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  • Publication
    Doing Business in Mozambique 2019: Comparing Business Regulation for Domestic Firms in 10 Provinces with 189 Other Economies
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06-05) World Bank Group
    Doing Business in Mozambique 2019—the first subnational Doing Business study for Mozambique—assesses the regulatory environment for small and medium-size enterprises in the country. It measures ten provinces in the areas of starting a business, registering property and enforcing contracts: Cabo Delgado, Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, Maputo City, Niassa, Nampula, Sofala, Tete and Zambezia. It also measures trading across borders in three major seaports, Beira port, Maputo port and Nacala port, as well as one land border crossing, Ressano Garcia.
  • Publication
    Effects of the Business Cycle on Social Indicators in Latin America and the Caribbean: When Dreams Meet Reality
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019-04-04) Vegh, Carlos A.; Riera-Crichton, Daniel; Puig, Jorge; Camarena, José Andrée; Galeano, Luciana; Morano, Luis; Venturi, Lucila; Vuletin, Guillermo
    After mediocre growth in 2018 of 0.7 percent. LAC is expected to perform only marginally better in 2019 (growth of 0.9 percent) followed by a much more solid growth of 2.1 percent in 2020. LAC will face both internal and external challenges during 2019. On the domestic front. the recession in Argentina; a slower than expected recovery in Brazil from the 2014-2015 recession, anemic growth in Mexico. and the continued deterioration of Venezuela. present the biggest challenges. On the external front. the sharp drop in net capital inflows to the region since early 2018 and the monetary policy normalization in the United States stand among the greatest perils. Furthermore, the recent increase in poverty in Brazil because of the recession points to the large effects that the business cycle may have on poverty. The core of this report argues that social indicators that are very sensitive to the business cycle may yield a highly misleading picture of permanent social gains in the region.
  • Publication
    From Known Unknowns to Black Swans: How to Manage Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-10-05) Vegh, Carlos A.; Riera-Crichton, Daniel; Medina, Juan Pablo; Friedheim, Diego; Morano, Luis; Venturi, Lucila; Vuletin, Guillermo
    After a growth recovery, with an expansion of 1.1 percent in 2017, the region has encountered some bumps in the road. The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region is expected to grow at a modest rate of 0.6 percent in 2018 and 1.6 percent in 2019. This slowdown in the region’s recovery is mainly explained by the crisis that started in Argentina in April, the growth slowdown in Brazil, and the continuing economic, social, and humanitarian collapse in Venezuela. Furthermore, net capital inflows to the region have fallen dramatically since early 2018, bringing once again to the fore the risks faced by LAC. In addition, natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes have brought devastation to the region with disturbing frequency. The core of the report analyzes the foundations of risk, develops a theoretical framework to price risk instruments, and reviews how LAC has managed risk in practice. The overall message of the report is that there are different types of risk: (i) those that follow standard probabilistic distributions that can be easily insured by the market; and (ii) those that exhibit fat-tails (i.e., non-negligible probabilities of extreme events) that are much harder to ensure by the market (like earthquakes). Finally, there are “black swans” that, by definition, are unpredictable events that cannot be insured and force countries to rely exclusively on ex-post aid and/or broad preventive measures. In other words, the fatter are the tails of a distribution, the less market insurance is available, and the more countries will have to rely on ex-post aid. Yet progress in managing risk continues to be made (the Catastrophe Bond for earthquakes in the Pacific Alliance, recently sponsored by the World Bank, being an outstanding example). This would have been unthinkable some time ago. New knowledge and insurance schemes, all supported by institutions such as the World Bank, will undoubtedly make LAC a safer region to live and prosper.
  • Publication
    Jobs and Growth: Brazil's Productivity Agenda
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-06-22) Dutz, Mark A.
    Brazil approaches its 2018 election with an economy that is gradually recovering from the deepest recession in its recent economic history. However, for many Brazilians, the recovery has not yet translated into new and better jobs, or rising incomes. This book explores the drivers of future employment and income growth. Its key finding: Brazil needs to dramatically improve its performance across all industries in terms of productivity if the country is to provide better jobs for its citizens and generate lasting gains in incomes growth for all. This is particularly important as Brazil is aging rapidly and the boost the country has enjoyed thanks to its young and growing labor force in the past decades will disappear in just a few years’ time. The book recommends a change in the relationship between the state and business, from rewarding privileged incumbents to fostering competition and innovation—together with supporting workers and firms to adjust to the demands of the market. The book is addressed to all scholars and students of Brazil’s economy, especially those interested in why the country’s economic performance has not kept up with earlier achievements since the reintroduction of democracy in the mid-1980s. Its conclusions are urgent and pertinent but also optimistic. With the right policy mix, Brazil could enter the third century of its independence in 2022 well on track to join the ranks of high income countries.
  • Publication
    Fiscal Adjustment in Latin America and the Caribbean: Short-Run Pain, Long-Run Gain?
