Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain entered a period of severe economic and financial stress in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. Their collective experience confirmed the primacy of total debt, private or public, in affecting the onset of, depth of, and recovery from economic crises. The year...

This paper analyzes the important, yet often ignored, link between capital adjustment and the choice of fuels used by manufacturing firms. A novel econometric framework, which explicitly incorporates heterogeneous fuel-using capital stocks in the estimation of optimal fuel choice, is applied to...

Ireland has consistently supported workforce development (WfD) as a key element of economic development. This study has been commissioned by the World Bank to test a new instrument, within its Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-WfD project, which provides an opportunity to...

Through a review of the literature, this paper examines the links of food and agriculture with nutrition in South Asia, a region characterized by a high level of malnutrition. The review finds that the level and stability of food prices play a critical part in food consumption, with rising...

With urban industrialization on the scale achieved by East Asian economies looking increasingly less plausible, small economies in Africa need an alternative strategic approach to long-term growth. The purpose of this paper is to identify a growth strategy with the greatest potential for small,...

Enabling the Business of Agriculture 2019 presents indicators that measure the laws, regulations and bureaucratic processes that affect farmers in 101 countries. The study covers eight thematic areas: supplying seed, registering fertilizer, securing water, registering machinery, sustaining...

The European Union (EU) Regular Economic Report (RER), is an annual publication of the World Bank Group and covers economic developments, prospects, and economic policies in the European Union. The report finds that while growth is back on track, the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution...

Despite advances in agricultural production, TFP, and trade balances, Russia continues to lag behind many comparator countries in measures of crop and livestock productivity. This report has aimed to provide a vehicle for dialogue with government on agri-food sector collaboration to address this...

Agriculture is a key sector in Bangladesh, but it is highly exposed to risks. While agriculture is a source of employment and livelihood for nearly one in two adults in Bangladesh and contributes about 16 percent to gross domestic product (GDP), it is highly exposed to natural hazards. In the...

In January 2019, Uzbekistan started a new farm restructuring1. It is said to seek to optimize the use of farmland by increasing the size of farms producing wheat and cotton, reallocating land to more efficient farmers and even clusters, and improving crop rotation options. This is not the first...