This publication addresses the question of whether political, fiscal, and administrative decentralization improves government effectiveness and the debate on whether it is a viable and desirable state-building strategy for post-conflict countries. The publication is a collection of eight papers...

"Keefer and Vlaicu demonstrate that sharply different policy choices across democracies can be explained as a consequence of differences in the ability of political competitors to make credible pre-electoral commitments to voters. Politicians can overcome their credibility deficit in two ways....

Mexico is in the midst of a transition. The defeat of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) in the 2000 presidential election marked a watershed, and with the repeated defeat of the PRI in the 2006 election, the era of the single?party dominance appears to be long gone. The demise of the...

"This paper presents the findings of a survey conducted by the World Bank of central banks in 40 developing countries across different regions in the world. The survey focused on the following topics: (1) coverage of national statistics on remittances, (2) cost of transferring and delivering...

Contents of Volume 2: Letter of Transmittal, Management's Discussion and Analysis, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Financial Statements and Internal Control Reports, and Special Purpose Financial Statements and Internal Control Reports of the International Development...