Europe and Central Asia Reports
16 items available
Permanent URI for this collection
This series, managed by the Chief Economist of the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) regional unit and a board of experts, highlights key development issues faced by the Eastern European and Central Asian countries. The reports aim to draw attention and spur action at regional and country level, to constructively address the existing and emerging socio-economic challenges.
Items in this collection
1 - 10 of 16
-
Publication
The Inverting Pyramid : Pension Systems Facing Demographic Challenges in Europe and Central Asia
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014-02-12)Pension systems in Europe and Central Asia are facing unprecedented demographic change. While many of the countries in the region have undertaken reforms when the economy faces difficult times, these reforms are frequently reversed when the economy improves. The demographic challenges that the region faces require a sustained effort toward changing the pension system toward something which provides adequate and sustainable benefits. The book documents the increased generosity of pension systems in Europe from their initial inception, noting that the current expectations of the public are based on the most recent round of generosity. The book seeks to show a nontechnical audience that such generosity is neither based on customary practice nor affordable in the future. The increased generosity in the past was only possible because the demographic pyramid was expanding, but as it inverts with fewer young people and more elderly, that generosity will no longer be affordable. Returning to the pension system of the 1970’s will go a long way toward providing adequate and sustainable benefits in the future. Moving to a more sustainable system will require reforms to labor markets, improvements in savings mechanisms, and may require additional public resources. The extent to which a country can undertake reforms in labor markets, savings, and public finances can influence the extent to which its pension system will have to change, with different solutions possible for different countries. But in all cases, the changes that need to be made have to be widely discussed and publicly accepted to prevent reversals. The book hopes to stimulate widespread public discussion of the issue to help countries make sustainable choices with gradual implementation, before they face such daunting challenges that they have to undertake sudden, harsh measures. -
Publication
Back to Work : Growing with Jobs in Europe and Central Asia
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014-01-15)Creating more and better jobs is arguably the most critical challenge to boosting shared prosperity in ECA. This report answers two questions: How can the countries create more jobs? Should there be specific policies to help workers access those jobs?. In answering them, the report examines the role of reforms, firms, skills, incentives and barriers to work, and labor mobility through the lens of two contextual factors: the legacy of centralized planned economies and the mounting demographic pressures associated with rapid aging in some countries and soaring numbers of youth entering the workforce in others. The main findings of the report are: i) market reforms pay off in terms of jobs and productivity, although with a lag; ii) a small fraction of superstar high-growth firms, largely young, account for most of new jobs created in the region- thus, countries, especially late reformers, need to unleash the potential of high levels of latent entrepreneurship to start-up new firms; iii) skills gaps hinder employment prospects, especially of youth and older workers, due to the inadequate response of the education and training system to changes in the demand for skills; iv) employment is hindered by high implicit taxes on work for those transitioning to work from inactivity or unemployment and barriers that affect especially women, minorities, youth and older workers; and, v) low internal labor mobility prevents labor relocation to places with greater job creation potential. The report argues that to get more people back to work by growing with jobs, countries need to regain the momentum for economic and institutional reforms that existed before the crisis in order to: (i) lay the fundamentals to create jobs for all workers, by pushing reforms to create the enabling environment for existing firms to grow, become more productive, or exit the market and tap on entrepreneurship potential for new firms to emerge and succeed or fail fast and cheap; and (ii) implement policies to support workers so they are prepared to take on the new jobs being created, by having the right skills, incentives and access to work, and being ready to move to places with the highest job creation potential. -
Publication
Getting Better : Improving Health System Outcomes in Europe and Central Asia
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-06-10)This report is about how to improve health system outcomes in countries in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. Long-term historical trends indicate substantial room for improvement, especially when ECA's health outcomes are compared to those of the Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (EU-15). Instead of catching up with their Western neighbors, many countries in ECA have been falling behind. This report, which explores the development challenge facing health sectors in ECA, identifies three key agendas for achieving more rapid convergence with the world's best-performing health systems: (i) the first is the health agenda, in which the main imperative is to strengthen public health and primary care interventions to help achieve the 'cardiovascular revolution' that has taken place in the west in recent decades; (ii) the second is the financing agenda, in which growing demand for medical care must be satisfied without imposing an undue burden on households, by achieving better financial protection, or on government budgets, by ensuring a more efficient use of resources; and (iii) the third agenda relates to broader institutional arrangements. Here, a few key reform ingredients are identified, each of which is common to most advanced health systems but lacking in many ECA countries. -
