Publication: The Changing Wealth of Nations :
Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium
Loading...
Published
2011
ISSN
Date
2012-03-19
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This book is about development and measuring development progress. While precise definitions may vary, development is, at heart, a process of building wealth, the produced, natural, human, and institutional capital which is the source of income and wellbeing. A key finding is that it is intangible wealth, human and institutional capital, which dominates the wealth of all countries, rising as a share of the total as countries climb the development ladder. The book is divided into two parts. The first part provides the big picture of changes in wealth by income group and geographic region, with a focus on natural capital because it is especially important for low-income developing countries. The second part presents case studies that illustrate particular aspects of wealth accounting, including accounting for climate change, the role of intangible capital in growth and development, measuring human capital, and the use of wealth accounting to improve transparency and governance in resource-rich economies. The final chapter reports on the implementation of wealth accounting by countries. The appendixes provide the full wealth accounts for individual countries and for aggregations by income group and geographic region.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2011. The Changing Wealth of Nations :
Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium. Environment and Development. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2252 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Trade in a ‘Green Growth’ Development Strategy : Global Scale Issues and Challenges(2012-10)This paper surveys the state of knowledge about the trade-related environmental consequences of a country's development strategy along three channels: (i) direct trade-environment linkages (overexploitation of natural resources and trade-related transport costs); (ii) 'virtual trade' in emissions resulting from production activities; and (iii) the product mix attributes of a 'green-growth' strategy (environmentally preferable products and goods for environmental management). Trade exacerbates over-exploitation of natural resources in weak institutional environments, but there is little evidence that differences in environmental policies across countries has led to significant 'pollution havens.' Trade policies to 'level the playing field' would be ineffective and result in destructive conflicts in the World Trade Organization. Lack of progress at the Doha Round suggests the need to modify the current system of global policy making.Publication Bhutan - Hydropower Export Boom : Its Macroeconomic Impacts and Policy Implications(Washington, DC, 2002-09)Bhutan has shown remarkable economic performance over the last two decades. Growth during the second half of the 1990s was particularly strong, with annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth averaging 6.5 percent. A large part of this performance has been supported by generous inflows of foreign aid and buoyant electricity exports to India, which have spurred growth both directly by expanding export earnings and indirectly by stimulating investment in the construction and transport industries. Growth prospects for Bhutan look bright, supported by enormous hydropower generation potential. In particular, the scheduled commissioning of the Tala hydropower project in 2005/06 is expected to give a major boost to growth by tripling the country's power generation capacity. While the expansion in power exports has brought significant benefits to Bhutan, there has been concern that it may not be an 'unmitigated blessing.' Despite large net inflows of foreign capital, Bhutan's macroeconomic indicators suggest that inflation has so far been modest and under control. The results of the empirical analysis of the Bhutanese economy indeed confirm that the power exports to India as well as financial assistance have caused real appreciation of the ngultrum against the rupee over time, through increased private spending and short-term monetary disequilibrium. Despite the real appreciation, however, the study finds little evidence to suggest contraction or stagnation of the non-power tradable sector. While the performance of the tradable sector may have been stronger in the absence of the real appreciation, thus far there is no sign of the Dutch disease, or the Dutch condition, in the Bhutanese economy. This paper examines empirically the macroeconomic impacts of Bhutan's increased power exports to India. It is the first serious attempt to address the presence of the Dutch disease in the Bhutanese economy. Previous attempts had been hampered by lack of sufficiently long time series data. Four sets of key questions are addressed in this study: (i) what are the features of the power export boom in Bhutan? Is it a temporary or permanent phenomenon? How large are power exports? (ii) Have power exports appreciated the real value of the ngultrum? If so, would further increase in power exports put further upward pressure on the ngultrum? (iii) What have the impacts on the tradable sector been? Are there Dutch-disease symptoms? (iv) Are these impacts sizable enough to require policy interventions? If so, what kind of policy options is then available to the Government?Publication Green Prices(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-07)"Getting the prices right" is a good starting point but is not sufficient for achieving environmentally efficient outcomes. Other policy interventions are often necessary to complement pricing policies. Moreover, when pricing is not at all feasible, regulatory and command-and-control policies must be used instead. This paper focuses on three interrelated themes at the core of the pricing problem. First, there is the incorporation of non-marketed activities with environmental consequences into aggregate measures of economic performance: the so-called "green-GDP." Second, there is the problem regarding the reliable estimation of the valuation of the shadow prices that properly reflect environmental externalities. Third, there is the issue of full-cost pricing that requires the pricing of environmental externalities for guiding both individual and public decision-making.Publication Natural Resources in Latin America and the Caribbean : Beyond Booms and Busts?(World Bank, 2011)Throughout, the history of the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, natural resource wealth has been critical for its economies. Production of precious metals, sugar, rubber, grains, coffee, copper, and oil have at various periods of history made countries in Latin America-and their colonial powers-some of the most prosperous in the world. In some ways, these commodities may have changed the course of history in the world at large. Latin America produced around 80 percent of the world's silver in the 16th through 19th centuries, fueling the monetary systems of not only Europe, but China and India as well. The dramatic movements in commodity markets since the early 2000s, as well as the recent economic crisis, provide new data to analyze and also underscore the importance of a better understanding of issues related to boom-bust commodity cycles. The current pattern of global recovery has favored LAC so far. Countercyclical policies have supported domestic demand in the larger LAC economies, and external demand from fast-growing emerging markets has boosted exports and terms of trade for LAC's net commodity exporters. Prospects for LAC in the short term look good. Beyond the cyclical rebound, however, the region's major longer-run challenge going forward will be to craft a bold productivity agenda. With LAC coming out of this crisis relatively well positioned, this may well be possible, especially considering that the region's improved macro-financial resiliency gives greater assurance that future gains from growth will not be wiped out by financial crises. In addition, LAC has been making significant strides in the equity agenda and this could help mobilize consensus in favor of a long overdue growth-oriented reform agenda. But it remains to be seen whether the region will be able to seize the opportunity to boost long-run growth, especially considering the large gaps that LAC would need to close in such key areas as saving, human capital accumulation, physical infrastructure, and the ability to adopt and adapt new technologies.Publication Investing in a More Sustainable Indonesia : Country Environmental Analysis 2009 - Main Report(World Bank, 2009-10-01)The objective of this Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) is to highlight the underlying challenges and opportunities for Indonesia's environment and management of its natural resources in order to guide the World Bank support to Indonesian institutions for more sustainable development. Rather, the CEA sets the broader context (chapter one) and economic costs of environmental degradation (chapter two) in order to identify underlying challenges and opportunities. These are divided into two sets of priorities those related to environmental governance and those that are more sectoral in nature. Environmental governance encompasses the decentralized framework for environmental management (chapter three), enabling policies for greater environment and resource sustainability (chapter four) and building environmental constituencies (chapter five). The sectoral challenges that are most important for Indonesian development are vulnerability to climate change (chapter six), land use and climate change (chapter seven) and energy and climate change (chapter eight). The report concludes with options for a more sustainable Indonesia, including recommendations for how the World Bank can more effectively invest in light of the CEA findings (chapter nine).
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.