This paper discusses issues and explores options related to the reform of the power sector regulatory system in China. It reviews the power sector's current situation and impediments to reform, examines the relationship between power sector structure and regulation, and suggests several...

Hydro resources are provided by nature. The exploitation of such resources can generate significant economic rent to the owners. In the past, governments have usually claimed ownership of hydroelectric resources and passed on the rents to their state-owned utilities, which have used them to...

Concerns about global warming and the availability of clean renewable sources of energy are increasing. However, as private companies take over state power utilities, the demand for profit has stifled those concerns. Currently the private sector is building over 40 megawatts of fossil-fuel...

Oil and energy markets have experienced dramatic changes over the past two decades-steep price increases in the 1970s and 1980s followed by a decrease in 1986 and large declines in demand in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. But despite considerable uncertainty about future...

A radical new strategy for dealing with the problems of energy and the environment in the Sahel is being implemented in Niger. Rather than have urban wood traders go into the countryside to cut the wood and truck it back to the cities, the government is giving village communities control over...

In this paper we attempt to answer three questions. Using conventional indicators as a guide what are Bangladesh's prospects in sharply accelerating growth? What lessons can be derived from the experience of East Asian countries especially with repect to nonfarm development? Can these lessons be...

This report consists of a collection of essays on extreme poverty. The first part of the report deals with what it means to live in extreme poverty, how to reach the very poor, through programs, and interventions, and how to make private, and public institutions more responsive to their...

La structure de la repartition du niveau de vie su sein d'une population donnee est le cheval de bataille analytique de toute evaluation sociale. Dans une optique de choix collectifs, une telle repartition sert d'indicateur de l'etat social. En general, on presente une repartition d'un...

This report presents an update of poverty and income distribution statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean and examines the trends in these statistics during the 1980s. The document also provides a series of nonmonetary social indicators to help complete the profile of living conditions in...

The quantitative and qualitative approaches to poverty measurement and analysis have often been treated by practitioners as two distinct--even opposing--approaches. This paper highlights the key characteristics of the two approaches, examines the strengths and weaknesses of each, and analyzes...