Publication
Growing Green : The Economic Benefits of Climate Action
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-04-12)Pollution from fossil fuels and degraded natural lands are raising the earth’s temperature. The evidence of the causes of global warming is clear, as are its consequences. The economic impacts of climate change are already apparent and they threaten development gains. Extreme weather events have brought severe droughts to Central Asia, heat waves and forest fires to Russia, and floods to Southeastern Europe. Unchecked emissions will come at rising economic cost and increasing risk to individuals. There is a clear case for all of the world’s economies to move to a low-carbon growth path. Yet, climate action has been inadequate, especially in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA). With prospects of a global climate agreement uncertain, this report identifies the actions that governments in the region can take to reduce the carbon footprints of their economies. It shows that many of these actions will more than pay for themselves—and quite quickly when indirect benefits such as better health and increased competitiveness are considered. To realize these benefits, policy makers in ECA need to quickly move on three sets of priorities: use energy much more efficiently, gradually move to cleaner energy sources, and increase carbon capture in soils and forests. This will require transformations in power generation, industrial production, mobility, city living, and in farming and forestry. Policy makers are justifiably worried that climate action may jeopardize economic performance and strain the budgets of poorer families. The report shows how well-designed growth and social policies can make climate action growth-enhancing while protecting the living standards of less-well-off households. -
Publication
Energy Efficiency : Lessons Learned from Success Stories
( 2013-01-05)This study is designed to analyze the energy efficiency policies in seven countries that were successful in achieving low energy intensities or in reducing their energy intensity considerably. The study analyzes the evolution of the energy intensity of these countries from 1990 to 2007, identifying points of inflection in the progress towards improvements. Changes to the policy agenda immediately upstream are explored in an effort to identify cause and affect relationships in energy efficiency improvements. Although direct relationships are difficult to isolate, cross country analyses that point to similar successes among a variety of countries give some confidence that these policies have contributed to reducing energy needs. The energy efficiency of new buildings is relatively easily and in expensively addressed by setting standards: making a new building energy efficient typically adds only 5 percent to the total cost. The purpose of this study is to determine what policy changes make a difference in countries' energy in tensity. The starting point for the analysis was the evolution of countries' energy intensity over time to identify inflection points when notable changes took place. Given that the inflection point could have been caused by external price shocks or structural changes, these causes were analyzed and removed from further consideration. Then changes to the policy agenda during identified periods were explored in an effort to identify cause and affect relationships in energy efficiency improvements. -
Publication
Balancing Act : Cutting Energy Subsidies While Protecting Affordability
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-01-05)The cost of energy in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as elsewhere, is an important policy issue, as shown by the concerns for energy affordability during the past harsh winter. Governments try to moderate the burden of energy expenditures that is experienced by households through subsidies to the energy providers, so that households pay tariffs below the cost recovery level for the energy they use. These subsidies result in significant pressures on government budgets when international prices rise. They also provide perverse incentives for the overconsumption of energy as households do not pay the true cost of energy, and therefore, have fewer incentives to save or to invest in energy efficiency. Balancing competing claims-fiscal and environmental concerns which would push for raising energy tariffs on the one hand, and affordability and political economy concerns which push for keeping tariffs artificially low on the other-is a task that policy makers in the region are increasingly unable to put off. Addressing this issue is all the more pressing as the ongoing crisis continues to add stress to government budgets, and that international energy prices remain high. While challenging, the reforms needed for this balancing act can build on much that has been learned in the last decade about improving the effectiveness of social assistance systems and increasing energy efficiency. This is the first report to assess, at the micro level for the whole region, the distributional impact of raising energy tariffs to cost recovery levels and to simulate policy options to cushion these impacts. In conclusion, this report highlights that countries face a difficult balancing act between fiscal and environmental concerns that call for raising energy tariffs to lower fiscal burdens and curb household consumption and concerns for the affordability of energy and the political economy of unpopular reforms. -
Publication
Eurasian Cities : New Realities along the Silk Road
