Self-help groups (SHGs) are the most
common form of microfinance in India. The authors provide
evidence that SHGs, composed of women only, undertake
collective actions for the provision of public goods within
village communities. Using a theoretical model, this paper
shows that an elected official, whose aim is to maximize
re-election chances, exerts higher effort in providing
public goods when private citizens undertake collective

Indonesia produces more palm oil and consumes more palm oil per capita than any country in the world. This article examines the processes through which Indonesia has promoted palm-oil consumption and some of the consequences of that promotion. Partial equilibrium modelling shows that Indonesia's remarkable increase in palm-oil consumption since 1985 is not largely attributable to population and income growth. Instead, much of this consumption growth has resulted from substitution away from coconut oil, facilitated by government policies on technology, pricing, distribution, and trade.

According to a new World Bank report,
economic complementarities between Egypt, Turkey, Jordan,
Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and the Palestinian Territories are
significant, with substantial welfare gains expected from
increased trade and investments and, ultimately, economic
integration. With a population of 224 million, a land area
of 2.4 million km, a nominal GDP of 1.4 trillion dollars,
and close to major markets and transportation corridors,

The Bill incorporating the proposed amendments was not yet ready so the Deputy Minister discussed with the Committee some of the proposed changes to the Bill that had been agreed upon so far.

Members raised concerns about the variation in judgements in Magistrates Courts; the potential definition of expropriation; definition of property being not limited to land. Some MPs wanted to “subject to the payment of just and equitable compensation” and just add “according to the Constitution and the Act”.

As part of a national experiment in 2008, Chengdu prefecture implemented ambitious property rights reforms, including complete registration of all land together with measures to ease transferability and eliminate migration restrictions. A triple difference approach using the Statistics Bureau’s regular household panel suggests that the reforms increased consumption and income, especially for less wealthy and less educated households, with estimated benefits well above the cost of implementation.

The number of people in South Asia's cities rose by 130 million between 2000 and 2011--more than the entire population of Japan. This was linked to an improvement in productivity and a reduction in the incidence of extreme poverty. But the region's cities have struggled to cope with the pressure of population growth on land, housing, infrastructure, basic services, and the environment. As a result, urbanization in South Asia remains underleveraged in its ability to deliver widespread improvements in both prosperity and livability.

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.

The Deputy Minister of Public Works continued to take Members through the comments made during the public hearings on the Expropriation Bill, indicating what comments had been made and whether the Department agreed with them or had other views. The Department had added to the Preamble to make it clear that section 34 of the Constitution provided that anyone had the right to approach the courts for resolution of a dispute. In relation to the definitions, there was discussion on whether the Bill should refer to both high courts and magistrates’ courts.

This document is hence organized not around the three types of challenges, but around five themes of governance, public finance issues, private sector-led economy, poverty and environment, and human capital, all crucial to achieving faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth. Chapter one provides the country context. Chapter two discusses the quality of governance, an overarching issue in Madagascar. It has a direct bearing on the pace, the inclusiveness and sustainability of growth.

The Deputy Minister of Public Works, Mr Jeremy Cronin, briefed the Committee on the preliminary responses of the Department of Public Works (DPW) to the inputs received during the public hearings on the Expropriation Bill [B4- 2015]. However, the Department had been expecting that the Committee would finalise its report on those hearings and thus did not yet have a full written response. The DPW acknowledged that there were many useful points but had not accepted all input.

Land and property rights, migration, and
citizenship are complex issues that cut across all social,
economic, and political spheres of West Africa. This paper
provides an overarching scoping of the most pressing
contemporary issues related to land, migration, and
citizenship, including how they intersect in various
contexts and locations in West Africa. The way issues are
analytically framed captures structural challenges and sets

The inability to unlock natural resource
wealth for the benefit of developing countries’ local
populations, a phenomenon popularly known as the ‘resource
curse’ or the ‘paradox of plenty’, has spawned extensive
debate among researchers and policy makers in recent years.
There is now a well-established body of literature exploring
the links between natural resources and conflict, with some
sources estimating that over the past 60 years, 40 percent