Development Policy

World Bank Publications

Development Policy

Featured Titles

Featured Series UNDERSTANDING POLICY CHANGE

How to Apply Political Economy Concepts in Practice

By Cristina Corduneanu-Huci, Alexander Hamilton, and Issel Masses Ferrer Nov 2012 380 pages 978-0-8213-9538-7 Paperback $39.95

A GUIDE TO ASSESSING NEEDS Essential Tools for Collecting Information, Making Decisions, and Achieving Development Results Building Resilience for a Changing World

By Ryan Watkins, Maurya West Meiers, and Yusra Visser Feb 2012 316 pages 978-0-8213-8868-6 Paperback $40.00

This book provides the reader with the full panoply of political economy tools and concepts necessary to understand, analyze, and integrate how political and social factors may influence the success or failure of their policy goals. Starting with the empirical puzzle of why corruption, rent seeking, and a lack of good governance emerge and persist in a host of countries and sectors the book reviews how collective action problems and the role of institutions, as well as a host of ancillary political economy concepts can affect the feasibility of different projects.

This book will benefit people and teams involved in planning and decision making. On the basis of their pragmatic value in guiding decisions, needs assessments are used in various professions and settings from emergency rooms to corporate boardrooms to guide decision making. Nonetheless, although needs assessments have many different applications, in this book on needs assessments as they are applied in organizations to accomplish results, as opposed to their use in personal decisions or medical triage. This book, in turn, is guide to assessing needs and then making essential decisions about what to do next.

BUILDING BETTER POLICIES

FRONTIERS IN DEVELOPMENT POLICY

The Nuts and Bolts of Monitoring and Evaluation Systems

Edited by Gladys Lopez-Acevedo, Philipp Krause, and Keith Mackay Apr 2012 248 pages 978-0-8213-8777-1 Paperback $25.00

Governments around the world face ongoing pressures from citizens to provide more and better services, and to do this under a tight fiscal environment.

This provides the context for government efforts to ensure their policies and programs are as effective, and as efficient, as possible. An emphasis on government performance has led a number of governments to create formal systems for monitoring and evaluating (M&E) their performance on a regular, planned, and systematic basis with the objective of improving it. The focus of this book is on these government M&E systems: what they comprise, how they are built and managed, and how they can be used to improve government performance.

2013

A Primer on Emerging Issues

UNTIL DEBT DO US PART Subnational Debt, Insolvency, and Markets

NEW

Edited by Otaviano Canuto and Lili Liu Feb 2013 648 pages 978-0-8213-9766-4 Paperback $49.95

Subnational debt crises have reoccurred in both developed and developing countries.

Restructuring debt and ensuring its sustainability confront moral hazard and fiscal incentives in a multilevel government system; individual subnational governments might free-ride common resources, and public officials at all levels might shift the cost of excessive borrowing to future generations. This book brings together the reform experiences of emerging economies and developed countries. Written by leading practitioners and experts in public finance in the context of multilevel government systems, the book examines the interaction of markets, regulators, subnational borrowers, creditors, national governments, taxpayers, ex-ante rules, and ex-post insolvency systems in the quest for subnational fiscal discipline.

IS FISCAL POLICY THE ANSWER?

By Raj Nallari, Shahid Yusuf, Breda Griffith, and Rwitwika Bhattacharya

A Developing Country Perspective

Jul 2011 312 pages 978-0-8213-8785-6 Paperback $30.00

Nov 2012 260 pages 978-0-8213-9630 Paperback $34.95

The global crisis of 2008-09 has brought to the forefront a plethora of economic and political policy issues. There is a re-opening of discussion on basic economic concepts, appropriate framework for analysis, role of private and public sectors in the economy, structural transformation of economies, human development and managing of growing risks and crises.

The purpose of this book has been to bring home the inter-linkages in various parts of the economy and the need for practical policy making to reach development goals while being aware of the instabilities, complexities and downside risks inherent in the nature of a an economy operating in a globalized world. Ultimately the book looks to foster discussion amongst policy makers on growth and development.

Edited by Blanca Moreno-Dodson

This book aims to improve our understanding of the challenges and possible innovative solutions in implementing fiscal policy for growth and welfare purposes. It takes into account that crises do occur and will continue occurring, affecting previous growth and inequality paths. The authors present an analysis of some of the trade offs and policy choices that developing countries face, in light of the recent crisis. From expenditure composition to benefit incidence analysis, and through the difficulties of improving public investment management, they consider a whole range of methodological advances and new practices that could enlighten practitioners in designing fiscal policy packages appropriate to the reality of their own countries.

