World Bank Country Studies

68 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10986/4392

Country Studies are published with approval of the subject government to communicate the results of the Bank's work on the economic and related conditions of member countries to governments and to the development community. This series as been superseded by the World Bank Studies series.

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Increasing Formality and Productivity of Bolivian Firms
(World Bank, 2009-06-01) World Bank
Bolivia's informal sector is the largest in Latin America, by many definitions and measures. Bolivia's high informality rate has been blamed on many factors including the burden of regulation, the weakness of public institutions, and the lack of perceived benefits to being formal. The high level of informality has a number of negative implications related to for low productivity, low growth, and low quality of jobs. This study presents fresh qualitative and quantitative analyses to better understand the reasons why firms are informal and the impact of formalization on their profitability, in order to inform policy actions appropriate to the reality of Bolivia. The crucial finding of the analysis is that the impact of tax registration on profitability depends on firm size and the ability to issue tax receipts. The smallest and the largest firms in the sample have lower profits as a result of tax registration because their cost of formalizing exceeds benefits. Firms in the middle range (two to five employees) benefit from tax registration in large part due to increasing the customer base by issuing tax receipts. The study presents a set of prioritized policy implications for policy makers. In the short term, the first priority should be to increase the benefits of formalization through training, access to credit and markets, and business support. The second priority is to increase information on how to formalize and its benefits. In the medium term, the priority is to simplify formalization, regulatory, and taxation procedures and to reduce their costs. Increasing even-handed enforcement of taxation and regulation is also important but not a priority for micro and small firms. Measures to boost the productivity of micro and small firms in general will help overall economic growth, employment, and formalization.
Fostering Higher Growth and Employment in the Kingdom of Morocco
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006) World Bank
This book identifies the binding constraints to growth of Morocco. It applies an innovative procedure known as "growth diagnostic" and has a central finding. The Moroccan economy suffers from a too slow process of structural transformation for achieving higher growth, especially for its exports that face unfavorable external shocks arising from competitor countries in the main markets for Moroccan exports. This process of so-called "productive diversification" requires that Morocco enhance its competitiveness.
Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability in Niger
(Washington, DC, 2005) World Bank
This study shows how difficult it is for Niger to significantly change its expenditure composition in a short time span. A narrow and volatile domestic resource base, heavy dependence on aid, and a large share of pre-determined expenditures such as external debt payments are important factors behind this lack of flexibility. There are ways, though, to create space in the budget for increasing public spending on priority sectors. The study identifies a number of measures in this regard, such as increasing domestic revenues, more realistic and conservative budgeting, strengthening cash management, controlling the wage bill, prudent borrowing and attracting higher external financing for recurrent costs in priority sectors. The study also shows that enhancing the efficiency and transparency of public spending is as important as increasing spending for PRS priority sectors. It thoroughly assesses public management systems in Niger and presents an action plan, jointly elaborated by the Government and its main external partners, to address the main challenges in this area. This action plan contains a priority set of measures to improve budget preparation, execution as well as internal and external oversight.
Afghanistan : State Building, Sustaining Growth, and Reducing Poverty
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005) World Bank
Afghanistan has come a long way since emerging from major conflict in late 2001. Important political milestones mandated by the Bonn Agreement (two Loya Jirgas, a new Constitution, recently the Presidential election) have been achieved. The economy has recovered strongly, growing by nearly 50 percent cumulatively in the last two years (not including drugs). Some three million internally- and externally-displaced Afghans have returned to their country/home.More than four million children, a third of them girls, are in school, and immunization campaigns have achieved considerable success. The Government has supported good economic performance by following prudent macroeconomic policies; it has begun to build capacity and has developed the nationally-led budget process and made the budget into its central instrument of reform; and it has made extraordinary efforts to develop key national programs (for example public-works employment programs and community development programs) and to revive social services like education and health.
Ukraine's Trade Policy : A Strategy for Integration into Global Trade
(Washington, DC, 2005) World Bank
This publication identifies the key drivers of Ukraine's recent trade performance, assesses current trade policies, and proposes recommendations to strengthen the Ukraine's trade integration strategy. It also identifies core bottlenecks in the ongoing integration processes, including global and regional integration. The study concludes that the main obstacles to furthering Ukraine's trade integration are domestic, and relate to deficiencies in the business environment. Problems in customs administration, standardization, and administrative barriers for new entry require immediate attention. The report highlights specific policy issues that hamper World Trade Organization (WTO) accession, such as trade legislation, protection of intellectual property rights, government support for specific industries, and export restrictions. It also recommends improvements in the structure of Ukraine's import tariffs, reform of both the regime of free economic zones and mechanism of the value-added tax (VAT) refund, and investment in a major upgrade of government capacity for investment and export promotion. The report also draws attention to the importance of the post-WTO accession agenda for Ukraine. To take advantage of WTO membership, the Government will need to undertake significant institutional reforms to implement WTO regulatory rules in ways that facilitate integration into the world economy and provide benefits to private sector participants.
The Health Sector in Eritrea
(Washington, DC, 2004-06) World Bank
