Stand alone books
499 items available
Permanent URI for this collection
43 results
Filters
Settings
Citations
Statistics
Items in this collection
Now showing
1 - 10 of 43
-
Publication
Social Protection and Labor at the World Bank, 2000-08
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2009) Holzmann, RobertIn autumn 2000, the World Bank's board approved the first ever strategy for the new social protection and labor sector, and in January 2001, the sector published the strategy. The subtitle, from safety net to springboard, indicated the World Bank's move toward a broader understanding of poverty reduction and the relationship of risk to poverty. Because risks and access to appropriate risk management instruments matter for poverty reduction and development, the strategy proposed a new conceptual framework - social risk management that will review and reform existing interventions and propose new ones to better assist the vulnerable in addressing the many risks to which they are exposed. After seven years of implementation, it was time to review the strategy and work of the areas of selected core competence: labor market, social insurance (in particular pensions), social safety nets, social funds, disability and development, and risk and vulnerability analysis. The strategic position, its development, and the results by the sector since the launch of its strategy were reviewed and presented to the World Bank's committee on development effectiveness at the end of 2007. The review included a stocktaking of the analytical work and lending operations in each of the six core competence areas. The result of this review and the six stocktaking papers are presented in this publication. They reveal the progress that the World Bank has made in understanding the importance of social risk management for poverty reduction and the critical contribution it makes to equitable and sustainable growth. -
Publication
Managing Public Debt : From Diagnostics to Reform Implementation
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007) World BankManaging Public Debt will serve government officials contemplating or in the process of reforming their practices, providers of technical assistance, and practitioners working on building capacity in public debt management. Because effective implementation of debt management strategies also requires a developed domestic government debt market, readers will also be interested in the companion volume, Developing the Domestic Government Debt Market, published by The World Bank in February 2007, based on the same joint pilot program. -
Publication
Reforming Payments and Securities Settlement Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2007) Cirasino, Massimo ; Guadamillas, Mario ; García, José Antonio ; Montes-Negret, FernandoThe payments and securities settlement system is the infrastructure (comprising institutions, instruments, rules, procedures, standards, and technical means) established to effect the transfer of monetary value between parties discharging mutual obligations. A securities clearance and settlement system can be considered as part of the overall payment mechanisms of a country, in that it satisfies the main features of this overall definition The purpose of this book is to (a) extract the main lessons and experiences of the Western Hemisphere Payments and Securities Clearance and Settlement Initiative - Western Hemisphere Payments and Securities Settlement Forum (WHI-WHF) regarding the implementation of various reforms; (b) describe status of and major trends in payments and securities settlement systems worldwide and their implications for the LAC region; (c) summarize the detailed assessment findings for each LAC country in the following fields: (1) legal and regulatory framework, (2) main characteristics of the inter-bank exchange and settlement circuits, (3) retail settlement systems, (4) the role of the government as a major participant in the payments system, (5) foreign exchange and cross-border settlement, (6) the operation of the inter-bank money market, (7) aspects related to securities settlement such as the legal framework, clearance and settlement processes, settlement risks, operational reliability, custody, depositories' organizational arrangements, cross-border links, and (8) the oversight role of the central bank, coordination with the regulatory and supervisory role over securities settlement, and cooperation with the private sector; and (d) propose practical observations regarding the implementation of payments and securities settlement system reforms in the LAC region. -
Publication
Financing Cities : Fiscal Responsibility and Urban Infrastructure in Brazil, China, India, Poland and South Africa
(New Dehli : Sage Publications and World Bank, 2007) Clarke Annez, Patricia ; Peterson, George E.This book, Financing cities, emphasized case studies on different topics to look at the interactions of a range of variables and factors and to see how they fit together. Rather than require each case to follow the same format, the authors have structured their papers around the issues that matter most from their perspective in addressing the topic in hand. The first part of this book presents case studies describing the framework established at the national level to promote urban infrastructure finance while ensuring fiscal discipline and reviewing recent experience as well as future challenges. The subjects covered include the impact of political and fiscal decentralization, limitations on borrowing, managing moral hazard, the role of the financial sector, the achieving of the right balance between stringent controls and encouragement of local governments taking responsibility for fiscal discipline coupled with market discipline. The cases featured include three of the world's largest decentralized nations; together the five countries featured in the conference account for nearly a third of the world's urban population. Part I includes case studies for each of the five countries featured in the conference: Brazil (Chapter 1), China (Chapter 2), India (Chapter 3), Poland (Chapter 4) and South Africa (Chapter 5). Part II then shifts from the frameworks for fiscal discipline to urban infrastructure investments and the strategies used to mobilize investment funding. Chapters 6 and 7 examine the financing strategies for urban infrastructure in Shanghai and Brazil respectively. The next two chapters focus on specialized intermediaries offering urban infrastructure finance in cities. One is a fully private venture in South Africa (Chapter 9) while the other, in Tamil Nadu, India (Chapter 8), is a spin-off of a government fund with minority private ownership. The final two chapters examine experiences with two other mechanisms for mobilizing funding for infrastructure investments from the private sector, land leasing and sales (Chapter 10) and private participation in infrastructure operations (Chapter 11). -
