Corporate Flagships
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The current corporate publications that are World Bank Group flagships are: World Development Report (WDR); Global Economic Prospects (GEP), Doing Business (DB), and Poverty and Shared Prosperity (PSP). All go through a formal Bank-wide review and are discussed with the Board prior to their release. In terms of branding, the phrase “A World Bank Group Flagship Report” will be used exclusively on the cover of these publications. This label will signal that the institution assumes a higher level of responsibility for the positions held by these reports. The flagship Global Monitoring Report (GMR) is no longer produced. The flagship Doing Business is no longer produced.
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Publication
Development Economics through the Decades: A Critical Look at 30 Years of the World Development Report
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009)The World Development Report (WDR) has become such a fixture that it is easy to forget the circumstances under which it was born and the Bank's motivation for producing such a report at that time. In the first chapter of this essay, the authors provide a brief background on the circumstances of newly independent developing countries and summarize some of the main strands of the emerging field of development economics. This backdrop to the genesis of the WDR accounts for the orientation of the earlier reports. The thinking on development in the 1960s and 1970s also provides a baseline from which to view the evolution that has occurred since. From the coverage in the second chapter, the authors isolate a number of key issues common to several or all of the WDRs, and the author examine these issues individually at greater length in third chapter. The discussion in third chapter, which builds on the material in the WDRs, presents some views about how far development thinking and, relatedly, policy making have advanced relative to 30 years ago. It asks whether promoting growth, building institutions, tackling inequality and poverty, making aid effective, and defining the role of the state have been rendered more tractable policy wise by the knowledge encapsulated in the WDRs. Chapter four looks ahead and points to some of the big challenges that the Bank might explore through future WDRs and the value it can add through the knowledge acquired from its cross-country operations and research. -
Publication
Doing Business 2010 : Reforming through Difficult Times - Comparing Regulation in 183 Economies
(World Bank, 2009)Doing Business 2010 is the seventh in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies-from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe-and over time. The methodology for the employing workers indicators changed for Doing Business 2010. Research is ongoing in two new areas: getting electricity and worker protection. Initial results are presented in this report. The paper includes the following headings: overview, starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. -
Publication
Global Economic Prospects 2009 : Commodities at the Crossroads
(World Bank, 2009)The release of this year's global economic prospects finds the world economy at a crossroads. Markets all over the world are engulfed in a global economic crisis, with stock markets sharply down and volatile, almost all currencies having depreciated substantially against the dollar, and risk premiums on a wide range of debt having increased by 600 or more basis points. Commodity markets too have turned a corner. Following several years of increase, prices have plummeted, and although well above their 1990s levels, they have given up most of the increases of the past 24 months. Chapter one of this report examines the medium-term implications of this crisis for developing-country growth, inflation, and world trade. Chapter two looks at longer-term supply and demand prospects in commodity markets. It takes into account the long-term growth prospects of developing countries and their rising share in world GDP (gross domestic product), the declining quality of new pools of resources, and the influence of technology on both demand and supply. Finally, chapter three reports on the poverty impacts of high commodity prices and examines the effectiveness of policies in both producing and consuming countries in dealing with the challenges posed by periodic bouts of high commodity prices. -
Publication
Global Economic Prospects 2008 : Technology Diffusion in the Developing World
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)This Global Economic Prospects (GEP) is being released during a period of increased uncertainty following four years of record growth in developing countries, and a 15-year period of steady declines in poverty. Global growth slowed modestly in 2007, coming at 3.5 percent after 3.9 percent in 2006. Most of the slowdown was due to weaker growth in high-income countries. This GEP seeks to develop a better understanding of technology and its diffusion within the developing world. It adopts a broad definition of technology and technological progress, that encompasses the techniques (including the way the production process is organized) by which goods and services are produced, marketed, and made available to the public. This report takes a quantitative approach to understanding technology and technological progress. In chapter 2, it explores the level of, and recent trends in, technological achievement, as well as the process by which technology diffuses between and within countries. Chapter 3 concentrates on the process by which countries absorb foreign technology, both mechanisms through which they are exposed to foreign technologies, and the domestic factors that dictate how successfully those technologies are absorbed. -
Publication
Doing Business 2009 : Comparing Regulation in 181 Economies
(Washington, DC : World Bank and Palgave Macmillon, 2008)Doing Business 2009 is the sixth in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 181 economies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and over time. Regulations affecting 10 stages of the life of a business are measured: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. Data in Doing Business 2009 are current as of June 1, 2008. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where, and why. The methodology for the legal rights of lenders and borrowers, part of the getting credit indicators, changed for Doing Business 2009. The paper includes the following headings: overview, starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. -
