During the past decade, many countries in Latin America and the Carib-bean that previously were plagued by high inflation, a large debt burden, and low growth have transformed themselves into stable, capital-receiv-ing, and growing economies. They achieved this by implementing high-quality...

This paper examines the main distinctions between the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and regional trading arrangements (RTAs), noting that under the former, liberalization of trade is based on the most favored nation (MFN) principle, while under the latter, there is a departure...

Latin American countries have not had much experience with competition policies in the past. Combined with restrictive trade policies, the absence of competition policies has often led to monopolized domestic markets. The strong trade liberalizations in Latin America during the 1980s and the...

Economic development during the last thirty years provides a continuing experiment from which important lessons can be learned. These lessons are both positive and negative. One can learn from those that have succeeded as well as those that have failed. Among those that have succeeded, the East...

The report is organized as follows. Chapter one sets out the strategic context for Iraq, including the evolving political situation, macroeconomic context, and poverty and social conditions. Chapter two analyzes the trends in, and composition of, public expenditure, both from economic and...

The Country Opinion Survey for FY2013 in Burkina Faso assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Burkina Faso perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies,...

The Country Opinion Survey for FY2012 in Djibouti assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Djibouti perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media,...

The Country Opinion Survey for FY2012 in Republic of Congo assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Republic of Congo perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral...