This paper builds a tractable partial equilibrium model to help explain the role of trade preferences given to developing countries, as well as the efficacy of various subsidy policies.
... See More + The model allows for firm level heterogeneity in demand and productivity and lets the mass of firms that enter be endogenous. Trade preferences given by one country have positive spillovers on exports to others in this model. Preferences given by the European Union to Bangladesh in an industry raise profits, resulting in entry, and some of these firms also export to the United States. The parameters of the model are estimated using cross sectional customs data on Bangladeshi exports of apparel to the United States and European Union. Counterfactual experiments regarding the effects of reducing costs, both fixed and marginal, or of trade preferences offered by an importing country are performed. The counterfactuals show that reducing fixed costs at various levels has very different effects and suggest that such reductions are more effective in promoting exports when applied at later stages when firms are more committed to production. A subsidy of 1.5 million dollars to industry entry costs raises exports by only 0.4 dollars for every dollar spent, but when applied to fixed costs of production, it raises exports by $25 per dollar spent.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7156 JAN 01, 2015
Cherkashin, Ivan; Demidova, Svetlana; Kee, Hiau Looi; Krishna, Kala
This paper provides a detailed explanation how the law of the World Trade Organization regulates environmental subsidies with a focus on renewable energy subsidies.
... See More + The paper begins by discussing the economic justifications for such subsidies and the criticisms of them and then gives examples of categories of subsidies. The paper provides an overview of the relevant World Trade Organization rules and case law, including the recent Canada-Renewable Energy case. The paper also makes specific recommendations for how World Trade Organization law can be improved and discusses the literature on reform proposals. The study finds that because of a lack of clarity in World Trade Organizaion rules, for some clean energy subsidies, a government will not know in advance whether the subsidy is World Trade Organization-legal.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7060 OCT 01, 2014
This economy profile for Doing Business 2015 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for Canada. 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 Canada ranks 16. 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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This economy profile for Doing Business 2015 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for San Marino. 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 San Marino ranks 93. 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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This economy profile for Doing Business 2015 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for The United States. 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 The United States ranks 7. 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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Little research currently exists on a vulnerability line that distinguishes the poor population from the population that is not poor but that still faces significant risk of falling back into poverty.
... See More + This paper attempts to fill this gap by proposing vulnerability lines that can be straightforwardly estimated with panel or cross-sectional household survey data, in rich- and poor-country settings. These vulnerability lines offer a means to broaden traditional poverty analysis and can also assist with the identification of the middle class or resilient population groups. Empirical illustrations are provided using panel data from the United States (Panel Study of Income Dynamics) and Vietnam (Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey) for the period 2004-2008 and cross-sectional data from India (National Sample Survey) for the period 2004-2009. The estimation results indicate that in Vietnam and India during this time period, the population living in poverty and the middle class have been falling and expanding, respectively, while the opposite has been occurring in the United States.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6944 JUN 01, 2014
The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States exposed the use of remittance channels for financing terrorism. Acting on this, the international community, through the financial action task force (FATF), issued first international standard to require the licensing or registration of money transfer businesses (MTBs) and to make them subject to anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML and CFT) requirements.
... See More + This study aims to assess current practices, draw lessons learned, and assist policy makers in designing an effective regulatory and supervisory framework governing remittances that not only meets AML and CFT international standards, but also supports a country's overall financial inclusion objectives. The study's assessments and recommendations are based on extensive research and analysis, including primary survey data received from 26 remittance sending and receiving countries. The report follows on the 15 bilateral remittance corridor analyses (BRCAs) undertaken during 2004-10 by the financial market integrity (FMI) unit of the World Bank and three BRCAs undertaken by the Government of the Netherlands using the methodology developed by the FMI unit of the World Bank. The study is organized as follows: chapter one analyzes the various business models for remittance services currently in existence, and the various types of agent networks of MTBs available for the distribution of remittances. Chapter two elaborates on AML and CFT risks related to products, market structure, regulation, and supervision; discusses how innovative products and services for remittance transfers such as mobile money and internet-based money transfer may pose new threats and risks; and includes a discussion on the appropriate risk mitigation techniques so as not to constrain the remittance market from developing and innovating. Chapter three describes the various regulatory frameworks that MTBs encounter around the world, including different types of laws and regulations affecting them, sheds light on how AML and CFT requirements can be implemented, and provides a comprehensive analysis of customer due diligence (CDD) requirements as a crucial element to effectively fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Chapter four discusses licensing and registration regimes for, and appropriate regulatory approaches toward, MTBs; examines the conditions that must be fulfilled in order to apply for licensing or registration. Chapter five discusses the various AML and CFT supervisory models and identifies potential strengths and weaknesses in each of these models; elaborates on the supervisory practices of competent authorities, along with the challenges faced by MTBs in implementing relevant supervisory requirements; and discusses the risk-based approach (RBA) to supervision of MTBs. Finally, chapter six focuses on establishing an effective AML and CFT regime while supporting broader financial inclusion and highlights key policy recommendations underlined by a RBA that encourages flexible implementation of the AML and CFT framework.
