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The World Bank Legal Review, Volume 2: Law, Equity, and Development
Edited by Ana Palacio
Price: $ 21.75
Available Immediately
English Paperback 604 pages 6 x 9
Published November 2006 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers , World Bank ISBN: 0-8213-6831-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6831-2 SKU: 16831

The World Bank Legal Review, Volume 2 is a publication for policy makers and their advisers, attorneys, and other professionals engaged in the field of international development. It offers a combination of legal scholarship, lessons from experience, legal developments, and recent research on the many ways in which the application of the law and the improvement of justice systems promote poverty reduction, economic development, and the rule of law.
In keeping with the theme of the World Development Report 2006: Equity and Development, and following the success of the World Bank Group's Legal Forum on "Law, Equity, and Development" in December 2005, this volume of The World Bank Legal Review focuses on issues of equity and development. The volume draws together some of the key ideas of the Legal Forum, including articles by many of its distinguished participants, and explores the role of equity in the development process, highlighting how legal and regulatory frameworks and equitable justice systems can do much to level the playing field in the political, economic, and sociocultural domains, as well as how they can reinforce existing inequalities. Consistent with the interdisciplinary nature of this endeavour, Law, Equity and Development contains work by academics and practitioners in law, criminal justice, economics, social development, cultural studies, and anthropology.

The Urban Poor in Latin America
Edited by Marianne Fay
Price: $ 19.25
Available Immediately
English Paperback 300 pages 6 x 9
Published June 2005
ISBN: 0-8213-6069-8 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6069-9 SKU: 16069

The urbanization of Latin America has also lead to the urbanization of its poor. Today about half of the region?s poor live in cities. Yet the phenomenon of urban poverty is not one that is well studied or well understood and policy makers across Latin America are increasingly interested in policy advice on how to design programs and policies to tackle poverty. Urban Poor in Latin America argues that the causes of poverty, the nature of deprivation, and the policy levers to fight poverty are to a large extent site-specific. As such, the book looks at strategies to assist the urban poor in making the most of the opportunities offered by cities (deeper labor markets, better amenities and services, greater freedom, and possibly less discrimination) while helping them cope with the negative externalities (high cost of housing and difficulty of obtaining shelter; risks to physical safety associated with pollution and environmental contamination, but also crime and violence; other congestion costs, more isolation and possibly less social capital).

The U.S.-Guatemala Remittance Corridor
by Hela Cheikhrouhou , Raul Hernandez-Coss , Radwa El-Swaify , Rodrigo Jarque
Price: $ 16.75
Available Immediately
English Paperback 86 pages 7 x 10
Published November 2006
ISBN: 0-8213-6782-X ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6782-7 SKU: 16782

This study gives an overview of the intermediation of worker remittance flows from the United States to Guatemala. In contrast to other remittance corridors in the world, most transfers in this corridor are channeled in the United States through the formal sector, and distributed in Guatemala through the banking system. However, both senders and receivers have little access to financial products and services. This study argues that in a country characterized by high income inequality and low and concentrated access to credit, the large role played by domestic banks in distributing remittances seems promising in terms of creating a point of contact that could lead to cross-sales of other financial services. The report also argues that authorities have an important coordination and catalytic role to play, for increased efficiency in remittance intermediation, fostering competition, and ultimately highlighting the potential for greater access. The report concludes with specific avenues for further policy action in terms of transparency, regulatory environment, financial literacy and access, risk management, and money laundering prevention.

The Polish Fixed-income Securities Market: Recent Developments and Selected Policy Challenges
by Michel Noel , Noritaka Akamatsu , Wladyslaw Jan Brzeski , Carlo Segni
Price: $ 20.50
Available Immediately
English Paperback 74 pages 7 x 10
Published November 2006
ISBN: 0-8213-6892-3 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6892-3 SKU: 16892

This title analyzes the recent evolution of the Polish fixed-income securities market, including the money market, the government bond market, and the non-government bond market, focusing in particular on the sub-national bond market. It examines key policy challenges facing the development of the sector, including policies to stimulate the development of the classic repo market, increase the reliability of the government bond yield curve, stimulate the overall development of the non-government bond market, and undertake a reform of the legal and regulatory framework for local government borrowing.

The Limits of Stabilization: Infrastructure, Public Deficits and Growth in Latin America
Edited by William Easterly , Luis Serven
Price: $ 20.50
Available Immediately
English Paperback 226 pages 6 x 9
Published October 2003
ISBN: 0-8213-5489-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-5489-6 SKU: 15489

Customers in the US and Canada please order from Stanford University Press at (800) 621-2736 or visit their website at www.sup.org.
Printed on Demand.
Limited stock is held for this title. If you would like to order 30 copies or more please contact books@worldbank.org
Contact books@worldbank.org, if currently unavailable.

Over the 1980s and 1990s, most Latin American countries witnessed a retrenchment of the public sector from infrastructure provision and an opening up of infrastructure activities to the private sector. This book analyzes the consequences of these policy changes from two perspectives. First, it reviews in a comparative framework the major trends in infrastructure provision in Latin America over the last two decades. Second, it evaluates the implication of these trends for economic growth and public deficits in the region. The book shows that in most countries private participation did not fully offset the public sector retrenchment. The result was a slowdown in infrastructure accumulation, which entailed a significant growth cost and weakened the intended impact of the infrastructure spending cuts on public sector insolvency.

"This fascinating book highlights a neglected cost of two decades of fiscal austerity in Latin America. The authors' careful analysis reveals that the decline in public investment in infrastructure may have been expensive not only for growth, but for long-term fiscal solvency as well. Deserves to be read by every IMF economist (and many others besides)."

- Dani Rodrik, Harvard University

Reforming Collateral Laws to Expand Access to Finance
by Heywood Fleisig , Mehnaz Safavian , Nuria de la Pena
Price: $ 18.00
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English Paperback 116 pages 6 x 9
Published August 2006
ISBN: 0-8213-6490-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6490-1 SKU: 16490

Most readers, especially those with car loans or home mortgages, know about "collateral"--property that the lender can take away from the borrower in the event that the borrower defaults. In low/middle income countries, it is understood that conservative lenders exclude firms from credit markets with their excessive collateral requirements. Usually, this is because only some property is acceptable as collateral: large holdings of urban real estate and, sometimes, new motor vehicles. Microenterprises, SMEs, and the poor have little of this property but they do have an array of productive assets that could easily be harnessed to serve as collateral. It is only the legal framework which prevents firms from using these assets to secure loans. In countries with reformed laws governing collateral, property such as equipment, inventory, accounts receivable, livestock are considered excellent collateral. This book aims to better equip project managers to implement reforms to the legal and institutional framework for collateral (secured transactions). It discusses the importance of movable property as a source of collateral for firms, the relationship between the legal framework governing movable assets and the financial sector consequences for firms (better loan terms, increased access, more competitive financial sector), and how reforms can be put in place to change the lending environment.

Private Voluntary Health Insurance in Development: Friend or Foe?
Edited by Alexander S. Preker , Richard M. Scheffler , Mark C. Bassett
Price: $ 20.50
Available Immediately
English Paperback 456 pages 7 x 10
Published December 2006
ISBN: 0-8213-6619-X ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6619-6 SKU: 16619

Private voluntary health insurance already plays an important role in the health sector of many low and middle income countries. The book reviews the context under which private insurance could contribute to an improvement in the financial sustainability of the health sector, financial protection against the costs of illness, household income smoothing, access to care, and market productivity. This volume is the third in a series of in-depth reviews of the role of health care financing in providing access for low-income populations to needed halthcare, protecting them from the impoverishing effects of illness, and addressing the important issues of social exclusion in government financed programs.

