The Yugo, a communist-era car from the former Yugoslavia, was widely ridiculed for shedding its parts on roads across Europe and the United States. Zastava, which made Yugo, fared even worse than its product. After the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, the factory was reduced to producing only...

The European Commission's Directorate General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations approached the World Bank to develop an evidence base and to deliver policy advice and technical assistance for supporting the effective reintegration of (Roma) returnees in the Western Balkans: Albania,...

Improving the efficiency and equity of public spending and strengthening revenue mobilization remains a priority in all Western Balkan countries. Public sector wage bills and pensions constitute the largest share of public spending in the region. Tighter controls on wage bills, reducing tax...

Ambient air pollution (AAP) is a serious global health problem that accounts for an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide per year. People in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans are frequently exposed to air pollution levels above those considered safe, particularly in the winter....

An effective and equitable social protection system can help Kosovo to promote human capital, foster productivity, and reduce poverty. Since its independence in 2008, the country has made considerable socioeconomic progress, benefiting from the support of the international community and its own...

With appropriate preparation and policies, the enlargement of the European Union (EU) will result in a broader and higher-level integration of European agriculture, create an environment more conducive to further liberalization of global agricultural trade, and lead to further opening of...

This is one of a series of handbooks which have arisen from a Surveillance project to evaluate agricultural price and trade interventions to eight Latin American countries for seven commodities for the period 1984 to 1994. The countries included in this Surveillance project are Argentina,...

In the context of weakening global demand, growth in the Western Balkans decelerated over the course of 2022 and into 2023. Against the background of the lasting effects of shocks from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, sticky inflation, and tighter financial conditions, global demand has been...