Bestsellers NEW STRUCTURAL ECONOMICS A Framework for Rethinking Development and Policy

By Justin Yifu Lin Jan 2012 384 pages 978-0-8213-8955-3 Paperback $39.95

This book provides a neoclassical approach for studying the determinants of economic structure and its transformation and draws new insights for development policy. The market is the basic mechanism for effective resource allocation at each level of development. However, economic development as a dynamic process entails structural changes, including industrial upgrading and diversification and corresponding improvements in hard and soft infrastructure. Such upgrading and improvements require coordination and go hand in hand with large externalities to firms’ transaction costs and returns to capital investment. Thus, in addition to an effective market mechanism, the government should play an active role in facilitating structural changes. The book provides empirical evidence in support of this framework as well as concrete advice to development practitioners.

ASCENT AFTER DECLINE

Regrowing Global Economies after the Great Recession Edited by Otaviano Canuto and Danny M. Leipziger

Jan 2012 318 pages 978-0-8213-8942-3 Paperback $39.95

This volume combines the analyses of leading experts on the various elements affecting economic growth and the policies required to spur that growth. Ascent after Decline: Regrowing Global Economies after the Great Recession identifies the main challenges to the economic recovery, such as rising debt levels, reduced trade prospects, and global imbalances, as well as the obstacles to growth posed by fiscal conundrums and lagging infrastructure. It also examines the way forward, beginning with the role of the state and then covering labor markets, information technology, and innovation. The volume is intended to shed light on those areas of policy that reduce the prospects of a prolonged period of stress and decline by ‘regrowing growth.’

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW A Handbook on the Future of Economic Policy in the Developing World

Edited by Otaviano Canuto and Marcelo M. Giugale Sep 2010 464 pages 978-0-8213-8498-5 Paperback $35.00

The global financial crisis of 2008­-09 changed not only the global economic order, but also the way we think about that order. Principles and practices that were once accepted wisdom are now in doubt or discredited.

New and fundamental questions have opened. And the search for answers has barely begun. For the countries of the developing world, this conceptual uncertainty is particularly uncomfortable--through a combination of good policies and good luck, they had begun to achieve real progress. Will all that now be derailed? What does the new horizon hold for them? Can they find new policy ideas that will turn the shock of the crisis into a final run toward “developed” status? How does the future look when seen from various geographic regions? These are the kind of questions that we asked a group of our colleagues at the World Bank. This book is an unfiltered collection of their views.

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION Economic Development & Policy

Edited by Maurice Schiff and Çağlar Özden Trade and Development

Jun 2007 320 pages 978-0-8213-6935-7 Paperback $39.95

This volume reflects the expansion of the World Bank Research Program on International Migration and Development into new substantive and geographic areas. It presents a new global migration database and includes studies of the determinants and impact of return and circular migration, the impact of the flow of ideas on fertility, host country policies and their impact on immigrants, and the impact of international migration and remittances on poverty and other development indicators. The purpose of the case studies is to illustrate and clarify many theoretical mechanisms and to advance understanding of the impact of different migration policies, given that introducing policy variables in econometric regressions is generally difficult.

INNOVATION POLICY

A Guide for Developing Countries

May 2010 432 pages 978-0-8213-8269-1 Paperback $35.00

Aiming at creating a climate in which innovative initiatives can flourish and multiply, innovation policy, by its very nature, touches such diverse policy areas as education and training, skills development, science and research, the business environment, information and communication technology, and other infrastructure. This guidebook adopts a holistic perspective and presents in detail the actions required in such a varied set of policy areas, which typically work in silos. It also offers insights into the implementation of innovation policies in the difficult contexts of low- and medium-income countries characterized by the resistance of innovation systems to significant improvements. Innovation Policy: A Guide for Developing Countries is geared toward the policymaking community.

IMPACT EVALUATION IN PRACTICE

By Paul J. Gertler, Sebastian Martinez, Patrick Premand, Laura B. Rawlings, and Christel M. J. Vermeersch World Bank Training Series

Dec 2010 264 pages 978-0-8213-8541-8 Paperback $39.95

This book is a practical guide to designing and implementing impact evaluations. It is a unique resource since it combines an accessible overview of impact evaluation methods with a detailed discussion of practical implementation aspects. The book is written in non-technical language. It will appeal to policymakers who consume the information generated from impact evaluations, project managers who commission evaluations, technicians who design and implement impact evaluations as well as development practitioners or students interested in impact evaluation techniques and their application to development.

To Order: World Bank Publications • www.worldbank.org/publications • By phone: +1-703-661-1580 or 800-645-7247 By fax: +1-703-661-1501 • By mail: P.O. Box 960, Herndon, VA 20172-0960, USA • Questions? E-mail us at books@worldbank.org

Available at Better Bookstores