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012-09-07)Eurasian cities, unique in the global spatial landscape, were part of the world's largest experiment in urban development. The challenges they now face because of their history offer valuable lessons to urban planners and policy makers across the world from places that are still urbanizing to those already urbanized. More than three-quarters of the built environment in Eurasian cities was developed after 1945 in a centralized fashion. Central planners could implement whatever they considered good practice planning solutions, and Eurasia's cities became their drawing boards. The central planners got a lot right easy access to public transportation, district heating networks, almost universal access to water systems, and socially integrated neighborhoods. At the same time, they failed to acknowledge the importance of markets and individual choice in shaping sustainable and congenial places for people to live in. From a spatial point of view, it became clear that many Eurasian cities were developed in places where they should not have been. To populate sparsely inhabited territory, Soviet planners pushed urban development toward the heart of Siberia. Many of the resulting cities had no rural hinterland to rely on for daily food needs and had to depend on subsidized goods and services. Many Eurasian cities face an overdeveloped public service infrastructure that is hard to maintain and upgrade. Facing an economic downturn in the 1990s and lacking experience in decentralized urban management, many local authorities struggled to run these services. Public transport ridership fell in most cities, with more people commuting in private vehicles. Recycling networks disappeared, and soaring consumption overwhelmed solid waste management systems. District heating systems became large energy sieves hard to run and maintain without subsidies. Plaguing water systems are large shares of nonrevenue water, and low tariffs do not ensure the cost recovery needed for upgrades and repairs. This book discusses all five of these issues rethinking, planning, connecting, greening, and financing in more detail. It seeks to analyze the key challenges created by central planning, outline how these challenges were addressed in the transition years, and identify some steps Eurasian cities should take to chart a sustainable development path for themselves. The book also shows how some of the most progressive cities in the region have been tackling these problems and, in doing so, shedding the last vestiges of the socialist economy. -
Publication
Igniting Innovation : Rethinking the Role of Government in Emerging Europe and Central Asia
(World Bank, 2011-09-22)This book builds on the lessons from public institutions and programs to support innovation, both successful and failed, from Europe and Central Asia (ECA) as well as China, Finland, Israel, and the United States. Field visits to these countries were hosted by the innovation and scientific agencies of the respective governments, strengthening the international experiences presented here. This book is a culmination of ten years of analytic and operational work led by the private and financial sector development department and the chief economist's office of the ECA region of the World Bank. Several regional reports and country policy notes exploring these issues have been published over the years. The book also reflects the lively discussion in the ongoing series of flagship events to promote knowledge based economies in the region. The most recent knowledge economy forum was held in Berlin in 2010, hosted by the fraunhofer center for Central and Eastern Europe. The book identifies policies that have an adverse affect on innovation. It also identifies policy gaps that, if filled, could have a catalytic effect on private sector innovation. -
Publication
Harnessing Quality for Global Competitiveness in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
(World Bank, 2011)In many countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA), the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) does not support business competitiveness, though this is one of its functions in organization for economic co-operation and development countries. In most of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, it even impedes competitiveness. The most common economic benefits of adopting standards include increased productive and innovative efficiency. Standards lead to economies of scale, allowing suppliers to achieve lower costs per unit by producing large, homogeneous batches of products. Standards spur and disseminate innovation, solve coordination failures, and facilitate the development of profitable networks. Participation in world trade increasingly requires that suppliers comply with standards determined by lead buyers in global value chains. The nature of participation in the global economy has changed dramatically over the past two decades. Rarely do producers turn raw materials into final products and sell them directly to customers. Improving the quality of goods and services and diversifying into sectors where quality matters can be a sustainable source of global competitiveness. Some of the productive tasks associated with high-quality goods have high learning and technological externalities. In those sectors, producers tend to form tight relationships with global buyers who transfer their knowledge and support the producers' quality-upgrading processes. Diversifying into a broad range of sectors also reduces macroeconomic volatility, but quality upgrading becomes necessary to enter new sectors that compete on quality. -
Publication
Lights out? The Outlook for Energy in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
(World Bank, 2010)Before the current economic crisis hit the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region in 2008, energy security was a major source of concern in Central and Eastern Europe and in many of the economies in the former Soviet Union. Energy importers were experiencing shortages leading to periodic brownouts and blackouts. An energy crisis seemed imminent. This report analyzes the outlook for energy demand and supply in the region. It estimates the investment requirements and highlights the potential environmental concerns associated with meeting future energy needs, including those related to climate change. The report also proposes the actions necessary to create an attractive environment for investment in cleaner energy. Greater regional cooperation for smart energy and climate action is an important part of the World Bank's engagement in Europe and Central Asia.