Policy Research Reports
14 items available
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This series brings to a broad audience the results of World Bank research on development policy. The reports are designed to contribute to the debate on appropriate public policies for developing economies. Titles in this series undergo internal and external review under the management of the Research Group in the World Bank's Development Economics Vice Presidency.
Items in this collection
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Publication
At Loggerheads? Agricultural Expansion, Poverty Reduction, and Environment in the Tropical Forests
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)There are many causes, consequences, and connections of deforestation and forest poverty in the tropical world. This report specifically addresses the potential dilemma of trade-offs between poverty reduction and environmental protection. It seeks to improve the diagnosis of forest problems and facilitate the prescription and application of solutions by focusing on both the causes and consequences of forest conversion to agriculture and on the nature and location of forest poverty. The first section is diagnostic, examining the drivers and consequences of deforestation and forest poverty. The second part looks at how governance, institutions, and policies shape those drivers. It identifies opportunities for win-win policies. In particular, anything that boosts labor demand outside agriculture will tend to reduce both poverty and deforestation. Additionally, promotion of some kinds of agroforestry can help to improve the ecological functions of degraded forests while boosting farm output and employment. The report offers a systematic framework for thinking about how to integrate forest management with rural development in a sustainable way. -
Publication
Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction
(Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003)Land policies are of fundamental importance to sustainable growth, good governance, and the well-being of, and the economic opportunities open to, both rural and urban dwellers - particularly the poor. To this end, research on land policy, and analysis of interventions related to the subject, have long been of interest to the Bank's Research Department, and other academic, and civil society institutions. The report aims to strengthen the effectiveness of land policy in support of development, and poverty reduction, by setting out the results of recent research in a way that is accessible to a wide audience of policymakers, nongovernmental organizations, academics in the Bank's client countries, donor agency officials, and the broader development community. Its main message rests on three principles: 1) provision of secure tenure to land improves the welfare of the poor, particularly by enhancing the asset base of those whose land rights are often neglected, and, creates incentives needed for investment, paramount to sustainable economic growth; 2) facilitation of land exchange, and distribution, whether as an asset or for current services, at low cost, through markets, and non-market channels, will expedite land access by productive, but land-poor producers, so that once economic growth improves, financial markets would rely on the use of land as collateral; and, 3) governments' contribution to the promotion of socially desirable land allocation, and utilization. The report discusses mechanisms to promote tenure security, demonstrates the importance of rental market transactions, arguing the removal of impediments to these can generate equity advantages, and positive investments. It also illustrates mechanisms, ranging from taxation, to regulation and land use planning to address these issues. -
Publication
Globalization, Growth, and Poverty : Building an Inclusive World Economy
(Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2002)Societies and economies around the world are becoming more integrated. Integration is the result of reduced costs of transport, lower trade barriers, faster communication of ideas, rising capital flows, and intensifying pressures for mitigation. Integration--or "globalization"--has generated anxieties about rising ineuality, shifting power, and cultural uniformity. This report assesses its impact and examines these anxieties. Global integration is already a powerful force for poverty reduction, but it could be even more effective. Some, but not all of the anxieties are well-founded. Both global opportunities and global risks have outpaced global policy. The authors propose an agenda for action, both to enhance the potential of globalization to provide opportunities for poor people and to reduce and mitigate the risks it generates. This report presents three main findings that bear on current policy debates about globalization. First, poor countries with around 3 billion people have broken into the global market for manufactures and services; these "new globalizers" have experienced large-scale poverty reduction. The second finding concerns inclusion both across countries and within them; the authors highlight a range of measures that would help countries in danger of becoming marginalized become integrated with the world economy. A third issue concerns the anxiety that economic integration leads to cultural or institutional homogenization. -
Publication
Finance for Growth : Policy Choices in a Volatile World
(Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2001-04)The overall impact of financial globalization on the domestic financial sector is profound. Liberalization of capital flows has effectively made domestic financial repression obsolete. The consequences have not been uniformly favorable. Following liberalization, domestic interest rates in developing countries have moved to a premium over industrial country rates, and can surge at times of currency speculation. Heightened interest rate and exchange rate volatility pose practical risk management difficulties for financial intermediaries and reinforce the need for appropriate infrastructures and incentives for risk containment, as well as for good macropolicies. On the other hand, the cost of equity capital has been reduced by allowing foreign investor access to local equity markets and allowing local firms to list abroad. Increased international flows through the equity markets have not been the major contributor to increased international sources of volatility. In addition to opening access to foreign-sourced financial services, more and more countries have been permitting foreign-owned banks and other financial firms to operate locally. Although this can represent a threat to domestic owners of financial firms, the drawback is outweighed by improved service quality. On all three fronts--debt, equity, and services--the costs and risks as well as the benefits of increased financial globalization. knowledges