Stand alone books

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Tales from the Development Frontier : How China and Other Countries Harness Light Manufacturing to Create Jobs and Prosperity
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-09) Dinh, Hinh T.; Zafar, Ali; Wang, Lihong; Mavroeidi, Eleonora
Despite widespread agreement among economists that labor-intensive manufacturing has contributed mightily to rapid development in China and other fast-growing economies, most developing countries have had little success in raising the share of manufacturing in production, employment, or exports. Tales from the Development Frontier recounts efforts to establish light manufacturing clusters in several Asian and African countries, looking in particular at China. A companion volume to Light Manufacturing in Africa—which laid out a strategy for injecting new industrial growth nodes into African economies—Tales from the Development Frontier focuses on the six main binding constraints to competitiveness that nascent light manufacturing industries must overcome in developing countries: the availability, cost, and quality of inputs; access to industrial land; access to finance; trade logistics; entrepreneurial capabilities, both technical and managerial; and worker skills. The volume systematically explores potential growth opportunities in light manufacturing in a carefully selected subset of industries: agribusiness, apparel, leather goods, wood-working, and metal products. It specifies the constraints that need to be addressed before local and international entrepreneurs can take advantage of the latent comparative advantage available to many low-income economies in the target industries. It also proposes policies to ease the constraints—policies that can open the door to rapid increases in industrial output, employment, productivity, and exports. The outcomes described in this volume include both inspiring successes and miserable failures in addressing the binding constraints in the identified sectors. These examples reveal how and why industrial development efforts in poor countries—where, by definition, underlying conditions are far from ideal—can accelerate growth. Most of the firms described in a series of case studies started from a very simple and modest base in an environment full of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. With its rich array of new material, this book will support the ongoing research of policy analysts focused on China and other developing countries. Above all, the volume aims to embolden business entrepreneurs and government officials in low-income countries to pursue newly emerging opportunities to expand and accelerate the growth of light manufacturing in their home economies.
Until Debt Do Us Part : Subnational Debt, Insolvency, and Markets
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-02-13) Canuto, Otaviano; Canuto, Otaviano; Liu, Lili
With decentralization and urbanization, the debts of state and local governments and of quasi-public agencies have grown in importance. Rapid urbanization in developing countries requires large-scale infrastructure financing to help absorb influxes of rural populations. Borrowing enables state and local governments to capture the benefits of major capital investments immediately and to finance infrastructure more equitably across multiple generations of service users. With debt comes the risk of insolvency. Subnational debt crises have reoccurred in both developed and developing countries. Restructuring debt and ensuring its sustainability confront moral hazard and fiscal incentives in a multilevel government system; individual subnational governments might free-ride common resources, and public officials at all levels might shift the cost of excessive borrowing to future generations. This book brings together the reform experiences of emerging economies and developed countries. Written by leading practitioners and experts in public finance in the context of multilevel government systems, the book examines the interaction of markets, regulators, subnational borrowers, creditors, national governments, taxpayers, ex-ante rules, and ex-post insolvency systems in the quest for subnational fiscal discipline. Such a quest is intertwined with a country’s historical, political, and economic context. The formal legal framework interacts with political reality to influence the dynamics of and incentives for reform. Often, the resolution of a subnational debt crisis unfolds in the context of macroeconomic stabilization and structural reforms. The book includes reforms that have not been covered by previous literature, such as those of China, Colombia, France, Hungary, Mexico, and South Africa. The book also presents a comprehensive review of how the United States developed its debt market for state and local local governments through a series of reforms that are path dependent, including the reforms and lessons learned following state defaults in the 1840s and the debates that shaped the enactment of Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code in 1937. Looking forward, pressures on subnational finance are likely to continue—from the fragility of global recovery, the potentially higher cost of capital, refinancing risks, and sovereign risks. This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to know the challenges and reform options in debt restructuring, insolvency frameworks, and public debt market development.
Two Dragon Heads : Contrasting Development Paths for Beijing and Shanghai
(World Bank, 2010) Yusuf, Shahid; Nabeshima, Kaoru
In broad terms, the sources of economic growth are well understood, but relatively few countries have succeeded in effectively harnessing this knowledge for policy purposes so as to sustain high rates of growth over an extended period of time. Among the ones that have done so, China stands out. Its gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, which averaged almost 10 percent between 1978 and 2008, is unmatched. Even more remarkable is the performance of China's three leading industrial regions: the Bohai region, the Pearl River Delta, and the Yangtze River (Changjiang) delta area. These regions have averaged growth rates well above 11 percent since 1985. Shanghai is the urban axis of the Yangtze River Delta's thriving economy; Beijing is the hinge of the Bohai region. Their performance and that of a handful of other urban regions will determine China's economic fortunes and innovativeness in the coming decades. The balance of this volume is divided into five chapters. Chapter two encapsulates the sources of China's growth and the current and future role of urban regions in China. The case for the continuing substantial presence of manufacturing industry for growth and innovation in the two urban centers is made in chapter three. Chapter four briefly examines the economic transformation of four global cities and distills stylized trends that can inform future development in Beijing and Shanghai. Chapter five describes the industrial structure of the two cities, identifies promising industrial areas, and analyzes the resource base that would underpin growth fueled by innovation. Finally, chapter six suggests how strategy could be reoriented on the basis of the lessons delineated in chapter four and the economic capabilities presented in chapter five.
