have witnessed a fundamental transformation in the structure of government across East Asia. Prior to 1990 most East Asian countries were highly centralized; today, decentralization is ubiquitous throughout the region. From China to Thailand, sub-national governments are now...

This report, which is a product of the World Bank's Recurso program - reviews Peru's recent advances in health sector policy and performance and discusses upcoming challenges. Using the 'accountability triangle' approach developed in the 2004 World Development Report (WDR 2004), it focuses on...

This report responds to a Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) request to the World Bank to conduct exploratory work to examine the impacts of public sector reforms on human resources for health (HRH), with the aim of identifying areas where further analytical work may be useful. A World Bank team...