This study combines macro and micro data to quantify the revenue effects of double tax treaties. First, drawing on administrative information, the study estimates the tax sensitivity of income flows (dividend, interest, and royalty payments) at an aggregate level.
... See More + The analysis finds important direct revenue costs linked to treaty restrictions on taxing rights, especially for flows into a few major investment hubs. However, high elasticities of income flows also suggest that increases in withholding rates at the individual treaty partner level would not necessarily result in more revenue collection. Second, the study uses firm-level information to estimate the sensitivity of reported profitability to changes in the relevant treaty network. The analysis of the reported earnings of multinational enterprise affiliates in Ukraine suggests that the ownership structure and operations with affiliates in certain jurisdictions explain reported profitability, and should thus receive increased attention in risk assessment and transfer pricing audit activities.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7982 FEB 27, 2017
Climate-driven water variability is a natural phenomenon observed across river basins, but predicted to increase due to climate change. Environmental change of this kind may aggravate political tensions, especially in regions that are not equipped with an appropriate institutional apparatus.
... See More + This paper argues that attempts to assess the ability of states to deal with variability in the future rests with considering how river basins with agreements have fared in the past. The paper investigates whether basins governed by treaties witness less tension (and by extension more cooperation) over shared water in comparison with those basins not governed by treaties, using the 1948-2008 country dyads event data from the Basins at Risk project. The results provide evidence to suggest that the presence of a treaty promotes cooperation. Furthermore, the number of agreements between riparian countries has a significant positive effect on cooperation, which is robust across different specifications controlling for a broad set of climatic, geographic, political, and economic variables.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7855 OCT 11, 2016
Dinar,Shlomi; Katz,David; De Stefano,Lucia; Blankespoor,BrianDisclosed
This is the second edition of the 2003 paper entitled "Facilitation of transport and trade in Sub-Saharan Africa : a review of international legal instruments - Treaties, conventions, protocols, decisions, directives."
... See More + Three major reasons motivated this update and an expansion of its scope. First, African countries are increasingly cooperating, especially in the area of corridors, to achieve full connectivity, mobility and accessibility. To that end, they are concluding new agreements and conventions. Second, this new edition has been extended to the whole of the African continent, including the Maghreb, which was not in the previous inventory. Third, air transport and associated agreements and conventions were added at the request of countries. Indeed, the future of air transport in Africa is bright. It is likely that it becomes an affordable mode of transport to reach remote areas.
Road freight transport is indispensable to international economic cooperation and foreign trade. Across all continents, it is commonly used for short and medium distances and in long distance haulage when minimizing time is important.
... See More + In all instances governments play a critical role in ensuring the competitive advantage of private sector operators. Countries often have many opportunities to minimize the physical or administrative barriers that increase costs, take measures to enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of road transport, or generally nurture the integral role of international road freight transport in the global trade logistics industry. Road freight transport is critical to domestic and international trade. It is the dominant mode of transport for overland movement of trade traffic, carrying more than 80 percent of traffic in most regions. Generally, nearly all trade traffic is carried by road at some point. Therefore, the cost and quality of road transport services is of critical importance to trade competitiveness of countries and regions within countries. In fact, road transport is fundamental to modern international division of labor and supply-chain management.
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The supply of nurses in the English-Speaking Caribbean is insufficient to meet the demand with growing shortages fuelled by the health needs of a rapidly aging population and tremendous losses of human capital occurring at multiple points in the markets.
... See More + In defining the scope of commitments of a regional legal agreement, English-Speaking Caribbean Community (ES CARICOM) states will have to ascertain whether states would commit to actions to strengthen the nurse workforce or the health workforce more broadly. While the challenges of strengthening the nurse workforce have been systematically assessed, information about other groups of health professionals remains patchy. In 2008, at the request of the Ministers of Health, the World Bank initiated a stream of work to strengthen the nurse workforce in the English-speaking Caribbean. The study estimated the stock of nurses in the ES CARICOM at approximately 7,800 in 2007 with growing shortages under existing policies at 3,400 in 2007 increasing to 10,700 nurses in 2025 due to the health needs of a rapidly aging population. There are two types of international legal instruments: legally binding instruments or treaties; and non-legally binding instruments.
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City Development Strategy (CDS) 62282 JAN 01, 2012
The supply of nurses in the English-Speaking Caribbean is insufficient to meet the demand with growing shortages fuelled by the health needs of a rapidly aging population and tremendous losses of human capital occurring at multiple points in the markets.
... See More + In defining the scope of commitments of a regional legal agreement, English-Speaking Caribbean Community (ES CARICOM) states will have to ascertain whether states would commit to actions to strengthen the nurse workforce or the health workforce more broadly. While the challenges of strengthening the nurse workforce have been systematically assessed, information about other groups of health professionals remains patchy. In 2008, at the request of the Ministers of Health, the World Bank initiated a stream of work to strengthen the nurse workforce in the English-speaking Caribbean. The study estimated the stock of nurses in the ES CARICOM at approximately 7,800 in 2007 with growing shortages under existing policies at 3,400 in 2007 increasing to 10,700 nurses in 2025 due to the health needs of a rapidly aging population. There are two types of international legal instruments: legally binding instruments or treaties; and non-legally binding instruments.
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For the purposes of this book, "open skies" refers to a bilateral or multilateral air service agreement that liberalizes the rules for international aviation markets and minimizes government intervention.
... See More + It can apply to passenger or cargo services or both, for both scheduled and charter air services. This book evaluates Africa's progress toward liberalizing air services. It specifically examines what the term implementation means in the context of applying the principles of one of the major pan-African multilateral agreements, the Yamoussoukro decision. It also highlights the shortcomings of the 20-year-old effort toward liberalizing air services in Africa by analyzing pending or completed implementation steps both on a pan-Africa level and within various regions. The book focuses on the challenges posed by the poor aviation safety and security standards in most African countries. Finally the sector work measures the impact of certain policy steps of the decision and evaluates the economic significance of air transportation and its full liberalization in Africa. It concludes with policy recommendations that aim at completing implementation to fully liberalize Africa's air services.
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The study presented in this report aims to increase our understanding of the global distribution of treaty and River Basin Organization (RBO) mechanisms that may confer resilience to variability in the hydrological regime and how that distribution aligns with current and anticipated regimes.
... See More + Some basins will experience greater changes in hydrologic variability regimes than others, and we specifically seek to identify country-basin combinations with greater exposure to variability and few or no treaty/RBO provisions to manage the transboundary impacts of that variability. To do this, we assessed all available international water treaties for specific treaty mechanisms, mapped the spatial distribution of these mechanisms and RBOs, and compared it to both the current variability regime and projections of future variability regimes driven by climate change. We then identified specific basins that may merit further study in light of their potential risk of future hydropolitical stress. By identifying these areas at the global scale, we can contribute to efforts aimed at anticipating future challenges in transboundary water management and suggesting specific measures to adapt existing or new water agreements to the effects of climate change.
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Water & Sanitation Discussion Paper 56051 MAY 01, 2010
Little evidence is available on whether changing global rules so as to promote human rights can enhance development outcomes. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was almost universally ratified by the mid-1990s, but it is unclear whether treaty ratification was associated with better or wider protection of childrens rights.
... See More + This paper uses an instrumental variable approach to investigate whether treaty ratification was associated with stronger effort at the country level on child survival, and particularly with higher rates of immunization coverage. The paper finds that ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child was correlated with a subsequent increase in immunization rates, but only in upper middle and high-income countries. Treaties can promote development outcomes, but require institutional support to do so.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS4964 JUN 01, 2009
