This paper combines theory with data
from different domains to provide an empirical analysis of
the scale and variability of social capital as wealth. The
analysis is used to argue, given what has been learned from
the literature on social capital, that the welfare returns
to investing in trust could be substantial. Using data from
132 nations covered by the Gallup World Poll, the paper
presents a range of estimates of the wealth-equivalent

The idea of social inclusion has
garnered considerable attention, especially in the context
of two recent developments: the Sustainable Development
Goals and the heightened attention to inequality. This paper
reviews the manner and extent to which social inclusion is
addressed in the first 17 Systematic Country Diagnostics
(SCDs), which are ex ante, country-level assessments
conducted by the World Bank Group, ahead of the preparation

The extractive industries (EI) sector occupies an outsize space in the economies of many developing countries. Economists, public finance professionals, and policy makers working in such countries are frequently confronted with issues that require an in-depth understanding of the sector. The objective of this volume is to provide a concise overview of EI-related topics these professionals are likely to encounter.

Over the past twenty years, Uganda’s
population density has been increasing rapidly, placing
significant pressure on the use of land. Uganda now has a
population density of 194 persons per square kilometer of
arable land, compared to 80 in Kenya and 116 in Ghana. At
present, the majority of Uganda’s population still lives in
rural areas, where the main source of livelihood is
agriculture. However, the proportion of the population

Over the past quarter century, Vietnam’s
agricultural sector has made enormous progress. Vietnam’s
performance in terms of agricultural yields, output, and
exports, however, has been more impressive than its gains in
efficiency, farmer welfare, and product quality. Vietnamese
agriculture now sits at a turning point. The agricultural
sector now faces growing domestic competition - from cities,
industry, and services - for labor, land, and water. Rising

The Country Partnership Framework (CPF)
for Montene gro covers the period from July 1, 2015 to June
30, 2020 (fiscal years 2016-2020). This CPF builds on the
results and lessons of the previous World Bank Group (WBG)
Country Partnership Strategy (CPS), which originally covered
the period July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2014, and was
subsequently extended to June 30, 2015.The one-year CPS)
extension was intended to provide greater clarity on the

The eight Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) form a blueprint that is agreed to by all the
world's countries and its leading development
institutions. The first seven goals are mutually reinforcing
and are directed at reducing poverty in all its forms. The
last goal, global partnership for development, is about the
means to achieve the first seven. To track the progress in
achieving the MDGs a framework of targets and indicators has

Financial regulation affects government
revenue whenever it imposes both the mandatory quantity and
price of government bonds. This paper studies a banking
regulation adopted by the National Bank of Ethiopia in April
2011, which forces all private banks to purchase a fixed
negative-yield government bond in proportion to private
sector lending. Having access to monthly bank balance
sheets, a survey of branch costs and public finances

In absence of deposit insurance,
underdeveloped financial systems can exhibit a coordination
failure between banks, unable to commit on safe asset
holding, and depositors, anticipating low deposit repayment
in bad states. This paper shows conditions under which a
government can solve this failure by imposing safe asset
purchases, which boosts deposits by increasing depositor
repayment in bad states. In so doing, financial regulation

In countries where a large proportion of
the total land area is held customarily, reform questions
around land and development often tend to focus on the
customary estate. Evidence from Solomon Islands suggests
that a focus on public land holdings, even when they are
relatively small in land area, can yield outsized benefits.
Publicly owned land regularly includes economically valuable
land and urban land on which development pressure is high.

This book examines issues at the
forefront of the debate on land law reform, pays particular
attention to how reform options affect the poor and
disadvantaged, and recommends strategies for alleviating
poverty more effectively through land law reform. It reviews
the role of the World Bank in land law reform, examining
issues of process as well as substance. It also identifies
key challenges and directions, and stresses the need to

What are the socioeconomic impacts of
resource abundance? Are these effects different at the
national and local levels? How could resource booms benefit
(or harm) local communities? This paper reviews a vast
literature examining these questions, with an emphasis on
empirical works. First, the evidence and theoretical
arguments behind the so-called resource curse, and other
impacts at the country level, are reviewed. This