Other ESW Reports

305 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10986/2209

This includes miscellaneous ESW types and pre-2003 ESW type reports that are subsequently completed and released.

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 10 of 36

How Do We Improve Public Expenditure in Agriculture?
(World Bank, 2011-03) World Bank
This paper synthesizes lessons learned from the Department for International Development-World Bank (DFID-WB) partnership, to provide guidance on ways to improve the allocation and efficiency of public spending for agricultural growth and poverty reduction. It includes lessons on how to improve data quality, the composition and impact of spending, budget execution, and the integration of off-budget expenditures. The paper synthesizes recurring lessons that have emerged from the commissioned work, to highlight key challenges that still remain to improve the efficiency of public expenditure planning and implementation in the agriculture sector, as well as offering options for improvement. The paper is accompanied by a separate document, the Agricultural Public Expenditure Reviews (AgPER) toolkit, which is a practical guide for practitioners tasked with carrying out AgPERs in the future. The paper is structured around the Budget Cycle Framework (BCF), to facilitate the identification of entry points to improve expenditure outcomes.
Practitioners' Toolkit for Agriculture Public Expenditure Analysis
(World Bank, 2011-03) World Bank
This toolkit for analyzing public expenditures in agriculture contributes to a broader effort to enhance the focus, quality, and appropriate scaling of public spending in the sector. More specifically, the toolkit has two goals: to provide checklists for practitioners conducting various kinds of agriculture public expenditure analyses, and to provide selected examples on aspects of the checklist to help guide analysis. The toolkit presents a diversity of approaches and describes experiences both positive and negative in conducting agricultural public spending analyses in different settings and with different objectives. It offers checklists of issues and options, rather than a minimum list of issues to be covered. Needs, existing work time, and budget constraints will likely drive the selection of the checklist topics to be covered in any given analysis of public expenditures. The toolkit is organized to facilitate this selectivity of topic, while maintaining a strategic perspective. The supporting examples draw on numerous analyses of public expenditures in agricultures.
Better Regulation for Higher Growth : Bulgaria's Business Regulation - Achievements and Recommendations
(World Bank, 2010-11-01) World Bank
Removing regulatory obstacles that create barriers to business is a major objective for economic policymakers. There is broad understanding among policymakers and development practitioners that microeconomic reforms aimed at strengthening property rights, unleashing competition, and reducing the cost of doing business are critical to creating a sound investment climate and promoting economic growth (World Bank 2004; World Bank 2005; Lewis 2004). It is also commonly agreed that these changes need to be credible and sustained for private firms to respond by increasing investment and production (World Bank 2005). This report summarizes the findings of three topical studies of the World Bank: Administrative and Regulatory Barriers to Business (volume two) studies the overall burden of regulation for companies in comparison to other new European Union (EU) peers and specifically assesses Information Technology (IT) and manufacturing companies and the role of key stakeholders. The ex-post impact assessment of the act on limiting administrative regulation and administrative control on economic activity (Volume three) makes an assessment of how the act has been enforced, identifies and estimates the impacts of the act, and provides recommendations for amendments. Reforming the regime of state fees (volume four) examines how reforms to the structure of state fees could decrease the regulatory burden for firms.
Bulgaria - Reforming the regime of states fees
(World Bank, 2009-06-01) World Bank
The Government of Bulgaria requested the World Bank to analyze the legal, institutional and administrative framework for setting state fees and provide recommendations based on good international practice. How big is the problem compared to the many other issues the government wants to reform in order to improve the business climate in Bulgaria? So far there are no comprehensive studies of the level of administrative fees in the European Union (EU) area. Such studies would be of great value to assess the magnitude of the problem. There are, however, several arguments in support of reforming the regime of state fees in Bulgaria now. Firstly, business associations in Bulgaria agree also confirmed by a recent unpublished government report - that state fees at the central level became an uncontrolled area in which authorities apply their own judgment and interests without considering the impact on businesses often to the disadvantage of the private sector. Secondly, if the Government of Bulgaria (GoB) does not curb the current regime system, then the trend of increasing state fees will continue or might even gain speed. Again, this will have a negative impact on the cost of doing business. Thirdly, a number of identified state fees are so high that they seriously harm competition by functioning as a barrier to firm entry. Fourthly, the EU requires Member States to implement a specific regime for administrative fees in the services sector by the end of 2009 and Bulgaria does not comply with that yet. A recent World Bank report for Bulgaria Investment Climate Assessment (2008) called for overall reduction of the administrative cost for businesses because Bulgaria is not competitive in this area compared to other Central and Eastern European countries. The report recommended that a strategic policy document is prepared to embrace the administration practice and provide an instrument for classification of the tariffs for the central administration service fees targeting universal reduction of the administrative cost. It also proposed that a special methodology for the classification of the tariffs for the central administrative service fees is developed. The present report is intended to support reform of the regime of state fees.
Lao PDR Economic Monitor, November 2007
(World Bank, Vientiane, 2007-11) World Bank
The information presented in the Lao Economic Monitor covers economic developments that have occurred in Lao PDR in the last six months (between May and October 2007). It reports on recent economic performance (Part I), progress in the implementation of the Government's policy reform agenda (Part II), and donor activities in the relevant reform areas (Part III). The report points out that Lao PDR macroeconomic performance continues to be strong, and the impact of resource sector is increasing. Real GDP growth continued to be robust at 7.6 percent in 2006 and is expected to remain above 7 percent in 2007. Manufacturing and other non-resource sectors continued to grow moderately, contributing around 5 percentage points of the above growth. However, other significant part of economic growth was contributed by the resource sectors, especially by the expansion of copper extraction and construction of large hydropower projects.