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The trend toward ever greater urbanization continues unabated across the globe. According to the United Nations, by 2025 closes to 5 billion people will live in urban areas.
... See More + Many cities, especially in the developing world, are set to explode in size. Over the next decade and a half, Lagos is expected to increase its population 50 percent, to nearly 16 million. Naturally, there is an active debate on whether restricting the growth of megacities is desirable and whether doing so can make residents of those cities and their countries better off. When analyzing whether megacities have become too large, policy makers often analyze a single city in depth. But no city is an island: improving urban infrastructure in one city might attract migrants, and a negative shock in one location can be mitigated because people can move to another. Considering the general equilibrium effects of any such urban policy is thus key. That is, when deciding whether to make medium-size cities more attractive, policy makers need to understand how cities of all sizes will be affected. The second section briefly summarizes the theoretical framework and discusses which data are needed. The third section implements the methodology for the benchmark case of the United States. The fourth section does the same for China and Mexico and compares the findings. And the last section concludes. A technical online appendix guides the reader through a practical, step-by-step, discussion of how to do the analysis.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6872 MAY 01, 2014
Urbanization deserves urgent attention from policy makers, academics, entrepreneurs, and social reformers of all stripes. Nothing else will create as many opportunities for social and economic progress.
... See More + The urbanization project began roughly 1,000 years after the transition from the Pleistocene to the milder and more stable Holocene interglacial. In 2010, the urban population in developing countries stood at 2.5 billion. The developing world can accommodate the urban population growth and declining urban density in many ways. The most important citywide projects -- successes like New York and Shenzhen -- show even more clearly how influential human intention can be. The developing world can accommodate the urban population growth and declining urban density in many ways. One is to have a threefold increase in the average population of its existing cities and a six fold increase in their average built-out area. Another, which will leave the built-out area of existing cities unchanged, will be to develop 625 new cities of 10 million people -- 500 new cities to accommodate the net increase in the urban population and another 125 to accommodate the 1.25 billion people who will have to leave existing cities as average density falls by half.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6874 MAY 01, 2014
Using newly collected national and sub-national data, and historical case studies, this paper argues that differences in innovative capacity, captured by the density of engineers at the dawn of the Second Industrial Revolution, are important to explaining present income differences, and, in particular, the poor performance of Latin America relative to North America.
... See More + This remains the case after controlling for literacy, other higher order human capital, such as lawyers, as well as demand side elements that might be confounded with engineering. The analysis then finds that agglomeration, certain geographical fundamentals, and extractive institutions such as slavery affect innovative capacity. However, a large effect associated with being a Spanish colony remains suggesting important inherited factors.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6814 MAR 01, 2014
The note is based on an original work by Marcelino Madrigal and Steven Stoft entitled, "Transmission Expansion for Renewable Energy Scale-Up: Emerging Lessons and Recommendations".
... See More + Texas leads the United States with 9,528 MW of installed wind power capacity, a level exceeded by only four countries. The state needed more infrastructure to transmit electricity generated from renewable sources, but the regulator could not approve transmission expansion projects in the absence of financially committed generators. To solve the problem, Texas devised a planning process that quickly connects energy systems to the transmission system. The system is based on the designation of competitive renewable energy zones.
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Canada's contributions to the World Bank Group (WBG) totaled United States (U.S.) 5,797.6 million dollars for fiscal years 2009-14. In the first six months of fiscal year 2014, Canada contributed U.S. 13.3 million dollars to International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA) trust funds (TFs), U.S. 152.8 million dollars to Financial Intermediary Funds (FIFs), and U.S. 1.4 million dollars to International Finance Corporation (IFC) TFs.
