Promoting a high savings rate is high on the World Bank's agenda for promoting national income growth. This study surveys broad saving trends worldwide, summarizes current knowledge about savings and consumption, identifies main unresolved issues, and outlines the major policy questions to be...

This paper discusses key findings and policy proposals for modernizing Hungary's subnational government system the perspective of fiscal decentralization, local capacity building, and development of a competitive credit market. Hungary has been a pioneer in local government reform among...

The present report draws on experience from industrialized and developing countries in terms of capital market financing of domestic infrastructure projects, and discusses the applicaiblity of these lessons in the Chinese context. It also describes the strategies these economies have adopted to...

Over the last two decades banking systems in Latin America have been subject to considerable banking distress and numerous crises. This conference looked at proposals for preventing such episodes. The discussions covered the genesis and implications of deposit insurance cum fractional reserve...

Sector Investment Programs (SIPs) are an important initiative for addressing several weaknesses of development aid practice. A SIP is an integrated program comprising a strategy for the sector, a government expenditure program, a management framework providing for common implementation...

The fragmentation in African financial markets and its persistence despite reforms to liberalize those markets have been difficult to explain. This paper reports findings from surveys of formal and informal institutions and their clients in Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania to test hypotheses...

Hydropower and irrigation projects involving reservoirs can displace thousands of people from their traditional lands and deprive them of their livelihoods. If poorly planned, they can also lead to environmental degradation. Solutions to these problems must be found--solutions that are...

It is generally accepted, both within Poland and abroad, that structural transformation, modernization and increased market efficiency are key to increase competitiveness and raise farm incomes ina country's rural sector. Parallel investments in physical infrastructure and human capital as the...