Changing the Industrial Geography in Asia : The Impact of China and India
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010) Yusuf, Shahid; Nabeshima, Kaoru
The focus of this volume is on China and India. The authors see them as the principal beneficiaries of the first upheaval, roughly bookended by the crises of 1997-98 and of 2008-09, and as being among the prime movers whose economic footprints will expand most rapidly in the coming decades. If these two countries do come close to realizing their considerable ambitions, their neighbors in Asia and their trading partners throughout the world must be ready for major adjustments. The changes in industrial geography and in the pattern of trade since the mid-1990s have already been far-reaching. Nothing on a comparable scale occurred during the preceding two decades of the 20th century. These developments offer instructive clues concerning the possible direction of changes in the future. However, in the interest of manageability, the author analysis is centered on the dynamics of industrialization, as these have a large bearing on the course of development. Within this context, reference is made to trade, foreign direct investment, and the building of technological capabilities, which together constitute a major subset of the factors responsible for the shape not only of the industrial geography of the past but also of the industrial geography yet to come. The striking feature of development in South and East Asia in the second half of the 20th century is the degree to which Japan dominated the industrial landscape and how the Japanese model triggered the first wave of industrialization in four East Asian economies-the Republic of Korea; Taiwan, China; Hong Kong, China; and Singapore. These four so-called tiger economies were the early starters, and each has become a mature industrial economy. Indeed, Hong Kong, having transferred almost all of its manufacturing activities to the Pearl River Delta, has morphed into a postindustrial economy.
Public Finance in China : Reform and Growth for a Harmonious Society
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008) Lou, Jiwei; Wang, Shuilin
This publication focuses on public finance, development economics, and the Chinese economy. The government will focus on the public good aspects of education and training-compulsory education and some aspects of higher education and training. The publication encourages seven reforms including raising government expenditure on education to four percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and ensuring that all children actually receive nine years of basic education. Improving and widening access to medical care, especially for the rural population. The target is to extend the cooperative medical scheme to 80 percent of the rural population from the current coverage rate of just over 20 percent. China has sufficient fiscal resources to afford the level and type of spending commensurate with a harmonious society. This reallocation of resources can be done only gradually. It must go hand in hand with a better specification of roles and functions of the various levels of China and stronger mechanisms for accountability, to ensure that poorer local governments use the resources given to them.
Dancing with the Giants: China, India, and the Global Economy
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2007) Winters, L. Alan; Yusuf, Shahid
This report takes a dispassionate and critical look at the rise of China and India, and asks questions about this growth: Where is it occurring? Who is benefiting most? Is it sustainable? And what are the implications for the rest of the world? The book considers whether the giants' growth will be seriously constrained by weaknesses in governance, growing inequality, and environmental stresses, and it concludes that this need not occur. However, it does suggest that the Chinese and Indian authorities face important challenges in keeping their investment climates favorable, their inequalities at levels that do not undermine growth, and their air and water quality at acceptable levels. The authors also consider China's and India's interactions with the global trading and financial systems and their impact on the global commons, particularly with regard to climate. The book finds that the giants' growth and trade offer most countries opportunities to gain economically. However, many countries will face strong adjustment pressure in manufacturing, particularly those with competing exports and especially if the giants' technical progress is strongly export- enhancing. For a few countries, mainly in Asia, these pressures could outweigh the economic benefits of larger markets in, and cheaper imports from, the giants; and the growth of those countries over the next fifteen years will be slightly lower as a result. The giants will contribute to the increase in world commodity and energy prices but they are not the principal cause of higher oil prices. The giants' emissions of CO2 will grow strongly, especially if economic growth is not accompanied by steps to enhance energy efficiency. At present, a one-time window of opportunity exists for achieving substantial efficiency improvements if ambitious current and future investment plans embody appropriate standards. Moreover, doing so will not be too costly or curtail growth significantly. From their relatively small positions at present, the giants will emerge as significant players in the world financial system as they grow and liberalize. Rates of reserve asset accumulation likely will slow, and emerging pressures will encourage China to reduce its current account surplus.
Under New Ownership : Privatizing China's State-Owned Enterprises
(Washington, DC: World Bank and Stanford University Press, 2005) Perkins, Dwight H.; Yusuf, Shahid; Nabeshima, Kaoru
This publication is organized as follows: Chapter 1, discuses China's industrial system: where it is now, where it should be headed, and why. Chapter 2, contains reform in China. Chapter 3, discusses the accelerated change in enterprise ownership 1997-2003. Chapter 4, covers Chinese ownership reform in the East European mirror. Chapter 5, discusses assessing the effects of ownership reform in China. Chapter 6, considers making privatization work.
Corporate Governance and Enterprise Reform in China : Building the Institutions of Modern Markets
(Washington, DC: World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, 2002-03) Tenev, Stoyan; Zhang, Chunlin; Brefort, Loup
This book explores the short- to medium-term corporate governance issues that China is encountering during the course of corporation and ownership transformation of its enterprise sector. The study looks at companies participating in the two main forms of ownership diversification: listed companies and small and medium enterprises whose ownership structure is dominated by insiders. The focus is on the new mechanisms and stakeholders emerging during the process of ownership diversification and their role in corporate governance. Recommended priorities for action are based on the following guiding principles: 1) Corporate governance scandals in emerging and developed markets indicate that there is no perfect corporate governance model. An effective corporate governance system should be capable of identifying weaknesses before they develop into systemic problems. 2) The institutional mechanisms of corporate governance comprise a system that can employ alternative yet complementary instruments of control to effectuate changes in companies' behavior. Based on these principles, the following areas emerge as recommended priorities for policy action: a) alleviate the negative impact of dominant state ownership on market discipline and on the regulatory capacity of the state; b) building an institutional investor base; and c) strengthening the role of banks in corporate governance.