This study analyzes the main approaches to infrastructure financing in developing countries and their evolution. It places the discussion in the context of the importance of infrastructure investment and maintenance needs to achieve growth and borader social objectives. It summarizes the...

This paper makes the case for the return of regulation in the organization of urban bus services in developing countries. During the past three decades urban public transport policy has transversed several phases. From public ownership and monopoly provision, the eighties and nineties was...

During the past three decades, urban public transport policy has gone through several phases. From public ownership and monopoly provision, the 1980s and 1990s were characterized by a strong liberalization of the sector. This experience showed the limits of liberalization of the sector in terms...

The state of national labor markets has always been a concern for governments and development agencies such as the World Bank. Key labor market indicators, such as the rate of unemployment, send signals about the health of an economy and mirror citizens' attitudes. Being gainfully employed is an...

As regions around the world are considering increased integration of key energy, transport or other infrastructure networks, issues build in the design of the supranational national regulation needed in that context are increasingly well recognized. Solutions are however slow to emerge. This...

This paper shows how high bargaining power for firms and search costs in the labor market can impede a switch towards new, more competitive economic activities. This is because search costs drive the quality of the horizontal matching between worker types and the old and new sectors of the...

This paper presents an updated empirical assessment of the relative effectiveness of intra-platform and inter-platform competition in terms of broadband diffusion in Europe between 2003 and 2010. It relies on an econometric analysis of 18 European countries. To approximate two forms of...

Interventions to fix market failures in infrastructure have often resulted in some form of governance failure and this contributes importantly to explain shortcomings in the supply of infrastructure services in developing countries and increasingly in developed countries in crisis. The...