Pensions in the Middle East and North Africa: Time for Change
by David A. Robalino
Price: $ 21.75
Available Immediately
English 260 pages 7 x 10
Published May 2005
ISBN: 0-8213-6185-6 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6185-6 SKU: 16185

This is the first comprehensive assessment of pension systems in the Middle East and North Africa. While other regions - Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, in particular - have been actively introducing reforms to their pension systems, Middle East and North African countries have lagged behind. This is explained, in part, by the common belief that, because demographics remain favorable - the countries are young and the labor force is expanding rapidly - financial problems are far in the future; as a result, pension reform does not have to be a priority in the broader policy agenda.
However, the authors show that aging is not the only factor behind a financial crisis; the problem is the generosity of the current schemes. Moreover, badly designed benefit formulas and eligibility conditions introduce unnecessary economic distortions and make the systems vulnerable to adverse distributional transfers. The book does not present a general model that could solve the problems of all pension systems in MENA countries. Instead the authors focus on outlining a framework for guiding discussions on pension reform and making objective policy choices.

This assessment will be useful for policy makers and government officials involved in pension reform in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe: The Accession and Beyond
Edited by Nicholas Barr
Price: $ 21.75
Available Immediately
English Paperback 266 pages
Published May 2005
ISBN: 0-8213-6119-8 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6119-1 SKU: 16119

"The experience of Central and Eastern Europe is unique. It is evidence of great success in demolishing the communist system and building a market economy. It is also evidence of major remaining challenges. This excellent book should be read not only by EU politicians and bureaucrats, but should serve as a manual for those who are concerned with the long-term development of their country, political pragmatists, researchers and others involved in the reform of social policy."
Andris Berzins, former Prime Minister and Minister of Welfare of Latvia

Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe summarises social policy reform during the transition and EU accession and analyses the social policy challenges which continue to face both old and new member states. Specifically, the book amplifies two sets of arguments. First, social policy under communism was in important respects well-suited to the old order and ? precisely for that reason ? was systematically badly-suited to a market economy. Strategic reform directions thus followed from the nature of the transition process and from constraints imposed by EU accession. Secondly, successful accession is not the end of the story: economic and social trends over the past 50 years are creating strains for social policy which all countries ? old and new members ? will have to face.

This book will be of interest to readers interested in social policy, particularly those with an interest in the process of post-communist transition, in EU accession, and in future social policy challenges for the wider Europe. It should be of interest to academics in departments of economics, social policy and political science, and to policy makers, including government advisers and civil servants.

This book is a sequel to Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe: The Transition and Beyond, also edited by Nicholas Barr (ISBN 0-19-520998-2. $US22).

HIV/AIDS in Latin American Countries: The Challenges Ahead
by Isabel Noguer , Karen Cowgill , Anabela Abreu
Price: $ 18.00
Available Immediately
English Paperback 328 pages 6 x 9
Published October 2003 by World Bank
ISBN: 0-8213-5364-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-5364-6 SKU: 15364

Compared to most countries in Africa and to nearby islands in the Caribbean, most Latin American countries have not faced a full-scale AIDS epidemic?yet. A number of recent trends suggest, however, that if Latin America does not take appropriate prevention measures soon, incidence levels could reach epidemic proportions.

Sound and timely policies can limit the current and future impact of HIV/AIDS on Latin American health care systems, economies, and societies. Many countries in Latin America have shown their willingness to address the scope and special nature of the HIV/AIDS problem; since the late 1980s these countries have developed new structures and the groundwork needed for community responses. However, many challenges still lie ahead.

HIV/AIDS in Latin American Countries presents new and updated information about the extent and trends of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Latin America; it evaluates current national surveillance capacities, and assesses the national responses of the health sector to the epidemic on a country-by-country basis. Based on analyses of secondary information and on new World Bank?sponsored research and country-level data, the study looks at 17 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela, and Uruguay.

Health Financing Revisited: A Practitioner's Guide
by Pablo Gottret , George Schieber
Price: $ 23.00
Available Immediately
English Paperback 336 pages 6 x 9.25
Published March 2006
ISBN: 0-8213-6585-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6585-4 SKU: 16585

This overview of health financing tools, policies and trends--with a particular focus on challenges facing developing countries--provides the basis for effective policy-making. Analyzing the current global environment, the book discusses health financing goals in the context of both the underlying health, demographic, social, economic, political and demographic analytics as well as the institutional realities faced by developing countries, and assesses policy options in the context of global evidence, the international aid architecture, cross-sectoral interactions, and countries' macroeconomic frameworks and overall development plans.

