East Asian corporations differ from their counterparts in other countries in important ways. Before the recent financial crisis these differences were viewed as one of the reasons for the success of East Asian economies. The crisis altered that view, and many scholars now argue that the weak...

The transformation of Central and Eastern European agriculture started almost a decade ago. Looking back, it can be seen that the countries concerned made the right choice in setting their overall goals and policies for transition to a market economy, but the social costs have been high. Under...

The alleviation of poverty has been the prime objective of small-scale targeted credit programs such as the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. Based on household survey data, this paper concludes that these programs can play an important role in both lesing poverty and sustaining household welfare on a...

The purpose of government intervention in the wheat market in Pakistan is to ensure food security of consumers and to provide adequate and stable incomes for producers. The cost of this intervention is high and its impact on the performance of agriculture has been significantly negative. The...

Alternative institutions, most notably non-governmental organizations (NGOs), have evolved in many countries in response to the shortcomings of the state and the market in providing various social developments inputs and credit to the poor. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) was...

This paper summarizes the World Bank assistance strategy for rural development in the ECA region. The rural sector includes the people; economic; development activities; institutional, economic, and social infrastructure; and natural resources in rural areas and is thus not confined to agriculture....

The Government of Thailand within a five-year period (1991-95) introduced a series of initiatives that resulted in the elimination of leaded gasoline and reduction of ambient lead by a factor of 10. This report describes the strategies the government employed: educating about the dangers of...

There is already a large consensus in Slovenia for involving the private sector in communal infrastructure financing. However, there is presently no global strategy for translating this consensus into practice. the purpose of this study is to contribute toward a better understanding of communal...