This paper analyzes whether the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB, or Bank) has fully and effectively implemented the IDB-9 requirements related to risk and financial management. IDB-9 included four requirements in this area: (i) adopt a rule-based Income Management Model (IMM); (ii)...

This study explores public finance policies in the transition countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and their likely effects on economic growth. The analysis is organized in three parts. Part one reviews public finance systems across the ECA region with regard to overall size, structure of...

Controlling corruption is an essential part of good governance, and poverty reduction, and it poses an enormous challenge for governments around the world. This report analyzes patterns, and trends in corruption in business-government interactions in the transition economies of Central and...

There is no room for complacency, however. Corruption is not falling in all countries or all sectors, and even the most successful reformers still tend to have higher levels of firm-level corruption than in Western Europe. The burden weighs most heavily on the new private firms that are the...

These case studies complement the earlier groundbreaking work of Natural Disaster Hotspots: A Global Risk Analysis published in April 2005. Three case studies address specific hazards: landslides, storm surges and drought. An additional, three case studies address regional multi-hazard...

The report examines how courts have performed, and reveals their impact on public opinion and the business environment. It provides insight into linkages among reforms as well as linkages between reforms and public demand for a fair judiciary. The authors show that while each country presents...

The existing literature on soft budget constraints suggests that firms may be subsidized for political reasons or because of the creditors' desire to recover a part of the sunk cost invested in an earlier period. In all these models hard budget constraints are viewed as being, in principle,...