Global Economic Prospects 2007: Managing the Next Wave of Globalization
by World Bank
Price: $ 22.50
Available Immediately
English Paperback 208 pages 8 x 10.5
Published December 2006
ISBN: 0-8213-6727-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6727-8 SKU: 16727

Over the next 25 years developing countries will move to center stage in the global economy. Global Economic Prospects 2007 analyzes the opportunities - and stresses - this will create. While rich and poor countries alike stand to benefit, the integration process will make more acute stresses already apparent today - in income inequality, in labor markets, and in the environment.

Over the next 25 years, rapid technological progress, burgeoning trade in goods and services, and integration of financial markets create the opportunity for faster long-term growth. However, some regions, notably Africa, are at risk of being left behind.

The coming globalization will also see intensified stresses on the "global commons". Addressing global warming, preserving marine fisheries, and containing infectious diseases will require effective multilateral collaboration to ensure that economic growth and poverty reduction proceed without causing irreparable harm to future generations.

Engaging with Fragile States: An IEG Review of World Bank Support to Low-Income Countries Under Stress
by Soniya Carvalho
Price: $ 18.00
Available Immediately
English Paperback 8.375 x 10.75
Published December 2006
ISBN: 0-8213-6847-8 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6847-3 SKU: 16847

During fiscal 2003-05, World Bank lending and administrative budgets to fragile states amounted to $4.1 billion and $161 million, respectively. IEG's report assesses the effectiveness of this Bank support.
The report finds that the Bank and the donor community have improved their operational readiness to engage with fragile states, and made substantial progress on donor coordination at the international policy level. Significant challenges remain, however. Donor agendas have been overly ambitious and need to be made more selective, the effectiveness of donor programs needs to be improved after the immediate post-conflict phase in war-ravaged countries when structural change is needed, and donors need to develop transparent aid allocation criteria that ensure that fragile states will be neither under- nor over-aided. The report makes recommendations to overcome these challenges and distills lessons for the Bank and other donors.

Energy Policies and Multitopic Household Surveys: Guidelines for Questionnaire Design in Living Standards Measurement Studies
by Kyran O'Sullivan , Douglas F. Barnes
Price: $ 10.00
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English Paperback 62 pages 7 x 10
Published November 2006
ISBN: 0-8213-6878-8 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6878-7 SKU: 16878

Accurate data on household energy use, combined with other data on household well-being (including consumption, income, health, and education), is essential to monitor progress in the household energy transition from traditional biomass fuels to modern fuels and electricity and to evaluate the effect of government energy policies on living conditions. Multi-topic socioeconomic household surveys, such as the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), can provide data with which to make these measurements.

Designers of LSMS and other multi-topic household surveys can use these guidelines to help ensure that their surveys provide more extensive and reliable data on household energy use than they do at present. The guidelines highlight weaknesses in current LSMS surveys with respect to energy questions and discuss how such questions can be better formulated to yield more useful data for energy policy analysis. Household energy surveys implemented over the years offer lessons on which formulations of questions work best and provide the most consistent results. This experience has been drawn on to develop the prototype fuel and electricity modules contained in these guidelines. Indicators that may be constructed from the data are also discussed; in this regard, the present report contributes to international efforts to define energy indicators for sustainable development. It is anticipated that these guidelines will help LSMS designers incorporate energy modules of the type proposed herein into LSMS survey questionnaires. Over time, as more surveys containing these modules are implemented, more experience will be gained on which questions work best in particular country settings and which are most useful for policy analysis.

