Monetary coordination is high on the agenda of different regional organizations in Africa. Economic benefits of a common currency, like lower transaction cost, increased macroeconomic stability, or the shielding of central banks against political pressure from nationalist elites and their...

The WAEMU and the Franc CFA-Zone: A new culture of co-operation in Francophone Africa? The CFA-zone is basically composed of two sub-zones, characterised by significant structural economic and political differences within and between its member countries: the West African Economic and Monetary...

Microfinance may be the poster-boy of international development, but the facts remain that 100 million borrowers are in poverty and most Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are not financially self-sustainable. This means that there are systemic faults, which do not allow the goals of microfinance...

Cohesion policy micro-efficiency is determined by institutional or absorption capacity of recipient regions and Member States which, in turn, co-determines the policy's macro-economic impact. The analysis shows that cohesion policy is not perceived as an quot;EU receipts maximising...

Since the mid-1990s, Ireland has been significantly increasing its bilateral and EU framework financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority. The majority of such aid falls under the direct state-to-state aid and emergency/humanitarian assistance programmes. This chapter first examines direct...

This paper documents the potential employment and other value-added benefits of infrastructure investments in Ontario. In particular, it details the impact of infrastructure investment as a counter-cyclical fiscal policy tool. A review of the recent literature reveals that infrastructure...

Federal law requires metropolitan planning organizations in urban areas of more than 50,000 people to write long-range (20- to 30-year) metropolitan transportation plans and to revise or update those plans every 4 to 5 years. A review of plans for more than 75 of the nation's largest...

E-government holds the promise of improving administrative efficiency and citizen participation, but can also reinforce traditional administrative processes. This paper reviews the evidence, mainly from case studies, of these processes. It looks both at Asia-Pacific jurisdictions, and the wider...

The World Bank is no stranger to criticism of its projects, especially in respect of its privatization and private sector development projects. Critics point to the environmental, social and cultural damage that certain projects have caused, which for some appears not just to be a product of the...