... See More + The number of active TFs at end of FY14 was 132, including 93 IBRD and IDA TFs, 17 FIFs, and 22 IFC TFs. Canada ranked 5th among development partners in terms of contributions to WBG TFs over fiscal years 2009-14. Canadian contributions were received mainly from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), at 80 percent, and the department of finance, at 11 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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The United States (U.S.) of America's contributions to the World Bank Group (WBG) totaled U.S. 17,779.9 million dollars for fiscal years 2009-14.
... See More + In the first six months of fiscal year 2014, the U.S. contributed U.S. 239.0 million dollars to International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA) trust funds (TFs), U.S 1,259.9 million dollars to Financial Intermediary Funds (FIFs), and U.S. 6.6 million dollars to International Finance Corporation (IFC) TFs. The number of active TFs at end of FY14 was 69, including 44 IBRD and IDA TFs, 17 FIFs, and 8 IFC TFs. The U.S. ranked 1st among development partners in terms of contributions to WBG TFs over fiscal years 2009-14. U.S. contributions were received mainly from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), at 76 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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This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Canada. In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders.
... See More + This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 2012 through May 2013. The report is the 11th edition of the Doing Business series.
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This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for San Marino. In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders.
... See More + This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 2012 through May 2013. The report is the 11th edition of the Doing Business series.
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This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for United States. In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders.
... See More + This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 2012 through May 2013. The report is the 11th edition of the Doing Business series.
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This regional profile presents the Doing Business indicators for economies in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). It also shows the regional average, the best performance globally for each indicator and data for the following comparator regions: East Asia and the Pacific, European Union, Latin America, OECD High Income, and South Asia.
... See More + The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2013, except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January to December 2012. Regional Doing Business reports capture differences in business regulations and their enforcement across countries in a single region. They provide data on the ease of doing business, rank each location, and recommend reforms to improve performance in each of the indicator areas. The report 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 investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers. 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, over time. The data set covers 47 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 25 in East Asia and the Pacific, 25 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 20 in the Middle East and North Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 31 OECD high-income economies. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.
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This regional profile presents the Doing Business indicators for economies in OECD High Income. It also shows the regional average, the best performance globally for each indicator and data for the following comparator regions: European Union, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, South Asia, and Latin America.
... See More + The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2013, except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January to December 2012. Regional Doing Business reports capture differences in business regulations and their enforcement across countries in a single region. They provide data on the ease of doing business, rank each location, and recommend reforms to improve performance in each of the indicator areas. The report 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 investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers. 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, over time. The data set covers 47 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 25 in East Asia and the Pacific, 25 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 20 in the Middle East and North Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 31 OECD high-income economies. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.
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This paper investigates the adverse effects of oil price volatility on economic activity and the extent to which countries can hedge against such effects by using renewable energy.
... See More + By considering the Realized Volatility of oil prices, rather than following the standard approach of considering oil price shocks in levels, the effects of factor price uncertainty on economic activity are analyzed. Sample countries represent developed and developing, oil importing and exporting and service/industry-based economies (United States, Japan, Germany, South Korea, India, and Malaysia) and thus complement the standard literature's analysis of Western OECD countries. In a vector auto-regressive setting, Granger causality tests, impulse response functions, and variance decompositions show that oil price volatility has more-adverse effects in all sample countries than oil price shocks alone can explain. The paper finds that the sensitivity to oil price volatility varies widely across countries and discusses various factors which may determine the level of sensitivity (such as sectoral composition and the energy mix). This implies that the standard approach of solely considering net oil importer-exporter status is not sufficient. Simulations of volatility shocks in hypothetical energy mixes (with increased renewable shares) illustrate the potential economic benefits resulting from efforts to disconnect the macroeconomy from volatile commodity markets. It is concluded that expanding renewable energy can in principle reduce an economy's vulnerability to oil price volatility, but a country-specific analysis would be necessary to identify concrete policy measures. Overall, the paper provides an additional rationale for reducing exposure and vulnerability to oil price volatility for the sake of economic growth.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6603 SEP 01, 2013
This study provides empirical evidence on the strengthening of the impact of house prices on the US macroeconomy. The stability of the house prices macro-link is tested in a small-dimensional vector autoregressive model over the last fifty years.
... See More + The estimated break-points are used to split the sample into different segments and a multivariate time series analysis is performed within subsamples. The paper finds a robust structural break in the mid-1980s. In addition, time series analysis across segments provides evidence that the effect of house prices, not only on private consumption, but also on economic activity, has intensified since the mid-1980s.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6549 JUL 01, 2013