Pakistan has faced a seismic shift in
its global and domestic economic landscape which until
recently limited policy options to address investment
climate concerns. External shocks, internal policy inaction
and political turmoil placed the country in a precarious
economic condition, calling on the authorities to take a
hard look at the policy choices ahead. Macroeconomic
instability resulting in inflation, exchange rate

To facilitate air freight, landlocked
countries need to improve operations at their airports and
liberalize access for foreign airlines. But until those
countries become major exporters, it is unlikely that
scheduled air cargo operators will have significant
operations. Instead, most air cargo will move as belly cargo
on passenger airlines, with some complementary use of
chartered air freighters during shipment peaks. Landlocked

This book aims to help policy makers
take advantage of the opportunities presented by increased
cross-border trade in information technology (IT) services
and IT-enabled services (ITES). It begins by defining the
two industries and estimating the potential global market
opportunities for trade in each. Then it discusses economic
and other benefits for countries that succeed in these
areas, along with factors crucial to the competitiveness of

Over the past few decades, the World
trading system has become increasingly more open. Tariff
rates have been reduced and quantitative restrictions
(quotas) have been progressively eliminated, e.g. the
Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA). Most countries have adopted
more outward-looking economic policies, seeking to increase
growth and employment through expanding exports. Such
outward looking policies have even been adopted by countries

Urban Development Investment
Corporations (UDICs) have over the years become the central
pillar in the local government drive to build infrastructure
in China, where local governments are not allowed to engage
in direct market borrowing. UDICs were established during
the early 1990s when local governments were under great
pressure to both build municipal infrastructure and to
reform the role of the government in infrastructure

The air transport market in Sub-Saharan
Africa presents a strong dichotomy. In Southern and East
Africa the market is growing: three strong hubs and three
major African carriers dominate international and domestic
markets, which are becoming increasingly concentrated. In
contrast, in Central and West Africa the sector is
stagnating, with the vacuum created by the collapse of Cote
d'Ivoire and the demise of several regional airlines,

This paper documents the trends in
infrastructure in major Latin American economies over the
last quarter century. Drawing from an expanded and updated
data set, the paper sheds light on the region's
infrastructure performance along four major dimensions.
First, the paper documents the trends in the quantity of
Latin America's infrastructure assets, using a
comparative cross-regional perspective. Second, the paper

The world economic crisis of 2008
presents clear challenges to prospects for economic growth
in developing countries. This is particularly true for
emerging economies in East Asia that have relied to a great
extent over the past decade on export-led growth. What steps
to facilitate trade promise a relatively strong return on
investment for East Asia to help sustain trade and growth?
The authors examine how port infrastructure affects trade

The Annual Bank Conference on
Development Economics (ABCDE) is one of the best-known
conferences for the presentation and discussion of new
knowledge on development. It is an opportunity for many of
the world's finest development thinkers to present
their ideas. The papers in this volume were presented at the
ABCDE that was held on January 16-17, 2007, in Beijing,
China. Each year the topics selected for the conference

Discusses ways to enhance the incentives for elites to invest political capital in achieving (1) functional results through the formal public finance management (PFM) system; (2) the effectiveness of agencies responsible for services and regulating activities; and (3) better performance of civil service officials.

Should polio be eradicated worldwide, countries must decide whether to continue to
vaccinate with the live-attenuated vaccine, to continue to vaccinate with the alternative,
killed vaccine, or to cease vaccinating. To reap a dividend from polio eradication,
countries must choose the last option, but vaccination cessation entails interdependent
risks as well as rewards. This article models the polio vaccination cessation game,
deriving the conditions that support vaccination cessation as an equilibrium, describing

This country assistance evaluation
assesses the outcomes of the World Banks program in Nigeria
during the period 1998–2007. The Country Assistance
Evaluation focuses on the objectives of that assistance and
the extent to which outcomes were consistent with those
objectives. It looks at the Banks contribution to the
achievement of those outcomes and at the lessons for the
Banks future activities in Nigeria and in other countries.