Access to information, and communications technologies has become crucial to a sustainable agenda of economic development, and poverty reduction, and yet access remains concentrated in a few regions and population groups, with the contours of this new "digital divide" closely following, and...

The global financial crisis has led to rising interest in private sector development and economic growth. There is strong evidence that crises can stimulate investment climate reform. A better investment climate makes economic adjustment easier and helps attract capital to create jobs and...

Publication of this first edition of the little data book on private sector development coincides with rising interest in private sector development and growing understanding of the links between private sector development and economic growth. Well functioning finance markets and a robust...

More than 200 million people in the developing world were out of work this year. Over 1 billion are hungry, while millions more are confronting the threat that climate change poses. The United Nations estimates that 884 million people don't have safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion...

The book is organized in two parts. The first part looks at issues of long-term growth and development patterns, and the second part focuses on issues of macroeconomic vulnerability and its social effects. Chapter 1, looks at the determinants of dynamic efficiency in developing countries, which...

This study is designed to analyze the energy efficiency policies in seven countries that were successful in achieving low energy intensities or in reducing their energy intensity considerably. The study analyzes the evolution of the energy intensity of these countries from 1990 to 2007,...

The Little Data Book 2013 is a pocket edition of World Development Indicators 2013. It is intended as a quick reference for users of the World Development Indicators database, book, and mobile app. The database, which covers more than 1,200 indicators and spans more than 50 years The 214 country...

The publication of this fifth edition coincides with the convergence in accounting standards that has been a feature of the international landscape since the global financial crisis of 1998. The events of that year prompted several international organizations, including the World Bank and the...

The Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) brings fresh, innovative perspectives to key problems of development. By providing a forum in which policy makers, academics and leading researchers focus on a common theme, ABCDE plays an important role in advancing debate and shaping...

Over the last 20 years, the international community has significantly stepped up its efforts to prevent, detect, and deter money flows related to criminal activities and terrorism financing. Since the early 2000s, this drive has extended to developing countries, with most of them introducing...