Corporate Flagships

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2123

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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Global Economic Prospects, January 2013: Assuring Growth Over the Medium Term

(Washington, DC, 2013-01-15) World Bank

More than four years after the global financial crisis hit, high-income countries struggle to restructure their economies and regain fiscal sustainability. Developing countries, where growth is 1-2 percentage points below what it was during the pre-crisis period, have been affected by the weakness in high-income countries. To regain pre-crisis growth rates, they will need to focus on productivity-enhancing domestic policies rather than demand stimulus. Although the major risks to the global economy are similar to those of a year ago, the likelihood that they will materialize has diminished, as has the magnitude of estimated impacts should these events occur. Major downside risks include the loss of access to capital markets by vulnerable Euro Area countries, lack of agreement on U.S. fiscal policy and the debt ceiling, and commodity price shocks. In an environment of slow growth and continued volatility, a steady hand is required in developing countries to avoid pro-cyclical policy and to rebuild macroeconomic buffers so that authorities can react in the case of new external or domestic shocks.
Global Economic Prospects, June 2012: Managing Growth in a Volatile World

(Washington, DC, 2012-06) World Bank

The year began on a positive note. A marked improvement in market sentiment, combined with monetary policy easing in developing countries, was reflected in a rebound in economic activity in both developing and advanced countries. Industrial production, trade and capital goods sales all returned to positive territory, following the slow growth of the fourth quarter of 2011. Although debt levels in developing countries are lower, several countries (notably Jordan, India, and Pakistan) must reduce their structural fiscal balances to reduce debt to 40 percent of Gross domestic Product (GDP) by 2020 (or prevent debt-to-GDP ratios from rising further). As a result, sharp swings in investor sentiment and financial conditions will continue to complicate the conduct of macroeconomic policy in developing countries. In these conditions, policy in developing countries needs to be less reactive to short-term changes in external conditions, and more responsive to medium-term domestic considerations. A return to more neutral macroeconomic policies would also help developing countries reduce their vulnerabilities to external shocks, by rebuilding fiscal space, reducing short-term debt exposures and recreating the kinds of buffers that allowed them to react so resiliently to the 2008/09 crisis.
Global Economic Prospects, June 2011: Maintaining Progress Amid Turmoil

( 2011-06) World Bank

The global financial crisis is no longer the major force dictating the pace of economic activity in developing countries. The majorities of developing countries has, or are close to having regained full-capacity activity levels. As a result, country-specific productivity and sartorial factors are now the dominant factors underpinning growth. Macroeconomic policy in developing countries needs to turn toward medium-term productivity enhancements, managing inflationary pressures re-establishing the fiscal and monetary cushions that allowed most developing countries to come through the crisis so well. In contrast, activity in high income and some developing European countries continues to struggle with crisis-related problems, including banking-sector, fiscal and household restructuring. The remainder of this report is organized as follows. The next section discusses recent developments in global production, trade, inflation, and financial markets, and presents updates of the World Bank's forecast for the global economy and developing countries. This is followed by a more detailed discussion of some of the risks and tensions in the current environment, and a short section of concluding remarks. Several annexes address regional and sartorial issues in much greater detail.
World Development Report 1991: The Challenge of Development

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) World Bank

This report is the fourteenth in an annual series assessing major development issues. This report synthesizes and interprets the lessons of more than forty years of development experience. Together with last year's report on poverty and next year's on the environment, it seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the development agenda. The 1990s began with dramatic changes, as many countries in Eastern Europe and elsewhere initiated ambitious reforms of their economic and political systems. Against the backdrop of these transitions, this report links the historical debates that counseled policymakers in their past decisions, the lessons of experience, and the evolving thought on how best to proceed. One of the most valuable lessons relates to the interaction between the state and the market in fostering development. It describes a market-friendly approach in which governments allow markets to function well, and in which governments concentrate their interventions on areas in which markets prove inadequate. The report looks at four main aspects of the relationship between governments and markets: (a) investing in people; (b) the climate for enterprises to flourish; (c) the integration of countries with the global economy; and (d) a stable macroeconomic foundation for sustained progress. The report stresses that, above all, the future of developing countries is in their own hands. Domestic policies and institutions hold the key to successful development.
World Development Report 1988

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1988) World Bank

This is the eleventh report in the annual series assessing major development issues. Part I reviews recent trends in the world economy and their implications for the future prospects of developing countries. Part II examines the role of public finance in development. This report includes the World Development Indicators, which provide selected social and economic indicators for more than 100 countries. Despite continued economic growth through 1987 and into 1988, two problems have characterized recent trends: unsustainable economic imbalances within and among industrial countries, and highly uneven economic growth among developing countries. Part I of the report concludes that three interdependent policy challenges need to be addressed. First, industrial countries need to reduce their external payments imbalances. Second, developing countries need to continue restructuring their domestic economic policies in order to gain creditworthiness and growth. Third, net resource transfers, external debt, from the developing countries must be trimmed so that investment and growth can resume. Part II of the report explores how public finance policies are best designed and implemented. How deficits are reduced is crucial: controlling costs in mobilizing revenues and setting careful priorities in public spending are equally important. Efficiency in providing public services and expanding the scope for raising revenue can be achieved through decentralizing decisionmaking and reforming state-owned enterprises with the latter permitting greater private participation.
World Development Report 1987

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1987) World Bank

This report, consisting of two parts, is the tenth in the annual series assessing development issues. Part I reviews recent trends in the world economy and their implications for the future prospects of developing countries. It stresses that better economic performance is possible in both industrial and developing countries, provided the commitment to economic policy reforms is maintained and reinforced. In regard to the external debt issues, the report argues for strengthened cooperation among industrial countries in the sphere of macroeconomic policy to promote smooth adjustment to the imbalances caused by external payments (in developing countries). Part II reviews and evaluates the varied experience with government policies in support of industrialization. Emphasis is placed on policies which affect both the efficiency and sustainability of industrial transformation, especially in the sphere of foreign trade. The report finds that developing countries which followed policies that promoted the integration of their industrial sector into the international economy through trade have fared better than those which insulated themselves from international competition.
World Development Report 1982

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1982) World Bank

This report reviews development prospects in the international economy and supplements the extensive discussion of adjustment issues in the 1981 World Development Report. It finds that, although international prospects have worsened over the past year, during the remainder of the decade the middle-income countries should be able to continue narrowing the income gap between themselves and the industrial countries. The prospects for many of the low-income countries, however, remain a matter of grave concern. The report concentrates on agriculture, which remains the chief source of income for close to two-thirds of the population in developing countries and for the vast majority of the world's poor. Informing the discussion is the experience gained by the World Bank in helping to finance some 800 agricultural and rural development projects in more than 70 countries - experience supported by its broad, intensive programs of economic, scientific, and social research. Numerous tables and multicolor maps and graphics supplement the main body of the report; case studies are interspersed to provide analyses directly related to the substance of the text. The final portion of the report comprises world development indicators, 25 two-page tables containing economic and social profiles of more than 120 countries.
World Development Report 1979

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1979) World Bank

Structural transformation is particularly important for middle income countries. In dealing with the appropriate policies to be associated with structural changes, this report analyzes the processes of industrialization, urbanization, and the sectoral deployment of labor. The challenges identified, analyzed, and presented for consideration are: (i) creation of job opportunities for an additional half billion people that will join the labor force in the developing countries by 2000; (ii) accommodation of an additional one billion people in the same time perspective in the urban areas of the developing countries in socially acceptable and economically productive conditions; (iii) creation of an international trade environment that is supportive of the development efforts; and (iv) significant steps to the elimination of absolute poverty.