03. Journals

2,963 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2210

These are journal articles published in World Bank journals as well as externally by World Bank authors.

Sub-collections of this Collection

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 10 of 32

Comparing Costs of Living across World Cities

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2020-02) Nakamura, Shohei ; Harati, Rawaa ; Lall, Somik V. ; Dikhanov, Yuri M. ; Hamadeh, Nada ; Oliver, William Vigil ; Rissanen, Marko Olavi ; Yamanaka, Mizuki

This paper compares costs of living across world cities. The International Comparison Program (ICP) reports price levels across world economies in its calculation of purchasing power parity through an extensive scale of price data collection and rigorous methodology. While the price levels are reported only at the national level, some modification makes it possible to compare the cost of living across a group of world cities. In addition, various agencies report costs of living rankings for world cities on a regular basis, and some of them, such as the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)’s World Cost of Living Survey, systematically collect a wide variety of items from a host of cities, even covering low-income countries. This article's application of the ICP method to the EIU price data yields an overall reasonable result: richer cities have higher price levels, and the rankings of cities based on their price levels are similar when using the ICP and EIU data. Nevertheless, the results based on the EIU data differ from the ICP data relatively widely in some nonfood items and among cities with low price levels. This result highlights important issues regarding the data and methodology required to measure costs of living for development purposes.
Using Satellite Imagery to Create Tax Maps and Enhance Local Revenue Collection

(Taylor and Francis, 2020) Ali, Daniel Ayalew ; Deininger, Klaus ; Wild, Michael

Although taxes on land and property have many desirable attributes, the challenge of ensuring completeness of tax rolls and currency of valuations preclude their effective use to support urbanization and service provision in many developing countries. The example of Kigali shows how building footprints and heights generated from high-resolution satellite imagery, together with sales prices and routine statistical data, allow to assess and improve coverage and design of property tax systems. We show that only 40% of potential land lease fee revenue (of US$ 4.9 million) was collected and that moving to 1% value-based tax would increase revenue almost 10 times while being less regressive than the current system. While this could allow reducing the tax burden for low-income groups, exemptions should be applied with caution based on careful empirical analysis.
Drivers of Structural Transformation: The Case of the Manufacturing Sector in Africa

(Elsevier, 2017-11) Mijiyawa, Abdoul' Ganiou

This paper analyzes the driving factors of manufacturing development in Africa. Using the system-GMM technique with four-year average panel data over the period 1995–2014, including 53 African countries, the paper finds four main results. (1) There is a U-shaped relationship between the manufacturing share of GDP and per capita GDP. (2) Exchange rate depreciation stimulates Africa’s manufacturing sector. (3) Good governance, especially a low level of corruption and better government effectiveness contribute to Africa’s manufacturing development. (4) The size of domestic market positively affects the manufacturing share of GDP. On the other hand, the paper finds no significant effects of FDI and urbanization on manufacturing development. The implication of these findings is that improving the level of competitiveness, expanding the size of domestic market, combating corruption as well as improving government effectiveness are key for Africa’s manufacturing sector development. Moreover, the U-shaped relationship between the manufacturing share of GDP and per capita GDP, implies that African countries should not expect industrialization to automatically happen with income increase, but rather, they should proactively tackle key obstacles to the development of the manufacturing sector.
Interview with Steven Livingston on Information Systems and Development

( 2011-09) World Bank

An Interview with Steven Livingston, Professor of Media and Public Affairs and International Affairs. His research and teaching focus on media, information technology, national security and global politics. Dr. Livingston’s most recent publications include, When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina (2007), co-authored with W. Lance Bennett and Regina Lawrence) and Africa’s Evolving Infosystems: A Pathway to Security and Stability (2010), assessing the effects of the rapid growth of ICT on governance in Africa.
Producing Home Grown Solutions : Think Tanks and Knowledge Networks in International Development

( 2011-09) Datta, Ajoy ; Young, John

Mainstream international development discourse has long heralded the importance of home grown solutions and national ownership of development policies. Ownership has been seen as the missing link between the significant development aid inflows from the North and poverty reduction outcomes in the South. You only have to look to international agreements such the 2002 Monterrey Consensus or the2005 Paris Declaration for evidence of this.
Industrialization and the Land Acquisition Conundrum

( 2011-04) Bardhan, Pranab

When government officials are involved in land transactions the scope for arbitrary decision making and corruption is large, and the land issue can turn into a political football among rival political parties.
The South-South Opportunity

( 2010-10) Pradhan, Sanjay

Imagine, just a few years from now, a developing country official who is struggling with a difficult problem: perhaps reintegrating demobilized soldiers back into their communities that have been torn by conflict, or helping the desperately poor climb out of poverty through targeted assistance programs.
Aid Effectiveness : Why Does It Matter to Partners in South-South Cooperation?

( 2010-10) Gurría, Angel

Why should partners in South-South cooperation care about aid effectiveness? What is the relevance of the commitments embodied in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) and the Accra Agenda for Action (2008) to development actors? These are questions I frequently hear.
The Bogotá Spirit : South-South Peers and Partners at the Practice-Policy Nexus

( 2010-10) Schulz, Nils-Sjard

On a warm evening in late March of this year, more than 500 enthusiastic delegates from around the world poured out of the Chamber of Commerce building in Bogot�, with a shared vision that South-South cooperation would reshape today�s development cooperation landscape. Despite the Colombian capital�s dizzying altitude of 2,800 meters, their zeal for effective South-South knowledge exchange and mutual learning left the participants of the Bogot� High Level Event on South-South cooperation and Capacity Development clear headed and with a long list of ideas, projects and plans, for their countries and regions, and for their multilateral, parliamentary, civil society, and research organizations.
The Power of Parliamentary South-South Learning : Fighting Small Arms in the Great Lakes Region and Horn of Africa

( 2010-10) Balch, Jeff

Few other regions in the world have been hit so hard by so many wars and domestic conflicts as the countries in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa over the past fifteen years. Traders and brokers of small arms cool-headedly spotted the opportunities in these regions. Local demand was huge as many militia and rebel groups needed weapons and didn't particularly care about international trading regulations or conventions.