Publication
Making Finance Work for Africa
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2007) Honohan, Patrick ; Beck, ThorstenMaking Finance Work for Africa presents a coherent policy approach that addresses African priorities and can work in African conditions. It challenges the applicability of some conventional views on a range of issues from securities markets and banking regulation to the organization of microfinance institutions. The authors identify promising trends from across sub-Saharan Africa and pinpoint shortcomings. The book will be useful to policy makers, bankers, financial analysts, and economists working in Africa. -
Publication
East Asian Visions : Perspectives on Economic Development
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2007) Gill, Indermit ; Huang, Yukon ; Kharas, HomiEast Asian Visions: Perspectives on Economic Development is a collection of essays by 17 eminent East Asians who represent a broad spectrum of backgrounds and experiences. All are senior policy makers, statesmen, or scholars who have either had to deal with or think through some of the most critical financial and developmental issues confronting their countries and the region. Collectively, 10 of them have, at some point in their careers, been at the head of key ministries and central banks; nearly a dozen have been academics and scholars of distinction; several have served as ambassadors to the West and bring a more global strategic perspective; and many have been influential policy advisers and decision makers in governments and international financial agencies. Their essays reflect individual experiences at critical economic junctures and are occasionally quite personal, not surprising since each author selected a topic of his or her own choosing. Given their backgrounds, they have chosen to write about the highly diverse country experiences of East Asia, covering rich, middle income, and poor countries, and they speculate on how their countries fit into a rapidly changing region and globalizing world. Four themes permeate these essays: explaining East Asia's growth and developmental success; the powerful forces of regional integration and building efficiency versus vulnerability; avoiding domestic disintegration given growing public intolerance of increasing inequities, pollution, and corruption; and where will East Asia find its next generation of leaders. -
Publication
The Many Faces of Corruption : Tracking Vulnerabilities at the Sector Level
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007) Campos, J. Edgardo ; Pradhan, SanjayThis paper explores the use of prototype road maps to identify corruption vulnerabilities, suggests corresponding warning signals, and proposes operationally useful remedial measures in each of several selected sectors and for a selected sample of cross cutting public sector functions that are particularly prone to corruption and that are critical to sector performance. Numerous technical experts have come together in this effort to develop an operationally useful approach to diagnosing and tackling corruption. The many faces of corruption is an invaluable reference for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers engaged in the business of development. -
Publication
Payments and Securities Clearance and Settlement Systems in Bolivia
(Mexico, D.F.: Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latinoamericanos and the World Bank, 2006) Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latinoamericanos ; World BankThis report covers the Western Hemisphere payments and securities settlement forum center for Latin American monetary studies and focuses on several issues. The first section covers economic and financial markets overview of Belarus. This section covers the financial sector, capital markets, and major trends in the payments systems. The second section covers institutional aspects such as the general legal framework, role of financial institutions, market structure and regulation, and the role of the securities regulatory. The third section covers the payment media used by non financial entities. The fourth section describes payments, such as inter-bank exchanges and settlement circuits. The fifth section touches on securities, market structure and trading. While the sixth and seventh section cover the topic of settlement circuits for government and corporate securities. The report concludes with discussion on the role of the central bank in clearance and settlement systems and well as the supervision of such systems. -
Publication
A Reader in International Corporate Finance, Volume Two
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006) Claessens, Stijn ; Laeven, Luc ; Claessens, Stijn ; Laeven, LucThe Reader in International Corporate Finance offers an overview of current thinking on six topics: law and finance, corporate governance, banking, capital markets, capital structure and financing constraints, and the political economy of finance. This collection of 23 of the most influential articles published in the period 2000-2006 reflects two new trends: 1) interest in international aspects of corporate finance, particularly specific to emerging markets, and 2) awareness of the importance of institutions in explaining global differences in corporate finance. -
Publication
A Reader in International Corporate Finance, Volume One
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2006) Claessens, Stijn ; Laeven, Luc ; Claessens, Stijn ; Laeven, LucThe Reader in International Corporate Finance offers an overview of current thinking on six topics: law and finance, corporate governance, banking, capital markets, capital structure and financing constraints, and the political economy of finance. This collection of 23 of the most influential articles published in the period 2000-2006 reflects two new trends: 1) interest in international aspects of corporate finance, particularly specific to emerging markets, and 2) awareness of the importance of institutions in explaining global differences in corporate finance.