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-04-17) Vegh, Carlos A.; Riera-Crichton, Daniel; Friedheim, Diego; Morano, Luis; Camarena, José Andrée; Vuletin, Guillermo
    After a growth slowdown that lasted six years, the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region has finally turned the corner and resumed growth at a modest rate of 1.1 percent in 2017 and 1.8 percent expected in 2018. This reflects a more favorable external environment, particularly a recovery in commodity prices. In spite of the benign external environment, most LAC countries still face a fragile fiscal situation. While gradual fiscal adjustments have started in several countries, most countries are still running fiscal deficits and debt levels are high. Further fiscal consolidation is needed to preserve the substantial gains achieved by the region in recent times, in terms of lower inflation, less poverty and inequality, and inclusive growth. This Semiannual Report analyzes the complex decisions regarding fiscal adjustment policies.
  • Publication
    Republic of Cabo Verde: Adjusting the Development Model to Revive Growth and Strengthen Social Inclusion
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018) World Bank Group
    Cabo Verde’s economic achievements over the last thirty years have been spectacular and are unprecedented on the African continent. These achievements are remarkable given the unique challenges the country faces due to its small size, lack of scale for production of goods and delivery of economic and social services, remoteness, geographical dispersion, environmental fragility, and high exposure to shocks. This Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) presents an assessment of the main opportunities and constraints for achieving the World Bank’s twin goals in Cabo Verde. It assesses the pathways for reducing extreme poverty and raising the welfare of the poorest forty percent of the population in a sustainable manner, and identifies the main constraints for operationalizing these. The SCD is based on a review of existing documents, analysis of available data, and in-country discussions and expert interviews that took place during 2016 and 2017. The SCD focuses on the country’s development potential and challenges to meeting the objectives of poverty reduction and shared posterity. It lays the ground for the program of collaboration between Cabo Verde and the World Bank Group, namely the 2018–2021 country partnership framework.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2017: Governance and the Law
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30) World Bank Group
    Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.
  • Publication
    Global Economic Prospects, January 2016: Spillovers Amid Weak Growth
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-01-06) World Bank Group
    The January 2016 edition of Global Economic Prospects discusses current global and regional economic developments and prospects, analyzing key challenges and opportunities confronting developing countries. This volume addresses, among other topics, spillovers from large emerging markets and macroeconomic vulnerabilities during resource development. Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group Flagship Report. Semiannually (January and June), it examines global economic developments and prospects, with a special focus on developing countries. The report includes analysis of topical policy challenges faced by developing countries through in-depth research in the January edition and shorter analytical pieces in the June edition.
  • Publication
    Global Monitoring Report 2015/2016: Development Goals in an Era of Demographic Change
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016) World Bank; International Monetary Fund
    The Global Monitoring Report 2015/2016, produced by the World Bank Group in partnership with the International Monetary Fund, comes at an inflection point in both the setting of global development goals and the demographic trends affecting those goals. This year marks the end of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the launching of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while the World Bank Group has in parallel articulated the twin goals of sustainably ending extreme poverty and sharing prosperity. This report presents the latest global poverty numbers, based on the 2011 purchasing power parity (PPP) data, and examines the pace of development progress through the lens of the evolving global development goals. The special theme of this year’s report examines the complex interaction between demographic change and development. With the number of children approaching a global ceiling of two billion, the world’s population is growing slower. It is also aging faster, with the share of people of working age starting a decline in 2013. But the direction and pace of these trends vary starkly across countries, with sizeable demographic disparities between centers of global poverty (marked by high fertility) and drivers of global growth (marked by rapid aging). These demographic disparities are expected to deeply affect the pursuit of the post-2015 agenda, accentuating existing challenges and creating new opportunities.
  • Publication
    The Art of Knowledge Exchange : A Results-Focused Planning Guide for Development Practitioners, Second Edition Updated
    (Washington, DC, 2015) World Bank
    Knowledge exchange, or peer-to-peer learning, is a powerful way to share, replicate, and scale up what works in development. Development practitioners want to learn from the practical experience of others who have gone through, or are going through, similar challenges. They want to be connected to each other and have ready access to practical knowledge and solutions. When done right, knowledge exchange can build the capacity, confidence, and conviction of individuals and groups to act. Examples of these direct results or intermediate outcomes from a knowledge exchange include: i) technical water specialists in several sub-districts of Bangladesh learn new skills to replicate good practices (shared by their peers) for building and maintaining a safe water supply; ii) dairy sector and ministry of agriculture officials in Tanzania reach agreement on a blueprint of potential dairy sector reforms because of a new shared understanding and improved collaboration; and iii) farmers in Kenya adopt an innovative rice growing methodology, System of Rice Intensification (SRI), to increase the yield from their land after learning from the experience of countries that pioneered this methodology. This edition contains a full revision of the original art of knowledge exchange as well as new chapters on implementation and results. It draws lessons from over 100 exchanges financed by the World Bank South-South Facility, analytical work conducted by the World Bank Institute and the Task Team for South-South Cooperation, and reflects the experiences of dozens of World Bank Group staff, learning professionals, government officials, and other international development practitioners who have brokered and participated in South-South knowledge exchange activities.