Country Economic Memorandum
239 items available
Permanent URI for this collection
6 results
Filters
Settings
Citations
Statistics
Items in this collection
Now showing
1 - 6 of 6
-
Publication
From Swimming in Sand to High and Sustainable Growth: A Roadmap to Reduce Distortions in the Allocation of Resources and Talent in the Pakistani Economy
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022) World Bank GroupThis report focuses on growth in Pakistan, and on key aspects of its proximate determinants: productivity, capital, and talent accumulation. Productivity is crucial in accounting for differences in standards of living across countries and time. In addition, and particularly at the level of development of Pakistan, factor accumulation, investment, and human capital, also matters. Specific and policy relevant questions around these broad themes are this report's center of attention. The underlying framework of analysis and orientation of public policy recommendations is what is known as the 'ABC' of growth. This 'ABC' implies improving allocative efficiency of resources and talent, encouraging business-to-business connections and spillovers, and strengthening firms' capabilities. Public policies oriented to create an enabling environment around these three pillars will be powerful in boosting sustainable growth. However, the efficient allocation of talent and resources, and the business-to business interactions leading to spillovers and the conditions to upgrade capabilities, are limited by economic distortions (or market failures) that inhibit the growth process, sometimes making it as difficult as swimming in sand. -
Publication
Lake Chad Regional Economic Memorandum: Development for Peace
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-11-09) Granguillhome, Rogelio ; Hernandez, Marco ; Lach, Samantha ; Masaki, Takaaki ; Rodríguez-Castelán, CarlosThis report sheds light on the interlocked long-term territorial development challenges and the recently realized systemic risks affecting the Lake Chad region. It summarizes the findings of seven technical papers, each investigating different aspects of the interlinked challenges faced by the region. These studies are accompanied by complementary research on labor market and geospatial socioeconomic trends, as well as by a review of the thin literature on economic development across the region. In addition to presenting the main results of the technical papers, the report positions the findings in the broader context of an analytical framework depicting the feedback mechanisms between the region’s territorial development gaps and the self-reinforcing link to shocks, namely, violent conflict and climate change. This analytical framework is presented in Section 1.2. The rest of the report is structured as follows. Section 1.3 describes the main social and economic trajectories in the region. It reviews long-term demographic trends, suggesting. Section 1.4 argues that the low-growth, high-poverty equilibrium observed in the region is closely linked to the region’s economic geography. Section 1.5 discusses how the impact of climatic variation and violent conflict experienced in the region interlink with and exacerbate the territorial development challenges. Section 1.6 presents policy directions structured around four crosscutting themes: infrastructure, trade, governance, and natural resource management. The crosscutting nature of these themes encourages the exploration of potential synergies across challenge areas. The discussion in the section aims to inform policy-making efforts to strengthen territorial development and mitigate the impacts of conflict and climate change. Such endeavors can increase the likelihood of breaking free from the self-reinforcing negative mechanisms and boost the potential return of the region to a path of stability and inclusive economic development. -
Publication
Lake Chad Regional Economic Memorandum: Technical Paper 5. Conflict and Climate Change in the Lake Chad Region
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-11-09) Fisker, Peter ; Fisker, PeterPeace and security are basic conditions for economic and social development. Conflict, on the other hand, can reverse years of economic growth and induce long-term harm on almost all aspects of development. For the past decade, the Lake Chad region has been the setting of conflicts between government forces and armed groups, most notably the Boko Haram. Although the intensity of fighting has petered off in recent years, the conflict has spread from Northern Nigeria and now affects all four countries of the region. Due to the paramount importance of avoiding armed conflict, a large economic literature exists that seeks to find explanations for the onset and prevalence of conflict in developing countries. Blattman and Miguel [2010] list some of the most common theories of conflict including competition for resources, economic grievances, and the possibility of looting. This paper attempts to shed light on the geographical distribution of conflict and its climatic determinants in the Lake Chad region following a sub-national approach where readily available spatial data is employed at two different units of aggregation: Firstly, 90 second level administrative areas, and secondly, around 5,318 grid cells covering the same region. Exposure to conflict is here defined as the intensity (for districts) or incidence (for cells) of conflict in a given unit each year. Parts of the population may not be directly exposed by this definition, but since the units of analysis are relatively small, most will be affected in some ways, for instance by safety concerns when visiting the nearest towns to trade or by the general economic consequences. -
Publication
Republic of the Marshall Islands Country Economic Memorandum and Public Expenditure Review: Maximizing Opportunities, Enhancing Sustainability
