This paper discusses the potential role of low-cost private secondary schools in Tanzania. The share of private enrollment has been negatively correlated with the availability of public schools. With the 2016 Fee-Free Basic Education Policy, the public secondary education system is experiencing...

This paper argues for a novel approach to financing infrastructure needs in Arab countries. It first describes the context of rising public debt in the region, contrasting it with the vast infrastructure needs. It then discusses the challenges in meeting these needs with traditional financing....

Sweden's gender pension gap is about 33 percent at retirement, reflecting the gender earnings gap - itself a reflection of a structural gender difference in low-pay jobs for women and men and career advancement opportunities. The individual nonfinancial defined contribution (NDC) account data...

The objective of the World Bank's technical assistance (TA) in the asset management planning ofSerbia's railways, using the life-cycle cost (LCC) method, is to improve the condition of key track infrastructure in the country. The appropriate use of the LCC model would enable Serbian Railways...

Small firms are an important source of income for the poor in developing countries, and the target of many interventions designed to help them grow. But there is no systematic information on the failure or death of such firms. The paper puts together 16 panel surveys from 12 different developing...

Surveys of export promotion agencies suggest that that they tend to focus on helping firms become exporters as a means to stimulate aggregate export growth. But the existing empirical evidence has paid little attention to the role of export promotion agencies in helping entry into exporting....

Is it the institutions or firm characteristics at birth that shape startups and their early growth in developing countries? Using comprehensive data from the Indian Annual Survey of Industries this paper addresses this question by studying the early lifecycle of firms across diverse...

This paper examines the relationship between multilateral support and contract cancellation in long-term infrastructure public-private partnerships. The analysis draws on a large data set and employs a multi-level econometric model to define propensity scores and matching estimators to compare...