The Economics of Effective AIDS Treatment: Evaluating Policy Options for Thailand
by Ana Revenga , Mead Over , Wiwat Peerapatanapokin , Sombat Thanprasertsuk , Emiko Masaki , Viroj Tangcharoensathien , Julian Gold
Price: $ 19.25
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English Paperback 272 pages 6 x 9
Published September 2006
ISBN: 0-8213-6755-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6755-1 SKU: 16755

HIV is the leading cause of premature death in Thailand. Since the first case of AIDS was reported in 1984 more than one million Thais have been infected. The social, human and economic costs of this burden are enormous. The Thai government has shown a strong commitment to providing care and support to persons living with HIV/AIDS by launching the National Access to Care Program (NAPHA) in 2003, which provides for publicly financed antiretroviral therapy (ART) to all HIV-infected people. This book documents through interviews how ART has radically changed the lives of those living with HIV. In the words of an HIV positive 29-year old man, ART is a "miracle". The book then develops an innovative analytical framework and uses it to show how the future sustainability and cost-effectiveness of this ambitious program depend critically on Thai government choices of AIDS treatment policy, HIV prevention policy and AIDS drug pricing. For the most likely assumptions, the book estimates that ART will save years of healthy life at a cost of between $700 and $2,400 per year. Successful AIDS treatment accumulates ever-increasing numbers of patients who need subsidized ART. Despite the magnitude of the resulting fiscal burden, the authors judge this expenditure to be a worthwhile public health investment for Thailand, However, they show that the future sustainability of the program will hinge critically on how well the government manages the quality of ART service delivery, on whether it is able to sustain its past successes in HIV prevention and on its negotiations with multinational pharmaceutical manufacturers on the prices of new AIDS drugs.

Annual Review of Development Effectiveness 2006 : Getting Results
by Monika Huppi
Price: $ 18.50
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English Paperback 8.375 x 10.75
Published December 2006
ISBN: 0-8213-6906-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6906-7 SKU: 16906

The "results agenda" adopted by the World Bank and other donors aims to ensure that development assistance yields sustainable poverty reduction. Effective poverty reduction results from three main factors: sustained and inclusive growth, effective service delivery to the poor, and capable public sector institutions that are accountable to stakeholders for the results they achieve.

The Annual Review of Development Effectiveness 2006 assembles evaluative evidence around three questions central to poverty reduction:

How effectively has economic growth translated into poverty reduction in Bank-assisted countries and what factors have affected these results?
What factors have led to high-quality results in areas that deliver services to the poor?
What measures help raise the accountability of public institutions responsible for delivering and sustaining these results?

The report identifies three key areas where the World Bank can further strengthen its effectiveness in helping countries reduce poverty.

Economic growth has improved in many Bank client countries but a stronger focus on the nature of growth is needed to ensure that such growth leads to jobs for the poor and productivity increases in poorer regions and sectors where the poor earn their incomes.

Consistent use of a clearly articulated results chain helps ensure that Bank country assistance programs and individual projects set realistic objectives, that key cross-sectoral constraints to achieving them are adequately considered and that due attention is given to building capacity.
A realistic assessment of the political economy of governance-related reforms is needed to tailor efforts to increase the accountability of public sector institutions to local conditions.

An Opportunity for a Different PERU
Edited by Marcelo M. Giugale , John L. Newman , Vicente Fretes-Cibils
Price: $ 24.25
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English Paperback 856 pages 6 x 9
ISBN: 0-8213-6862-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-6862-6 SKU: 16862

For the first time in the republican history of Peru, the presidential transition takes place in democracy, social peace, fast economic growth and favorable world markets. In other words, there has never been a better chance to build a different Peru - a richer country, more equal and governable.

There are multiple ways to achieve that goal. New reforms must stem from a widespread and participatory debate, one of a common vision conceived for and by Peruvians. This book aims at making a technical and independent contribution to such debate; it summarizes the knowledge available about the challenges to be faced by the new administration.

The study does not recommend silver bullets, but suggests policy options. It is based on the analysis of the current reality and in six decades of relationships with Peru, in which the Bank has implemented more than 100 projects and prepared more than 500 technical reports covering the wide range of development topics. When necessary, the study provides lessons that the Bank has learned elsewhere.

The study provides a conceptual framework to the analysis of the country's 34 economic sectors and the two historical perspectives behind them. In doing so, it offers a comprehensive reform agenda that sheds light on possible priorities and courses of action.