Brazil - Minas Gerais - World Bank Partnership : Building on a Strong Foundation and Leading to Next Steps
(2007-06-06) World Bank
This document, Minas Gerais World Bank partnership: building on a strong foundation and leading to next steps, points the direction for next steps and emphasizes the elements and principles of a possible follow-up operation to the Development Policy Loan (DPL) that completed disbursement in April 2007, recognizing that it was premature to discuss the specifics of such an operation during this exercise. These elements and principles would provide the incentives and motivations for the choice of focus sectors under a possible Bank operation with Minas Gerais. Lead actively by the Governor and Deputy Governor, the Minas authorities have clearly identified enhancing the living conditions of citizens in the state as the overall priority. Nevertheless, the Minas Gerais targets are ambitious and by international standards there is ample room for additional progress. The report points out that fiscal policies and public sector reforms in Minas Gerais could be expected to yield continued stronger than national average economic growth and progress in creating jobs. The focus of this Partnership document is mainly on the Plano Mineiro de Desenvolvimento Integrado (PMDI) 2007-2023 long-term development strategy with an emphasis on broadening reforms. In short, the sectoral assessments are at the heart of the Partnership dialogue and could be used as the foundation for future development of the relationship, especially in areas of technical assistance or future Bank operations with Minas Gerais.
Mauritius - Country Economic Memorandum : Managing Change in a Changing World
(Washington, DC, 2007-01) World Bank
This Country Economic Memorandum subscribes to the overall direction of the reform program mapped out by this body of work and it goes deeper in three important areas: (1) public sector management, (2) labor markets and education and (3) science and technology policy. Chapters 2-4 of this report, each one largely self-contained, cover these topics in order. First, however, Chapter 1 gives the context for the transition now underway with an overview of past and present development focusing on the transformation of the economy from factor-intensive to skill- and knowledge-intensive development. Then a forward-looking section offers a medium-term forecast for the economy's emergence from the recent slowdown and discusses prospects for longer-term (potential) growth.
Pakistan - North West Frontier Province Economic Report : Accelerating Growth and Improving Public Service Delivery in the NWFP : The Way Forward
(Washington, DC, 2005-12) World Bank
This report contends that the key to unleashing the North West Frontier Province's possibilities and to improving the lives of its citizens is strengthening the governance and policy environment in the province for both the private and the public sectors, and investing in the provinces' most valuable resource - its people. Reforms and efforts in the past few years have already started to translate into higher growth, improved incomes, and better living conditions for the citizens of the NWFP. This report outlines a strategy that builds on these successes and recommends policies to accelerate development in the province. The report recommends a comprehensive set of reforms and particularly advocates economic, fiscal, and institutional reform to improve outcomes for income growth, job creation, poverty reduction, and human development.
Argentina : Sources of Growth, Seeking Sustained Economic Growth with Social Equity
(Washington, DC, 2005-10) World Bank
This report attempts to analyze selected topics, chosen in collaboration with the Argentine authorities, regarding the inter-linkages between economic growth, income distribution and poverty, as well as the respective roles of these factors in explaining the historical underperformance of the Argentine economy. The report aims to identify relevant issues for policy formulation and further economic work. Its emphasis is on longer-term structural factors which are thought to determine productivity and income distribution. The report is organized as follows. Chapter 2 briefly reviews the time-dynamics o f economic growth, poverty and inequality in Argentina. Sections of the chapter study the evolution of poverty and inequality. It is noted that inequality has increased dramatically, though not monotonically, since 1990 and, notably, increases in inequality were observed in periods of both growth and recession. Chapter 3 reviews the latest episode o f economic volatility in Argentina, a period that started with the sharp decline o f economic activity in 2002 and continued with a recovery since 2003. Special attention is paid to the impact of this recent volatility on economic growth, poverty and inequality. The sections study the social impact of the recent crisis and recovery; employing different methodologies to test whether the recent recovery was pro-poor. It also analyzes the recession and recovery at the sector level, while identifying the economic sectors that contributed most to poverty reduction during the latest upturn o f the economy. Chapter 4 then turns to a selected set of government policies that could help to deliver high economic growth. The section highlights the idea that macroeconomic stability is crucial to reducing poverty rates since the empirical evidence indicates that economic crises disproportionately affect the poor. Another major lesson from this section is that tax policy is not a good tool for redistribution in developing countries. Further it analyzes the potential impact of various trade initiatives on employment opportunities for relatively unskilled workers in Argentina; and presents the results o f a recent study on the returns to education for workers across income groups. Finally, it reviews some key issues involved in ensuring a favorable environment for private sector development.
Russian Federation : From Transition to Development, A Country Economic Memorandum for the Russian Federation
(Washington, DC, 2005-03) World Bank
The purpose of this Country Economic Memorandum (CEM) is to assess the extent of structural change in the Russian Federation, and its contribution to long-term growth - a prerequisite for meeting the government's ambitious economic objectives. The report starts with the hypothesis that Russia's economy is still "in transition," with further scope to boost growth by reallocating existing resources and restructuring existing production processes. Structural change therefore is a powerful determinant of Russia's medium-term growth and long-term prospects. There are other contributors to growth, most notably, the role that high hydrocarbon prices have played in Russia's rapid recovery from the 1998 crisis. In order to separate the role of structural change from other growth determinants as clearly as possible (without denying mutual influences and feedback loops), Part B of the report analyzes the determinants of growth, other than structural change, that have been important in Russia since the crisis.