This background paper describes five different tools that can be used for the assessment of tax incentives by governments in low income countries' (LICs). The first tool (an application of cost-benefit analysis) provides an overarching framework for assessment. Evaluations of the various costs...

Experience shows that there is often ample room for more effective and efficient use of investment tax incentives in low-income countries. Tax incentives generally rank low in investment climate surveys in low-income countries, and there are many examples in which they are reported to be...

The focus of the paper is on five key financial stability issues in Emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), which have been selected on the basis of their degree of materiality for a reasonably broad range of EMDEs; their implications for regulatory, supervisory or other financial...

Almost four years since the onset of the global financial and economic crisis, unemployment and underemployment remain stubbornly high in many G20 countries, and many workers remain trapped in low paid, often informal, jobs with little social protection. Job creation has been anemic in many...

The Ministry of Education and Culture (MOEC) and the World Bank jointly conducted a large-scale video study to gain a better understanding of what takes place in the classroom, particularly in terms of the practices involved in the teaching of mathematics and the relationship of these practices...

This paper aims to provide a very distilled summary of the concepts shaping the discourse around state-building in fragile, conflict-affected situations, and to explore some of the operational implications for international development practitioners working in these settings, drawing on...

In 2015, Indonesia stands as an increasingly divided country, unequal in many ways. There is a growing income divide between the richest 10 percent and the rest of the population, and this gap is driven by many other types of inequality in Indonesia.People are divided into haves and have-nots...

Georgia has a concentrated but growing HIV epidemic. Over the past decade, HIV prevalence has increased among all population groups, particularly among men who have sex with men (MSM). If current conditions (behaviors and service coverage) are sustained up to 2030, the epidemic is expected to...

Since early 2012, the World Bank's High Frequency South Sudan Survey has collected a panel data set to monitor the welfare and perceptions of citizens in a selected number of state capitals in South Sudan. This note presents the findings of all six rounds of the survey on the topics of (1)...

The certification program aimed to certify all teachers by 2015. The program was rolled out at a rate of approximately 200,000 teachers each year. This report evaluates the certification program as it was implemented, in terms of its impact on student-learning outcomes. Results of the analysis...