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06-20) World BankThis joint Country Economic Memorandum (CEM) and Public Expenditure Review (PER) aims to support the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (GoRMI) to identify a prioritized and sequenced set of reforms to drive increased economic growth, resilience, and fiscal sustainability. The study has two objectives. First, to improve understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and risks to achieving sustainable economic growth and job creation in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). Second, to improve the management of public resources to support long-term economic development, fiscal sustainability, and service delivery. The assessment aims to balance the need for reform to drive higher prosperity and resilience with GoRMI’s limited capacity to design and implement reforms and provide public goods and services. The reform priorities identified are also consistent with the RMI’s National Strategic Plan 2020-30, which articulates the nation’s vision to build a resilient, productive, and self-supportive RMI. This Executive Summary is structured in three sections. The first section provides a brief background to RMI and the structure of the economy. The second section summarizes the key issues and challenges to achieving GoRMI’s long-term development objectives under five themes: (i) the management of public finances; (ii) public service delivery; (iii) the fisheries sector; (iv) the labor market and labor mobility; and (v) disaster resilience and climate change. The final section outlines key recommendations under the same five themes. -
Publication
Republic of Yemen: Unlocking the Potential for Economic Growth
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10) World BankPart one of the report provides an overview of the economy. It has one chapter (chapter one), which provides an overview of the country’s growth and macroeconomic performance and challenges and analyzes and emphasizes the limited dynamism of a rent- and hydrocarbon-cursed economy. Part II describes cross-cutting issues that constrain policy implementation, regardless of the sectors where they occur. In chapter two, the report draws on material outlined in the rest of the report to argue that the policy problems that undermine the country’s development can be linked directly to political distortions introduced by the fragmentation among the population and the elites. While the informal elite networks are able to block reform and aggressively continue to seek rents that might otherwise be recycled into development, the population is unable to exert its rights and hold the elites accountable. Chapter three analyzes the major impediments in the business environment. Through the analysis of the de jure legal and regulatory business environment as well as the enforcement of business regulations, the chapter identifies key legal and institutional changes that can help reduce the opportunities for rent seeking that favor well-connected businesses. Chapter four discusses the opportunities to maximize the benefits of the country’s human capital by enhancing the quality of worker skills, increasing women’s labor force participation, and facilitating the migration of Yemenis to work in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. To achieve this goal, the Republic of Yemen needs to enhance the quality of the education system, especially technical education and vocational training (TEVT), and respond to the existing demand for skilled workers. Chapter five explores the constraints to realizing the potential of agriculture. It argues that a key constraint on the sector is the capture of land and water by multiple elites motivated by short-term rent extraction, which prevents the efficient management of these assets and therefore undermines any possibility of sustainable development. The chapter also discusses other constraints and weaknesses affecting the sector and proposes legal and institutional changes that could help increase transparency in the management of the sector. Chapter six analyzes the prospects for growth in the oil and gas sector and discusses key governance reforms that would help reduce rent seeking in the sector. -
Publication
Guinea-Bissau Country Economic Memorandum : Terra Ranca! A Fresh Start, Summary
(Washington, DC, 2015-01-12) World BankAfter decades of turmoil and instability, a period of calm and progress evolved in Guinea-Bissau in 2009. A military coup in April 2012 interrupted it. A fresh start is needed to alter the dynamics that kept Guinea-Bissau poor. In 2013, Gross National Income per capita was US$590. Average economic growth barely kept pace with population growth. In 2010, poverty at the national poverty line of US$2 a day was 70 percent; extreme poverty at US$1 a day was 33 percent. These numbers have increased from their 2002 levels and they are estimated to have increased further since 2010. It is time to make a fresh start and turn the page on anemic growth and poverty. Guinea-Bissau s elections of May and June 2014 are described by many observers as the freest and fairest in the country s history. Voter registration and turnout were at record-levels. The conditions for progress and stability are favorable. Guinea-Bissau is a rural economy, almost entirely dependent on a single cash crop: cashew. It is the main source of income for most of the country s poor. Cashew nuts are Guinea-Bissau s main export, accounting for 85 to 90 percent of the country s total exports. The balance of payments is dominated by cashew, on the export side, and food and fuel, among imports. The economy is open, with exports and imports by land and sea amounting to more than 70 percent of GDP. Shocks to cashew, rice and oil prices have a considerable effect on the current account balance. Official Development Assistance (ODA) makes a critical contribution to supporting the state budget. In 2011, Guinea-Bissau ranked 20th among the world s most aid dependent countries. Recently, policy mistakes aggravated an already dire situation. However, the 2014 cashew campaign was been better than the 2013 campaign, and the prospects for a pick-up in growth have improved.