Publication
Doing Business 2008 : Comparing Regulation in 178 Economies
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)Doing business 2008 is the fifth in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 178 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and over time. Regulations affecting 10 stages of a business's life are measured: starting a business, dealing with licenses, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. Data in doing business 2008 are current as of June 1, 2007. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where, and why. The Doing business methodology has limitations. Other areas important to business-such as a country's proximity to large markets, the quality of its infrastructure services, the security of property from theft and looting, the transparency of government procurement, macroeconomic conditions or the underlying strength of institutions-are not studied directly by doing business. To make the data comparable across countries, the indicators refer to a specific type of business-generally a limited liability company operating in the largest business city. -
Publication
Global Economic Prospects 2007 : Managing the Next Wave of Globalization
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)Global Economic Prospects (GEP) 2007 explores the next wave of globalization. While the medium-term outlook for the world economy remains fairly bright, demographic trends will be a major driver of future events and the benefits of globalization are likely to be uneven across regions and countries. Looking at a set of growth scenarios covering the years 2006 to 2030, the report analyzes the opportunities and stresses of integration in order to bring into sharper relief the choices facing the world today. Three prominent features in the next wave of globalization are: the growing economic weight of developing countries in the international economy, the potential for increased productivity that is offered by global production chains, and the accelerated diffusion of technology. The GEP also analyzes three possible consequences: growing inequality, pressures in labor markets, and threats to the global commons. All of these developments, along with deepening economic interdependence, place a burden on the collective actions of the international community: to manage globalization or risk being run over by it. -
Publication
Doing Business 2007 : How to Reform
(Washington, DC, 2006)Doing Business 2007: How to reform is the fourth in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 175 economies-from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe-and over time. This publication points out how regulations affecting 10 areas of everyday business are measured: starting a business, dealing with licenses, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why. The study stresses that there are 4 steps to successful reform: 1) Start simple and consider administrative reforms that don't need legislative changes; 2) Cut unnecessary procedures, reducing the number of bureaucrats entrepreneurs interact with; 3) Introduce standard application forms and publish as much regulatory information as possible; 4) And remember: many of the frustrations for businesses come from how regulations are administered. The internet alleviates these frustrations without changing the spirit of the regulation. -
Publication
Doing Business in 2006 : Creating Jobs
(Washington, DC, 2006)Doing Business in 2006: Creating Jobs is the third in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. New quantitative indicators on business regulations and their enforcement can be compared across 155 countries-from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe-and over time. Doing Business in 2004: Understanding Regulation presented indicators in 5 topics: starting a business, hiring and firing workers, enforcing contracts, getting credit and closing a business. Doing Business in 2005: Removing Obstacles to Growth updated these measures and added another two sets: registering property and protecting investors. Doing Business in 2006 again up-dates all previous measures and adds three more sets: dealing with licenses, paying taxes and trading across borders, to create a total of 10 areas measured. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where, and why. -
Publication
Global Economic Prospects 2006 : Economic Implications of Remittances and Migration
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005-11)The themes of the 2006 Global Economic Prospects (GEP) are international remittances and migration, their economic consequences, and how policies can increase their role in reducing poverty. The GEP explores the gains and losses from international migration from the perspective of developing countries, with special attention to the money that migrants send home. The report also considers policy initiatives that could improve the developmental impact of migration, with particular attention to remittances. The first chapter reviews recent developments in and prospects for the global economy and their implications for developing countries. Chapter 2 uses a model-based simulation to evaluate the potential global welfare gains and distributional impact from an increase in high-income countries' labor force caused by migration from developing countries. Chapter 3 surveys the economic literature on the benefits and costs of migration for migrants and their countries of origin. Chapter 4 investigates the size of remittance flows to developing countries, the use of formal and informal channels, the role of government policies in improving the development impact of remittances, and, their macroeconomic impact. Chapter 5 addresses the impact of remittances at the household level. The last chapter investigates policy measures that could lower the cost of remittance transactions for poor households and measures to strengthen the financial infrastructure supporting remittances.