Donors supporting countries affected by fragility conflict and violence face a difficult trade-off. Should they deliver urgently needed water supply infrastructure through non-state actors or build the country institutions that deliver water supply? This report confirms that the current response...

Traditionally, governments seek to mobilize tax revenues by expanding their enforcement of existing tax regimes and facilitating tax payments. However, enforcement and facilitation can be costly and produce diminishing marginal returns if citizens are unwilling to pay their taxes. This paper...

This policy note was prepared in parallel to the report Pakistan at 100- Shaping the Future. The report Pakistan at 100 discusses options to accelerate and sustain growth in Pakistan so that the country becomes an upper middle-income country when it turns hundred years old in 2047. This policy...

The World Bank (WB) is a vital source of financial and technical assistance across the transport sector in India. While financial resources and technical expertise are vital, they are not sufficient to promote sustainable development. This requires strong and durable institutions in client...

The 2008 crisis marked the beginning of a lost decade for many countries - and many people - in the European Union (EU). The crises of 2008 and 2012 halted, and in some countries undid, a decade of growth and economic convergence across the EU. This report argues that the economic shocks...

Mandalay is the second-largest city in Myanmar and a gateway to the Bay of Bengal to neighboring economic hubs. Rapid economic and demographic growth, paired with the relaxation of import restrictions for new and used two, three, and four-wheeler has resulted in rapidly declining conditions for...

This report provides recommendations to further develop the methodology for nutrition expenditure analysis. This report carefully reviewed all available nutrition expenditure analyses available and drew methodological conclusions. Findings include a need for a standardized way of classifying...

Oil discoveries can constitute a major positive and exogenous shock to economic activity, but the resource curse hypothesis would suggest they might also be detrimental to growth over the long run. This paper utilizes a new methodology for estimating growth underperformance to examine the extent...

On August 25, 2009, the 13th Government of the Palestinian Authority (PA) presented a program entitled "Palestine: ending the occupation, establishing the state" (hereafter referred to as the program) outlining several national goals, including the achievement of 'economic independence and...

This paper looks at the role and design of regulatory reform institutions in developing countries. These institutions are classified into four broad types: 1) regulatory reform units, commonly known in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries as oversight bodies for...