World Bank Technical Papers

45 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13860

Informal documents that present knowledge acquired through that Bank's operational experience. They contain material that is practical rather than theoretical and include state-of-the-art reports and how-to-do-it monographs. They can also concern matters that cut across sectoral lines, such as the environment and science and technology. This series was superseded by the World Bank Working Papers series in 2003 and the World Bank Studies series in 2010.

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Poverty and Ethnicity : A Cross-Country Study of ROMA Poverty in Central Europe

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-11) Revenga, Ana ; Ringold, Dena ; Tracy, William Martin

ROMA are the main poverty risk groups in many of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. However, information on their living conditions, and the characteristics of their poverty is scarce, fragmented, and often anecdotal. This paper analyzes data from a new cross-country household survey, conducted by the Center for Comparative Research, at Yale University. The survey is the first of its kind which addresses the ethnic dimension of poverty across countries, covering Roma in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. The paper finds that welfare among Roma households is significantly lower than that of non-Roma, in terms of both material deprivation (consumption and income), and other measures of deprivation, including housing status, education levels, and employment opportunities. Multivariate analysis confirm that, controlling for other household characteristics, there is a strong negative association between Roma ethnicity, and welfare. A large part of this association appears to be due to differences in endowments, and opportunities, but there is also an important component that is "structural". This component may reflect the influence of past, and present discrimination, exclusion, and cultural factors which may affect access to public services, e.g., through language barriers.
Food and Agricultural Policy in Russia : Progress to Date and the Road Forward

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-07) Csaki, Csaba ; Nash, John ; Matusevich, Vera ; Kray, Holger

The overall finding of this report is that much agricultural policy is made at the regional level, and here the explicit price, and trade policy distortions are significantly worse than at the federal level. The result is patchwork of inconsistent policies, that has fragmented the Russian national market. The most serious policy issues at the federal level, are in the legal framework, the continued state domination of some markets, and, the administration of limited subsidies, in ways that undermine market development. A major problem is that large farms face soft budget constraints, with tolerance of non-payment of debt, resulting in an increasing debt burden, little incentive for true restructuring, and an uneven playing field with respect to the private sector. The government recently addressed the issue of farm insolvency, through the Resolution on Agricultural Debt Restructuring, and, a fundamental approach to this problem is being elaborated in the draft Law on Financial Rehabilitation of Agricultural Enterprises. But the key to giving enterprises an incentive to participate in real restructuring, will be to enforce sanctions - including bankruptcy procedures, and foreclosure - if enterprises fail to comply with the terms, and measures developed by creditors, and investors, as part of the restructuring procedures. A supportive environment of private individual farming, and private market development should be created, by revamping agricultural support policies, that halt public procurement at federal, and regional levels; that administer all subsidies to producers, by some incentive-neutral mechanism, not dependent on input usage, or output; and, where input, or credit subsidies continue, if administered by private channels on a competitive basis, not through state-owned, or monopoly suppliers.
Poverty in Albania : A Qualitative Assessment

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002) De Soto, Hermine ; Gordon, Peter ; Gedeshi, Ilir ; Sinoimeri, Zamira

This qualitative assessment of poverty in Albania seeks to deepen the understanding of poverty in the country, first, by involving poor Albanians in a process of exploring the causes, nature, extent of poverty, and how it affects their livelihoods. Second, it is intended to support the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). Third, it supports preparation of the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS), and the Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) process. Fourth, it supports ongoing research on formal and informal institutions in the country that are relevant to poverty, and it identifies as well, emerging areas of concern. Findings suggest that poverty in the study sites, developed as a result of a weak economic base at the beginning of reform (as of 1990), worsened as the reforms continued and accelerated during the 1997 financial crisis. From household interviews, it is perceived that the causes of poverty are a result of unemployment, insufficient and low quality of land, absence of formal institutions, and marketing mechanisms to support industrial and agricultural development, and the government's inability to respond to infrastructure and basic needs. The study further examines the factors depressing and/or precluding (sector wide) the potential to compete, sustain livelihoods, attain employment, and receive economic and social assistance.
Does Eurosclerosis Matter? Institutional Reform and Labor Market Performance in Central and Eastern Europe

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002) Riboud, Michelle ; Sánchez-Páramo, Carolina ; Silva-Jáuregui, Carlos

This paper examines the labor market dynamics of six CEE countries over the last 10 years, paying special attention to the nature of labor market institutions these countries have adopted and their impact on labor market performance. This paper finds that, compared to EU countries, CEE countries fall in the "middle" of the flexibility scale regarding their employment protection legislation. While the effect of labor market institutions is hard to uncover, it should not be disregarded and they are likely to play an important role in the coming years.
The Current Regulatory Framework Governing Business in Bulgaria

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-07) O'Brien, Thomas ; Filipov, Christian

The paper identifies the key elements of the regulatory environment for business in Bulgaria, to serve as a research guide, while recognizing that the rapid development of new legislative, and regulatory procedures, are greatly needed, largely to meet the European Union's (EU) legal, and regulatory standards. It describes business creation, with the Commercial Code providing much of the central, comprehensive regulation. Also, another route for business creation in the private sector has been offered through the privatization process of state-owned assets, and, the use of concessions can also be viewed as another route to the creation of private business. However, and although concession legislation sets an overall framework of reasonable adequacy, reports from practitioners in the marketplace reveal much remains to be done to forward this agenda. In regulating corporate operations, the stake of shareholders in the formation of corporate policy, reflects shared participation in the corporate capital base; thus to engender confidence in corporate management standards, and underpin the broadening of share ownership, priority actions should take place. Bulgarian competition law, follows EU doctrine, which penalizes companies for discriminatory behavior, monitored by the Commission on the Protection of Competition, with defined discretionary powers. The study further highlights accounting standards, investment channels, and the tax regime, suggesting priority actions for company transformation such as enhanced training for judges, and court administration procedures to rationalize the case load. Overall, recommendations include accurate drafting of primary legislation; quality improvement of secondary legislation, setting the pace for a timely implementation, as well as a more effective judicial system for corporate affairs, and services delivered by the public administration to businesses.
Financing Efficiency and Equity in Albanian Education

