This paper uses data from a large survey
of Chinese firms to investigate whether local government
efforts to facilitate market development improve firm
efficiency. Both government provision of information about
products, markets, and innovation and government assistance
in arranging loans are positively associated with firm
efficiency. Those private firms with weak access to and
knowledge of financial, input, and product markets benefit

This paper presents simulations for the
period 2013-2030 of measures that permit increased spending
on infrastructure and human development, the priority areas
in Liberia's 2013-2017 "Agenda for
Transformation" and for its national vision, Liberia
Rising 2030. The simulations are carried out with a Liberian
version of MAMS (Maquette for Millennium Development Goals
Simulations), a Computable General Equilibrium model.

In Africa, farmers have been reluctant
to take up new varieties of staple crops developed to boost
smallholder yields and rural incomes. Low fertilizer use is
often mentioned as a proximate cause, but some believe the
problem originates with incomplete input markets. As a
remedy, African governments have introduced technology
adoption programs with fertilizer subsidies as a core
component. Still, the links between market performance and

The economic recession, the end of
stimulus funding and central government cutbacks, rising
social costs and aging, and the need for infrastructure
upgrading for urbanization are putting enormous fiscal
stress on cities. The financing capacity of municipalities
is greatly affected because of the decline in the tax base,
expenditure pressures, and growing and more expensive debt.
Today's urban fiscal crisis is similar to that

This report’s starting point is thus to
acknowledge that despite Sweden’s many virtues, there are
areas in which it can do better, and the task has been to
identify those areas, focusing particularly on the quality
of the investment climate and competitiveness. This has been
done in two main ways. First, by looking at areas of the
business environment captured by databases compiled in the
World Bank Group’s Global Indicators Group—Doing Business,

Kazakhstan aspires to become one of the
world s 30 most developed economies by 2050. The focus is on
laying the basis for the accelerated diversification of the
economy through industrialization and infrastructure
development, including enhancing human capital to drive
innovation and economic efficiency. This country economic
memorandum report adopts an analytical framework that looks
into options that will be explored to help authorities think

Bureaucratic reform is a priority of
donor organizations, including the World Bank, but is
notoriously difficult to implement. In many countries,
politicians have little interest in the basic financial and
personnel management systems that are essential to political
oversight of bureaucratic performance. To explain this, this
paper presents a new perspective on the political economy of
bureaucracy. Politicians in some countries belong to parties

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, discusses fundamental issues in global development and
the World Bank Group's role in helping countries and
the private sector meet the greatest challenges in
development. He speaks
about the twin goals, to end extreme poverty
by 2030 and to boost shared prosperity. Due to television, everyone knows how everyone else lives. We must not remain voluntarily blind to the impact of economic choices on the poor and
vulnerable.

The country profile for Sweden is based
on data from the enterprise surveys conducted by the World
Bank in 2014. The Enterprise Surveys focus on the many
factors that shape the business environment. These factors
can be accommodating or constraining for firms and play an
important role in whether a country will prosper or not. An
accommodating business environment is one that encourages
firms to operate efficiently. Such conditions strengthen

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, notes that the developing countries will have to grow
at a pace stronger than any time in the past 20 years to
achieve the goal of ending the extreme poverty by 2030. He talks about the
need for growth that is inclusive, creates jobs, and assists
the poor directly. He calls for ensuring economic
growth in the years ahead that is sustainable and takes us
off the destructive path of climate change. He focuses on

Climate change is happening faster and
in a dramatically more visible way in the Earth's
cryosphere than anywhere else on earth. Cryosphere is
defined as elements of the Earth system containing water in
its frozen state. The average temperature has risen here at
over twice the global mean in the Arctic, Antarctic
Peninsula, and much of the Himalayas and other mountain
regions. This report summarizes the changes already being

Recent economic and political
developments have highlighted a challenge shared across the
Arab region of generating employment, promoting inclusive
growth, and improving competitiveness. In the short run,
weakened macroeconomic fundamentals in the developing
economies of the Middle East and North Africa are a key
challenge. The region's main challenge is to achieve
sustainable growth that delivers the quantity and quality of