The main goal of this paper is to document and analyze the long-term evolution of inequality of opportunity and thus extend the recent empirical literature, which is mainly concerned with its measurement at a specific point in time.
... See More + Using repeated cross-section surveys for five European countries (France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Switzerland), the evolution of inequality of opportunity is measured for a period of about two decades for the whole populations, as well as for different birth cohorts. Relative inequality of opportunity represents an important portion of total income inequality, with values ranging from 30 to 50 percent according to the standard deviation of logs (and reaching a lower share in case of mean log deviation) and, for all the countries, it shows a stable or declining time trend. When the birth cohorts are followed across time, inequality of opportunity decreases with age: the effect of circumstances seems to weaken over the life cycle. This is a quite different age profile from that of inequality of outcomes (income or consumption), which generally increases with age. A decomposition of the relative inequality of opportunity allows highlighting some key drivers of its time evolution. In all the countries, there has been a clear enhancement of equality of educational opportunity (as captured by a downward trending intergenerational education persistence) and a reduction of the returns to education. However, for some countries, notably Italy, these trends have failed to translate into decreasing inequality of opportunity in the income distribution because of the increasing role of parental networking (an additional channel through which parental background affects the incomes of offspring).
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8700 JAN 15, 2019
Sixteenth in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 190 economies, Doing Business 2019 covers 11 areas of business regulation.
... See More + Ten of these areas - starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency - are included in the ease of doing business score and ease of doing business ranking. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in these two measures. Doing Business provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. This economy profile presents indicators for France; for 2019 France ranks 32.
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This report discusses the speech by the World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim at the One Planet Summit, Paris, France in December 2017. He informed to honored to co-host this summit with them, to focus on increasing finance and momentum between COP-23 and COP-24.
... See More + He begins his speech to thank the Government of France for continuing to strengthen the spirit that led to the Paris Agreement. He participated in the Climate Agora, a marketplace showcasing some new financing models and innovation for climate action. Multiple partners are bringing together deals with different kinds of finance in new policy and institutional environments. He share four deals.1) The first deal is with Energy Efficiency Services Limited, or EESL – a company that finances residential and public sector energy efficiency investments in India; 2) The second deal is on Indonesia Geothermal – a Resource Risk Mitigation Facility, established by the Government of Indonesia with support from the World Bank and other partners; 3) The third deal is with the new City Resilience Program – or CRP, where we’re partnering with the Global Covenant of Mayors to bring together the largest global alliance of cities committed to tackling climate change; and 4) The fourth deal is the West African Coastal Areas Management Program, or WACA, which targets 17 West African countries with the goal of crowding-in two billion dollars to tackle coastal erosion, flooding, and climate change adaptation. He ensured that the World Bank Group is continuing to transform its own operations in recognition of a rapidly changing world.
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Doing Business 2018 is the 15th in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.
... See More + This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for France. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies; for 2018 France ranks 31. Doing Business measures aspects of regulation affecting 11 areas of the life of a business. Ten of these areas are included in this year’s ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in this year’s ranking. Data in Doing Business 2018 are current as of June 1, 2017. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms of business regulation have worked, where, and why.
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Mosquito abatement is a public good. A simultaneous model of mosquito abundance and abatement response is developed. This paper uses data from a cluster randomized controlled experiment conducted over the period 2012-2014 in urban areas of Reunion in France to study the impact of WHO-recommended mechanical elimination techniques, which involve removing sources of stagnant water around the house, on a number of outcomes, including objective entomological indices and self-declared protective behaviors.
... See More + Empirical results document that households reduce their protective behavior in response to public control. This study holds implications for arboviral disease control, including Zika control.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7980 FEB 21, 2017
This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for France. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator.
... See More + Doing Business 2017 is the 14th in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2016 France ranks 29. Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labor market regulation. Doing Business 2017 presents the data for the labor market regulation indicators in an annex. The report does not present rankings of economies on labor market regulation indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2016 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January–December 2015).
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The portability of social benefits is gaining importance given the increasing share of individuals working at least part of their life outside their home country.