World Development Report 2005: A Better Investment Climate for Everyone
by World Bank Price: $ 26.00
Available Immediately

English Paperback 288 pages 8.5 x 10
Published September 2004
ISBN: 0-8213-5682-8 SKU: 15682

“This year's World Development Report is among the most important the World Bank has ever produced. It is about how to make market economies work…This report succeeds in describing what is THE core agenda for development.”
—Martin Wolf, Financial Times, October 6, 2004

Firms and entrepreneurs of all types—from microenterprises to multinationals—play a central role in growth and poverty reduction. Their investment decisions drive job creation, the availability and affordability of goods and services for consumers, and the tax revenues governments can draw on to fund health, education, and other services.

The World Development Report 2005 argues that improving the investment climates of their societies should be a top priority for governments. Drawing on surveys of nearly 30,000 firms in 53 developing countries, country case studies, and other new research, the Report explores questions such as:

What are the key features of a good investment climate, and how do they influence growth and poverty?
What can governments do to improve their investment climates, and how can they go about tackling such a broad agenda?
What has been learned about good practice in each of the main areas of the investment climate?
What role might selective interventions and international arrangements play in improving the investment climate?
What can the international community do to help developing countries improve the investment climates of their societies?
In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Bank's new program of Investment Climate Surveys, the Bank's Doing Business Project, and World Development Indicators 2004—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.

Doing Business in 2005: Removing Obstacles to Growth
by World Bank Price: $ 35.00
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English Paperback 160 pages
Published September 2004 by Oxford University Press , World Bank ISBN: 0-8213-5748-4 SKU: 15748

"A splendid new report from the World Bank [...] is a mine of useful as well as disturbing information, and something of a handbook for how to put things right."
The Economist, September 2004

Doing Business in 2005: Removing Obstacles to Growth is the second in a series of annual reports investigating the scope and manner of regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. New quantitative indicators on business regulations and their enforcement can be compared across 145 countries—from Albania to Zimbabwe—and over time.

The previous report, Doing Business in 2004: Understanding Regulation, presented indicators in five main topics: starting a business, hiring and firing workers, enforcing contracts, getting credit and closing a business. Doing Business in 2005 updates these measures and adds another two sets: registering property and protecting investors. The indicators are used to analyze economic and social outcomes, such as productivity, investment, informality, corruption, unemployment, and poverty, and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.

In Doing Business in 2005, you will also find answers to such questions as: Which are the Top 10 reformer countries since last year? Which are the Top 20 economies for doing business? As well as which countries implemented more harmful regulations?

Doing Business is a comprehensive resource that no investor, policymaker, or economic advisor should be without.
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Expanding Opportunities and Building Competencies for Young People: A New Agenda for Secondary Education Price: $ 30.00
Available for Pre-order

English Paperback 328 pages 6 x 9
Published June 2005
ISBN: 0-8213-6170-8 SKU: 16170

In a global development community where gains and successes are always hard-won, providing youngsters with a dynamic education that takes them from primary through secondary to tertiary education and beyond and that helps spur economic growth is surely one of the best investments a country can make, especially when it applies equally to girls and boys. The challenges facing developing countries and transition economies are twofold: to increase access to secondary schooling for all young people and, at the same time, to improve the quality and relevance of secondary education. These challenges must be met in the complicating but also potentially enabling environment of globalization and the technology-based knowledge society.
Secondary education is the highway between primary schooling, tertiary education, and the labor market. Its ability to connect the different destinations and to take young people where they want to go in life is crucial. This highway can constrict the expansion of educational attainment and opportunity, or it can open up pathways for students’ advancement.

Expanding Opportunities and Building Competencies for Young People explores the key issues facing secondary education in the 21st century. Based on surveys of education specialists around the world, the “tries and true” elements of the policy framework presented here will assist decisionmakers in developing countries and transition economies as they make plans to expand, reform, and transform their secondary education systems.

