Sri Lanka is in many respects a development success story. With economic growth averaging more than 7 percent a year over the past five years on top of an average growth of 6 percent the preceding five years, Sri Lanka has made notable strides towards the goals of ending extreme poverty and...

Between 2002 and 2012-13, most of the reduction in poverty was due to increased earnings, as opposed to higher employment or higher transfers. Although it is hard to be certain, increases in earnings are associated with: (i) a slow structural transformation away from agriculture and into...

A macro-micro simulation framework that links a computable general equilibrium model with the survey-based global income distribution dynamics model can be used to assess the economic and distributional effects of macroeconomic shocks and policies. The methodology is used to assess the economic...

Countries that strike it rich when exploring for oil and gas often fail to see growth materialize. This paper shows that one way things can get messy is via squandering new wealth, based on future resource revenues, on arms imports. In the five years following a giant oil or gas discovery, arms...

Although Sri Lanka has made significant progress in social and economic development over the past decade, the Northern and Eastern provinces that faced the brunt of the decades-long conflict remain disproportionately poor. To understand the labor market dimensions of poverty in these regions,...

This volume summarizes a series of studies undertaken to better understand the current socioeconomic context of the Northern and Eastern provinces in Sri Lanka. Nearly a decade after the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, the Northern and Eastern provinces lag in key social and economic measures....

Sri Lanka has shown remarkable persistence in low female labor force participation rates-at 36 percent from 2015 to 2017, compared with 75 percent for same-aged men-despite overall economic growth and poverty reduction over the past decade. The trend stands in contrast to the country's...

Changes in social and family structures, gender roles, and working environments have led some countries to introduce integrated centers for early childhood care and education (ECCE) for children ages zero to five years, combining the advantages of preschools and childcare centers. ECCE services...

The objective of the report is to raise awareness of the fiscal impacts that natural disasters have on the budget of the Government of Sri Lanka. It is envisioned to be used as a planning tool for the potential development of a comprehensive disaster risk financing and insurance strategy that...