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-06) Palomba, Geremia ; Vodopivec, Milan

This report compiles a rich set of previously unavailable data to define where the education sector in Albania has evolved, what key challenges remain, and the priority areas for action by the Albanian government. The report finds that four broad tasks must be tackled to improve education. The country must: 1) increase enrollment rates with the goal of achieving truly universal education in primary and lower secondary schools, and reversing the actual trend of decreasing secondary enrollment; 2) improve the quality of education, which requires developing human resource policies--such as teacher development programs and improved salaries--that will attract good teachers and give them incentives to perform well in classrooms; and providing an adequate physical school environment, which means, among other things, renovating and adequately maintaining school buildings; 3) increase public spending on education, which requires developing clear priorities and reducing relative spending on tertiary education; providing constant and reliable funding to support the identified policy priorities; and increasing spending on non-wage expenditures and investments; and 4) make better use of teachers and schoolsby decentralizing decisionmaking and responsibilities that are more reasonably delegated to the local level.
Access to Education for the Poor in Europe and Central Asia : Preliminary Evidence and Policy Implications

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-06) Vandycke, Nancy

In Europe, and Central Asia, the poor faces three problems: 1) the education system as a whole does not work well, and hence fails to meet adequately their needs; 2) the private cost of education has gone up, so that "education", as a commodity, competes with other consumption goods in shrinking household budgets; and, 3) the perceived benefits of education (in terms of higher wage earning) are still low, thereby undermining long-term incentives to invest in education. The paper shows the discrepancy between Central European, and Former Soviet Union countries in the contribution of "education" for explaining wage earnings inequality. The discrepancy can be explained by factors such as the degree of private sector development, and the flexibility of the labor market. Although there remains a "taste" for education in Europe and Central Asia, there is also a risk that low-income groups, drop out of the education system, and irreversibly fall into poverty.
The Challenge of Rural Developments in the EU Accession Countries : Third World Bank/FAO EU Accession Workshop, Sofia, Bulgaria, June 17-20, 2000

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-05) Csaki, Csaba ; Lerman, Zvi

This report examines the reforms and policy changes necessary in the rural section of the ten countries that have started the accession process for eventual membership in the European Union (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia). The papers in this report are selected from the presentations at the Third World Bank/FAO EU Accession Workshop held in Sofia, Bulgaria, on June 17-20, 2000, and are organized around four topics: 1) Defining the concepts of rural development-options for EU accession candidate countries; 2) Rural development in the European Union; 3) Rural development in Central and Eastern Europe; and 4) International experiences and the role of international organizations in supporting rural development in the EU accession countries.
Utility Pricing and the Poor : Lessons from Armenia

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-05) Lampietti, Julian A. ; Kolb, Anthony A. ; Gulyani, Sumila ; Avenesyan, Vahram

Increasing cost recovery for utilities is a cornerstone of the Government of Armenia's economic reform program. This report assesses the 1999 electricity tariff increase and the potential for future improved water sector cost recovery, with particular attention to questions of service accessibility and affordability for the poor . The burden of energy expenditures is large for most households, particularly for the poor. Electricity makes up the bulk of these expenditures, and a further increase in tariffs, without increasing access to low cost substitutes, would lead to the greatest hardship for the urban poor. Future electricity tariff increases should be closely coordinated with improved price response prediction and credible action to mitigate the potential impact on the poor and the environment. The water utilities are caught in a low-level equilibrium trap, characterized by decreasing service quality and revenue. The water utilities must break out of this trap by generating more revenues through improved service delivery. A two-stage approach is recommended. In the first stage, revenues should be increased by enforcing payment from the households that currently have reliable service but are not paying their bills, in the second stage, after collection capacity is strengthened, the utility should start a program of tariff adjustments, based on improved service and meter-based billing.
Household Welfare, the Labor Market, and Social Programs in Albania

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-05) Rashid, Mansoora ; Dorabawila, Vajeera ; Adams, Richard

The paper provides an overview of household welfare, labor markets, and social programs in Albania, outside of its capital, in 1996. At the time, Albania was in a cross roads, from a period of phenomenal growth, to a series of economic crisis, though still ranking as the poorest country in the Central and Eastern Europe Region. The main findings suggest that the majority of the poor are rural, self-employed in agriculture, a result of Albania's large rural population that is mainly employed in subsistence agriculture. These households also have the highest poverty incidence, followed by out of labor force individuals, and the unemployed. Not surprising, the highest poverty incidence is in the rural north, requiring subsidized wheat, and cash transfers to survive difficult winters. Interestingly, migration is a major coping strategy in Albania: households with no migrants, were poorer than those where a family member was working abroad. The study raises concern about the education system, and safety nets, considering there are high drop out rates in basic, and secondary education among the poor, and, education spending is biased against the poor, except in basic education. Moreover, health outcomes are particularly worse among the poor. The study notes that outside of pensions, Albania's social protection system appears moderately well targeted to the poor, however, high tax rates, and limited wage base, makes a contribution based social protection system questionable.