Getting to Know the World Bank: A Guide for Young People
by World Bank Price: $ 10.00
Available Immediately

English Paperback 108 pages 7 x 10
Published June 2005
ISBN: 0-8213-5914-2 SKU: 15914

As a knowledge bank, the World Bank produces a wide and varied range of information tools, from project documents, country assistance strategies, and development reports to monographs, electronic databases, and web sites. Generally, these products cater to the needs of its international partners and stakeholders, such as other multilateral organizations, governments, and civil society to name a few. However a basic guide to the World Bank for young people cannot be found.
Getting to Know the World Bankserves an excellent starting point for young readers who want to learn more about the World Bank. A general, accessible introduction to the World Bank, this guide provides an overview of the Bank’s history, organization, mission, and purpose. It is a good reference tool for young people interested in understanding what the Bank does and how it operates. The guide features graphics and sidebar Q & As on a wide range on topics such as HIV/AIDS, education, and conflict prevention. It addresses such questions as: Why was the Bank founded? Where does it get its money? What are Millennium Development Goals? And what’s the difference between the Bank and the IMF?

Intellectual Property and Development: Lessons from Recent Economic Research
Edited by Keith E. Maskus , Carsten Fink Price: $ 25.00
Available Immediately

English Paperback 360 pages 6 x 9
Published January 2005
ISBN: 0-8213-5772-7 SKU: 15772

International policies towards protecting intellectual property rights have seen profound changes over the past two decades. Rules on how to protect patents, copyright, trademarks and other forms of intellectual property have become a standard component of international trade agreements. Most significantly, during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations (1986-94), members of what is today the World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which sets out minimum standards of protection that most of the world’s economies have to respect.
How will developing countries fare in this new international environment? This book brings together empirical research that assesses the effects of changing intellectual property regimes on various measures of economic and social performance—ranging from international trade, foreign investment and competition to innovation and access to new technologies. The studies presented point to an important development dimension to the protection of intellectual property. But a one-size fits all approach to intellectual property is unlikely to work. There is need to adjust intellectual property norms to domestic needs, taking into account developing countries’ capacity to innovate, technological needs, and institutional capabilities. In addition, governments need to consider a range of complementary policies to maximize the benefits and reduce the costs of reformed intellectual property regulations.

It will be of interest to students and scholars of international law, particularly in the area of intellectual property rights, international trade and public policy.

Judicial Systems in Transition Economies: Assessing the Past, Looking to the Future
by James Anderson , David Bernstein , Cheryl Gray Price: $ 20.00
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English Paperback 135 pages 7.5 x 9.25
Published June 2005
ISBN: 0-8213-6189-9 SKU: 16189

Judicial Systems in Transition Economies looks at the experience of countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltics (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as they reform their legal and judicial institutions to fit the needs of a market economy. The study shows, rather disturbingly, that less progress has been made in judicial reform than in most other areas of institutional reform in these countries.
The transition from socialism to capitalism requires a fundamental reorientation of legal and judicial institutions. This study reviews the environment preceding reforms, forces that provoked and supported them, and the reform agendas undertaken in these countries since 1990. Against this background, it exposes the impact of reforms, implementation gaps, and the underlying determinants of success and failure.

The report examines how courts have performed, and reveals their impact on public opinion and the business environment. It provides insight into linkages among reforms as well as linkages between reforms and public demand for a fair judiciary. The authors show that while each country presents different challenges and opportunities, certain lessons apply in most settings. Their insights and data would be useful to policy makers, judicial personnel, and those involved in reforming judiciaries.

The study draws on numerous data sources. These include the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD, the American Bar Association–Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA–CEELI), the World Values Survey, the World Economic Forum, and the University of Strathclyde.

Power, Rights, and Poverty: Concepts and Connections
Edited by Ruth Alsop Price: $ 20.00
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English Paperback 168 pages 6 x 9
Published June 2005
ISBN: 0-8213-6310-7 SKU: 16310

While the terms “power” and “rights” are increasingly incorporated into the language of development agencies they have yet to fully permeate the practice of poverty reduction. Acknowledging that this partly results from a lack of clarity over the concepts of power and rights and partly from questions of how to operationalize these ideas, the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development co-sponsored a series of short papers for focusing on enhancing understanding of the relationships between power, rights, and poverty reductions.
Following discussion during a two day working meeting, this publication brings together the edited papers, along with a selection of supplementary materials. A first series of papers addresses competing definitions and conceptual issues around power and rights, illustrating these with experiences observing and applying the concepts in practice in different countries. Following this, papers address topics aimed at helping development practitioners to apply these concepts to their work. Part II contains the supplemental materials, including a summary of the major theoretical conceptualizations of power, and an overview of the literature on power and rights. Prepared by leading thinkers on the topics of power and rights these materials offer both development professionals and students of development studies succinct summaries of the relationship between theory and practice.

