Political risk remains the top preoccupation for foreign investors operating in developing countries over the next three years, in spite of persistent concerns over the global downturn in the short term. The global economic recession triggered by the financial crisis that has unfolded over the...

The purpose of this report is to raise awareness and initiate a discussion on the need for sovereign sustainability reporting. The proposed sovereign climate and nature reporting framework would assist sovereigns looking to attract investment by enabling them to produce comprehensive, regular,...

The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Country Risk Profiles for floods and earthquakes presented in this publication are based on quantitative risk assessments derived using global flood and earthquake models.Flood and earthquake risk were defined in terms of affected population and affected gross...

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

This report presents an analysis conducted by the World Bank to assess macro-fiscal impacts of earthquakes and floods in European Union (EU) Member States (MS), analyze the financial instruments in place to manage this risk and identify any associated funding gaps. The analysis is underpinned by...

This note examines the implications of digital innovation for market structure and attendant policies, including financial and competition regulation. There have been several surveys of regulatory responses. This note takes a step back, to look at what the economic theory of banking and...

Following a decade of conflicts, Western Balkan countries accomplished robust economic growth in the 2000s. This growth pattern was domestic demand driven and externally financed, hence was hampered significantly by the global financial crisis and subsequent euro area debt crisis. Despite modest...

This Note provides guidance to securities markets regulators in emerging market economies (EMEs) about key regulatory issues that could affect the issuance of debt instruments for infrastructure financing over which they have some control. The Note focuses on three areas (placement regime,...

This Policy Note focuses on distribution channels, the role they play in product diversification and costs, and how regulation can promote competition in mutual funds (MFs) distribution. In many emerging market economics (EMEs) where both the capital markets and the MFs have reached certain...