This study serves as the preliminary basis for further rounds of discussions and analyses among stakeholders to arrive at a strategic vision for the Eritrea health sector. It incorporates comments received from the Ministry of Health's central agencies, Zoba (regional) health teams, external partners working in Eritrea, and the World Bank Eritrea Country Team. In March 2001, the Ministry of Health of the Government of Eritrea launched a process to prepare a long-term health sector policy and strategic plan (HSPSP), with a focus on assuring equitable, quality, and sustainable health care. The Ministry outlined an open, participatory, three-step process for developing the HSPSP, with active participation from all partners in the health sector.
The Road to Sustained Growth in Jamaica
(Washington, DC, 2004-04) World Bank
Jamaica's economic history is one of paradoxes, and potential - it has an English-speaking, and reasonably well-educated labor force, is close to the world's largest market, the United States, and, has an abundance of natural beauty, which has spurred tourism - and, many of its social, and governance indicators are strong, including near universal school enrollment. Poverty rates are below that of comparable countries. Yet, the Jamaican story is marked by the paradoxes of low growth in GDP and high employment, despite high investment, and important achievements in poverty reduction. This paper attempts to explain these paradoxes, and concludes that one possible explanation is that GDP has been understated. Amid these challenges, this report proposes that a "bandwagon" approach to reforms may be needed to improve prospects for sustained growth, with policy actions on several fronts, including measures to avert crisis, while continuing to strengthen social safety nets, as well as short- and long-term policies, such as reducing the growth of public expenditure, and tackling crime. Given that policy choices are likely to be difficult, it argues that an approach based on social dialogue, and consensus building is essential to create ownership for future reforms among all stakeholders.
Inequality and Economic Development in Brazil
(Washington, DC, 2004) World Bank
This study addresses three questions : why do inequalities matter for Brazil's development? Why does Brazil occupy a position of very high inequality in the international community? And, What should public policy do about it? Excessive income inequality is unfair, and undesirable on ethical grounds, and can bring adverse effects on economic growth, health outcomes, social cohesion, and crime. Brazil's excessive income inequality is associated to regressive public transfers, less equitable distribution of education, and higher wage differentials. It is thus suggested that Brazil's strategy to fight inequality should focus on four areas that are good for reducing inequality, good for reducing poverty, and good for increasing efficiency, competitiveness, and growth: raising the level, and reducing the inequities of educational attainment, reducing the wage skill premium of post-secondary education, reallocating public expenditure away from excessive, and regressive transfers, and taking advantage of the opportunity to implement an indirect tax reform, that can reduce the inequity of indirect taxation. Despite the absence of explicit tradeoffs between equity, and efficiency, these policies do not benefit everyone, and they do involve inevitable political choices.
Education in Rwanda : Rebalancing Resources to Accelerate Post-Conflict Development and Poverty Reduction
(Washington, DC, 2004) World Bank
Rwanda's recent history was marred by genocide in 1994, in which at least ten percent of the population lost their lives. Rebuilding the stock of human capital is an important part of the rehabilitation process, where the government has made efforts to broaden access to education, and enhance the quality of services. On the international stage, the education sector has also come into the limelight, specifically under the 2000 United Nations Millennium Declaration, and, the foregoing context presents clear challenges for education managers. The purpose of this report is to provide a factual basis for discussion. Noteworthy are the efforts to reduce grade repetition in primary education; and similarly, reforms in higher education finance have been launched to reduce the cost of government-sponsored overseas studies. The report is addressed to Rwanda's policymakers in the education sector, as well as to education practitioners, and should also be of interest to policymakers in other parts of the government, particularly those charged with managing the country's development strategy, and aligning public spending accordingly. The breadth of its coverage is limited to key economic aspects that are particularly relevant in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) context: cost, finance, service delivery, and education outcomes. Most impressive is the rapid pace of enrollment increase in the aftermath of the genocide. As the system has expanded, it has done so in ways that has moved it toward a good balance between the public, and private sectors, which also compares favorably with that of other low-income countries in Africa, in terms of the socioeconomic disparities in educational access. Challenges ahead focus on managing student flow and graduate output, mobilizing and making effective use of resources for education, ensuring that public resources for education reach the front lines, balancing the accessibility of schools against considerations of scale economies, managing classroom conditions and processes to enhance student learning, and minimizing the barriers to education for orphans and other vulnerable groups. Nevertheless, the task ahead remains daunting as the recovery phase gives way to implementing the sector ' s long-term development. Concerns about efficiency, equity, and fiscal sustainability will be inevitably relevant, as the country seeks to advance educational progress in a resource-constrained environment.
Public Expenditure Review for Armenia
(Washington, DC, 2003-08) World Bank
This is the first full-scale World Bank Public Expenditure Review for Armenia, which reviews the main fiscal trends in the country for the period 1997-2001, and develops recommendations with respect to further fiscal adjustment, expenditure prioritization, and budget consolidation. The analysis focuses on core issues, i.e., sustainability of fiscal adjustment, fiscal transparency, expenditure priorities, and short-term expenditure management, given the existing economy-wide institutional constraints. The study covers extra-budgetary funds, in-kind external grants, subsidies provided by the state-owned companies in the energy, and utility sectors, and operations of the Social Insurance Fund, as well as regular spending. It suggests a medium-term action plan to address identified weaknesses. Sectoral chapters review health, education, and social protection and insurance. The study also analyzes budget support for core public infrastructure, and the country's public investment program.