... See More + Bilateral social security agreements (BSSAs) are considered a crucial approach to establishing portability, but the functionality and effectiveness of these agreements have not yet been investigated; thus, importance guidance for policy makers in migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries is missing. To shed light on how BSSAs work in practice, this document is part of a series providing information and lessons from studies of portability in four diverse but comparable migration corridors: Austria-Turkey, Germany-Turkey, Belgium-Morocco, and France-Morocco. A summary policy paper draws broader conclusions and offers overarching policy recommendations. This report looks specifically into the working of the France-Morocco corridor. Findings suggest that the BSSA between France and Morocco is broadly working well, with only a few substantive issues in the area of pensions and the task of implementing access to health care for retired migrants under the new BSSA effective as of 2011. The pension issues cluster around access to survivor’s pensions in view of civil law differences of addressing divorces and repudiation and the non-exportability of minimum pension guarantees in line with European Union legislation and lacking reciprocity. Process issues around information provision in Morocco and automation of information exchange to speed up benefit processing are recognized.
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Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations.
... See More + It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labor market regulation. Doing Business 2016 presents the data for the labor market regulation indicators in an annex. The report does not present rankings of economies on labor market regulation indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business.This regional profile presents the Doing Business indicators for economies in The g7 . It also shows the regional average, the best performance globally for each indicator and data for the following comparator regions. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2015 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January–December 2014).
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This report records the remarks by World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim at the announcement of the Transformative Carbon Asset Facility. He spoke about how climate change is a fundamental threat to sustainable economic development and the fight against poverty.
... See More + He explained about the goal of the facility which is to help developing countries transition from planning to implementing mitigation policies using carbon pricing mechanisms, by providing payments for results and, in the process, help achieve their climate objectives. He also said that this facility is one of the new initiatives that the World Bank Group is announcing as a part of its commitment to actions by countries to avoid a two degree Celsius temperature rise.
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This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank. He discusses on the following topics: carbon pricing is critical for reducing emissions, preserving environment, and protecting the most vulnerable.
... See More + The world has made great progress on the carbon pricing agenda in a remarkably short period of time. Some 40 national governments and 23 cities, states, and regions are now putting a price on carbon.
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This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank. He discusses on the following topics: launch of the carbon pricing leadership coalition which includes 80 partners, including governments, the private sector, civil society, and multilateral partners; and help mobilize more business support and engage in constructive dialogues, country by country, about how to put in place successful pricing policies.
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This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank. He discusses on the following topics: based on scientific evidence, conference of the parties (COP) 21 needs to deliver strong climate action, both in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and boosting support for adaptation; addressing directly the justice issues that confront the impact of current levels of temperature rise on so many in Sub-Saharan Africa; and more support to Africa.
... See More + He concludes that the outcome of COP21 is critical for Africa: unless decisive climate action is agreed in Paris, climate variability and change will jeopardize Africa’s hard-won development achievements, and its aspirations for further growth and poverty reduction.
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This economy profile for Doing Business 2016 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for France. To allow for useful comparison, the profile also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator.
... See More + Doing Business 2016 is the 13th edition in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2015 France ranks 27. A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and over time. Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labor market regulation. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2015 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period from January to December 2014).
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Project greenback 2.0, remittances champion cities consists in identifying cities where a series of measures are implemented to foster the development of a sound remittance market.
... See More + The objective of the project is the promotion of transparency and competition in the market for remittances and, ultimately, the reduction of prices for remittance services. Montreuil, France is the second Remittances Champion City after Turin, Italy. This report presents the main results of the survey. It starts with an overview of migration from and remittances to the selected countries. It then presents the research objectives and describes both the survey design and sampling methodology as well as the challenges posed by the field work. It is followed by a presentation of the main findings of the survey, based on a total sample of 428 migrants. After a brief description of the socio-demographic characteristics of the surveyed migrants, the discussion focuses on their financial inclusion and their remittance behavior. The last part of the report provides concluding remarks on the policy options for private and public actions to promote the objectives of greenback 2.0.
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This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank. He discusses on economic policy that is the key to mobilizing a coordinated global response to climate change.
... See More + He talks about the need to confront climate change, without which there will be no hope of ending poverty or boosting shared prosperity. He adds that the longer the delay in tackling climate change, the higher the cost will be to do the right thing for our planet and our children. He affirms that from Paris they will make the rallying cry for effective management of local, national and global economies to fight climate change. He talks about Paris agreement that needs to speak as loudly of economic transformation as it does of pollution or carbon emissions targets. He speaks about carbon pricing that can raise revenues and can be used to generate more economic and social benefits. He insists on specific efforts that are needed to scale up renewable energy and develop carbon capture and sequestration technology, at a pace that will allow us to reach carbon neutrality by the end of the century. He concludes by saying that we need to drive our institution and all its capabilities interms of financial, technical and human to support this development transition toward the goal of preserving our planet for all future generations.