Public Services Delivery
Edited by Anwar Shah Price: $ 35.00
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English Paperback 258 pages 6 x 9
Published June 2005
ISBN: 0-8213-6140-6 SKU: 16140

The globalization of information—satellite TV, internet, phone and fax—serve to enhance citizens’ awareness of their rights, obligations, options and alternatives and strengthens demands for greater accountability from the public sector. However, the power of accountability is significantly reduced if citizens are unable to measure their government’s performance in a meaningful way, which is precisely the topic of this timely book. The abstract concept of “government performance” can only be an effective tool in public debate when there are concrete statistics measuring performance and benchmarks against which current indicators can be compared.
Public Services Delivery offers a comprehensive view of government performance measurement. The first part examines systems or frameworks for measuring the performance of government at the national level and at local levels of government. The second part of the book focuses on particular sectors that form the core of essential government services: health, education, welfare, waste disposal, and infrastructure.

This book provides powerful tools to: a) development practitioners to evaluate projects, b) to policymakers to reform their government’s policies, and c) to public interest groups that wish to pressure their government for improvements in government services.

Remittances: Development Impact and Future Prospects
Edited by Samuel Munzele Maimbo , Dilip Ratha Price: $ 30.00
Available Immediately

English Paperback 398 pages 6 x 9
Published June 2005
ISBN: 0-8213-5794-8 SKU: 15794

An excellent examination of the global remittances policy agenda, Remittances: Development Impact and Future Prospects is a timely and exciting resource for academics, development institutions, central banks, and all policy makers in developed and developing countries.
Hernando de Soto
President, Institute for Liberty and Democracy

Re-mit-tance n. 1. The sending of money to someone at a distance. 2. The sum of money sent.

New research shows the astonishing scope of remittances, with formally documented flows now estimated at $90 billion for 2003. Globally, remittances now constitute the largest source of financial flows to developing countries after Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and indeed in many countries they now exceed FDI flows.

Remittances explores policy options for enhancing the poverty alleviation impact of remittance money in recipient countries, and addressees concerns about increasing migration and inequality. It looks at new technologies that allow remittance service providers to reduce direct transaction costs and open new channels, enhancing convenience for remitters and improving levels of transparency and accountability for regulators and policy makers.

Importantly, it also establishes a baseline for further research and collaborative effort, showing the areas where the international financial institutions, particularly the World Bank, can add value to enhance the positive impact of remittance flows and minimize less welcome effects.

Edited by Samuel Munzele Maimbo, who has already published authoritative articles on this subject, and Dilip Ratha, who first revealed the global significance of remittances, this book is intended for remittance service providers, as well as policy makers and researchers interested in financial sector, migration and development issues.

World Development Indicators 2005
by World Bank Price: $ 60.00
Available Immediately

English 440 pages
Published April 2005
ISBN: 0-8213-6071-X SKU: 16071

World Development Indicators, the World Bank's respected statistical publication presents the most current and accurate information on global development on both a national level and aggregated globally. This information allows readers to monitor the progress made toward meeting the goals endorsed by the United Nations and its member countries, the World Bank, and a host of partner organizations in September 2001 in their Millennium Development Goals. The print edition of World Development Indicators 2005 allows you to consult over 80 tables and over 800 indicators for 152 economies and 14 country groups, as well as basic indicators for a further 55 economies. There are key indicators for the latest year available, important regional data, and income group analysis. The report contains six thematic presentations of analytical commentary covering: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links.
The CD-ROM editions contain 43 years of time series data for more than 200 countries from 1960-2003, single-year observations, and spreadsheets on many topics. It contains more than 1,000 country tables and the text from the World Development Indicators 2005 print edition and the World Bank Atlas (36th edition). The Windows® based format permits users to search for and retrieve data in spreadsheet form, create maps and charts, and fully download them into other popular software programs for study or presentation purposes.