Global growth again fell short of expectations in 2015. Growth is projected to edge up in 2016-18 but the forecast is subject to substantial downside risks. In addition to discussing global and regional...
Social impact investors, philanthropists, or corporations pursuing social responsibility try to demonstrate that they are indeed "doing good." This essay classifies the various types of measures that currently...
This FOCUS 12 publication provides an in-depth examination of a major corporate governance policy, initiative, or issue through a combination of research, case studies, and expert opinion. Unlike a traditional...
The paper lays out basic design options for infrastructure policy. It first sketches mechanisms to asses demand. Then it sets out a hierarchy of issues starting with choice of market structure followed...
A number of recent survey articles express hope that new data from enterprise surveys would shed new light on corruption complementing the corruption perception index by Transparency International. The...
This essay first sets out the "business model" problems entailed by corruption and their effects as well as implications for economic growth. Key issues are the need for secrecy and co-operation with partners...
Mobile banking is growing at a remarkable speed around the world. In the process it is creating considerable uncertainty about the appropriate regulatory response to this newly emerging service. This paper...
The market for aid is changing. These days donors use a far greater array of instruments than in the past, and operate in a context of far larger private financial flows. Poor countries are growing richer...
Private financial flows such as foreign direct investment seem toencourage economic growth and relieve poverty in part because theycreate excellent incentives for transferring know-how and in partbecause...
More than ever, governments in developing countries have access to capital markets, but most are not using it. Instead, they have restructured their debt portfolios, cutting the share of private sector...
Private financial flows to developing countries, such as debt,equity, remittances, and private charitable giving, have increaseddramatically over the past 20 years. One commentator has eventrumpeted “the...
Some people think the best way to give aid is through grants. Others advocate aid embedded in subsidized loans. Mostly, incentive effects on donors and recipients are ignored in this debate. But grants...
Critics of the aid industry have accused it of acting like a cartel (Easterly 2002). The accusation has some bite-globally the industry remains somewhat concentrated, and for the typical recipient country...
It would be hard to disagree with the objectives of the international aid industry. But how much are donors contributing to their achievement? Despite recent progress, we still know surprisingly little...
Fundamentally, poverty reduction is about bringing growth processes to poor areas. Because poor areas can benefit from technical and organizational innovations made elsewhere in the world, it is possible...
The private sector drives economic growth; by Joseph O'Keefe. The distributional impact of privatization; by John Nellis and Nancy Birdsall. Where do we stand today with private infrastructure?; by Michael...
In developing the architecture for a financial system, the challenge is to combine deregulation and safety nets against systemic failure with effective prudential regulation and oversight. The author analyzes...
Road funds, user charges, and taxes, by Ken Gwilliam and Zmarak Shalizi. Between the state and the market: can informal insurance patch the safety net? By Jonathan Morduch. Using household surveys to build...
The privatization of infrastructure should lead to the development of new infrastructure, improvements in the operation of existing infrastructure, and a reduction in budgetary subsidies. Whether countries...
Once a government has decided to award a concession by auction, it needs to decide what kind of auction to use. For concessions the standard is a first-price sealed bid auction in which bidders submit...