This paper discusses the environmental externalities that are commonly found in the developing world (the environmental regime) along with the policy responses, if any, commonly used to deal with these. Included are the effects of industrial emissions, air and water quality impacts of untreated...

Health systems are not just about improving health: good ones also ensure that people are protected from the financial consequences of receiving medical care. Anecdotal evidence suggests health systems often perform badly in this respect, apparently with devastating consequences for households,...

The authors examine the effects of the introduction of Vietnam's health insurance (VHI) program on health outcomes, health care utilization, and non-medical household consumption. The use of panel data collected before and after the insurance program's introduction allows them to eliminate any...

The literature contains few impact evaluations of health sector reforms, especially those involving broad and simultaneous changes on both the demand and supply sides of the sector. This paper reports the results of a World Bank-funded health sector reform project in China known as Health VIII....

The health systems of Japan and the Asian Tigers--Hong Kong (China), the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan (China)--and the recent reforms to them provide many potentially valuable lessons to East Asia's developing countries. All five systems have managed to keep a check on health...

Inequalities in health have recently started to receive a good deal of attention in the developing world. But how large are they? An how large are the differences across countries? Recent data from a 42-country study, show large, but varying inequalities in health across countries. The author...

This paper discusses the potential impacts of services trade liberalization on developing countries and reviews existing quantitative studies. Its purpose is to distill themes from current literature rather than to advocate specific policy changes. The picture emerging is one of valiant attempts...

This paper revisits the long-standing issue of the incidence of taxes in developing countries. Its central theme is that despite many decades of studies, tax incidence analyses for developing countries continue to be based upon the same shifting assumptions used in developed country studies,...

This paper documents recent external sector liberalization in developing countries, evaluates what is behind it, and assesses whether it is likely to persist, accelerate or reverse itself. It draws heavily upon material collected during a recent Ford Foundation-supported research project on...

This paper both documents the involvement of developing countries in coalitional activity in the current GATT Uruguay round thus far, and provides a rudimenting evaluation of the pros and cons of the different options for them as far as coalitional strategies are concerned. The main conclusions...