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In a context of rapid urbanization and energy transition, massive investments will be required to develop efficient public transport networks. Capturing the increase in land value caused by transport infrastructure (for example, through a betterment tax) appears a promising way to finance public transport.
... See More + However, it is no trivial task, as it is difficult to anticipate the rent creation. This paper uses a simple city model based on urban economic theory to compute the rent created by improvements in public transport infrastructure in Paris, France. To apply in places where models or data are not available, a reduced form of the model is shown to provide acceptable approximations of the rent creation. Simulations confirm that land value capture can finance a significant part of transport investments. The simulations also show that value capture potentials are influenced by what happens in the entire agglomeration. Simultaneous infrastructure investments in different parts of the city play a significant role, as they change overall accessibility patterns. Evolutions taking place in other cities also have a comparable influence. Non-local effects can change the total potential for land value capture and multiply this potential by as much as a factor of two.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7067 OCT 01, 2014
This economy profile for Doing Business 2015 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for France. To allow for useful comparison, the profile also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator.
... See More + Doing Business 2015 is the 12th edition in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2015 France ranks 31. A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and over time. Doing Business measures regulations affecting 11 areas of the life of a business known as indicators. Ten of these areas are included in this year's ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures labor market regulation, which is not included in this year's ranking. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2014 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period from January to December 2013).
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Situated in Western Europe, France is a high-income country with a gross national income (GNI) above $40,000 per capita. While the overall picture of health status is good, France contains apparent contradictions.
... See More + Life expectancy is overall better than in many European countries, but premature male deaths remain high due to accidents, smoking, and alcoholism. Social and geographic inequalities in health are substantial, to the disadvantage of the northern parts of metropolitan France and overseas departments and territories. The French system largely relies on Bismarckian-based Statutory Health Insurance (SHI), established after the Second World War. Universal coverage was fully achieved in 2000 when a new law (Universal Medical Coverage Act, or CMU by its French acronym) expanded coverage to noncontributory low-income groups. Financial sustainability of the model has been a recurrent concern over the last three decades. Recent shifts in the funding model and the introduction of spending targets and efficiency measures have injected some flexibility to the system.
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While universal health coverage (UHC) offers a powerful goal for a nation, all countries-irrespective of income are struggling with achieving or sustaining UHC.
... See More + France is a high-income country where HC is in effect universal. Health-related costs are covered by a mix of mandatory social health insurance (SHI) and private complementary schemes, while benefit packages are comprehensive, uniform, and of good quality. France provides some of the highest financial protection among countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Still, under pressure to sustain UHC without compromising equity of access, the system has been fine-tuned continually since inception. Much can be learned from France's experience in its reforms toward better fiscal sustainability, equity, and efficiency. The main purpose of the study is to assess major challenges that France has faced for sustaining UHC, and to share its experiences and lessons in addressing system bottlenecks to benefit less developed countries as they embark on the path to UHC.
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France's contributions to the World Bank Group (WBG) totaled United States (U.S.) 6,520.2 million dollars for fiscal years 2009-14. In the first six months of fiscal year 2014, France contributed U.S. 10.3 million dollars to International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA) trust funds (TFs), U.S. 418.4 million dollars to Financial Intermediary Funds (FIFs), and U.S. 1.3 million dollars to International Finance Corporation (IFC) TFs.
... See More + The number of active TFs at end of FY14 was 67, including 46 IBRD and IDA TFs, 15 FIFs, and 6 IFC TFs. France ranked 6th among development partners in terms of contributions to WBG TFs over fiscal years 2009-14. French contributions were received mainly from the ministry of foreign affairs, at 67 percent, the Agence Francaise de Developpement, at 13 percent, and the ministry of economy, finance, and industry, at 10 percent. This portfolio at a glance brief contains the following headings: WBG TFs receiving cash contributions; top WBG TF agreements (first two quarters of FY14); IBRD and IDA TF disbursements; and WBG TF portfolio comparisons.
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