Institution
World Bank
Other•Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States•
About: World Bank is a other organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poverty. The organization has 7813 authors who have published 21594 publications receiving 1198361 citations. The organization is also known as: World Bank, WB & The World Bank.
Topics: Population, Poverty, Developing country, Free trade, Productivity
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
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TL;DR: This article analyzed the tensions and opportunities of micro finance as it embraces the market, drawing on a data set that includes 346 of the world's leading micro-finance institutions and covers nearly 18 million active borrowers, finding that profit-maximizing investors would have limited interest in most of the institutions that are focusing on the poorest customers and women.
Abstract: Microfinance institutions have proved the possibility of providing reliable banking services to poor customers. Their second aim is to do so in a commercially-viable way. This paper analyzes the tensions and opportunities of microfinance as it embraces the market, drawing on a data set that includes 346 of the world's leading microfinance institutions and covers nearly 18 million active borrowers. The data show remarkable successes in maintaining high rates of loan repayment, but the data also suggest that profit-maximizing investors would have limited interest in most of the institutions that are focusing on the poorest customers and women. Those institutions, as a group, charge their customers the highest fees in the sample but also face particularly high transaction costs, in part due to small transaction sizes. Innovations to overcome the well-known problems of asymmetric information in financial markets were a triumph, but further innovation is needed to overcome the challenges of high costs.
388 citations
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TL;DR: Since its publication in 1993, the World Bank's World Development Report, Investing in Health, has been subjected to much criticism, particularly over the way it proposes to measure the health losses summarized in the concept of the 'burden of disease', and to establish priorities for health interventions according to the reduction in mortality and disability they could produce and what they would cost.
Abstract: Since its publication in 1993, the World Bank's World Development Report, Investing in Health, has been subjected to much criticism, particularly over the way it proposes to measure the health losses summarized in the concept of the 'burden of disease', and to establish priorities for health interventions according to the reduction in mortality and disability they could produce and what they would cost. Some of these criticisms are justified, and are recognized by the WDR; others arise from misunderstanding or misapplication of the concepts. Sifting these criticisms to arrive at a better understanding requires looking at what kind of analysis is involved, how the subjective elements of the exercise were determined, and how they can be used to choose which interventions deserve priority when a country cannot meet all its citizens' health needs.
388 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the dynamics of this new configuration through the case study of sustainability initiatives in the coffee sector and address four questions: (1) are these standards effective in communicating information and creating new markets? (2) To what extent do they embed elements of collective and private interests? (3) Is sustainability content actually delivered to their intended beneficiaries? (4) What is the role of public policy in addressing their shortcomings?
387 citations
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TL;DR: Examination of public spending on curative health care in several African countries finds that this spending favours mostly the better-off rather than the poor, and concludes that this targeting problem cannot be solved simply by adjusting the subsidy allocations.
Abstract: Health care is a basic service essential in any effort to combat poverty, and is often subsidized with public funds to help achieve that aim. This paper examines public spending on curative health care in several African countries and finds that this spending favours mostly the better-off rather than the poor. It concludes that this targeting problem cannot be solved simply by adjusting the subsidy allocations. The constraints that prevent the poor from taking advantage of these services must also be addressed if the public subsidies are to be effective in reaching the poor.
387 citations
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TL;DR: The authors found that spiteful preferences -the desire to reduce another's material payoff for the mere purpose of increasing one's relative payoff -are surprisingly widespread in experiments conducted in one of the least developed regions in India (Uttar Pradesh).
Abstract: In a wide variety of settings, spiteful preferences would constitute an obstacle to cooperation, trade, and thus economic development. This paper shows that spiteful preferences - the desire to reduce another's material payoff for the mere purpose of increasing one's relative payoff - are surprisingly widespread in experiments conducted in one of the least developed regions in India (Uttar Pradesh). In a one-shot trust game, the authors find that a large majority of subjects punish cooperative behavior although such punishment clearly increases inequality and decreases the payoffs of both subjects. In experiments to study coordination and to measure social preferences, the findings reveal empirical patterns suggesting that the willingness to reduce another's material payoff - either for the sake of achieving more equality or for the sake of being ahead - is stronger among individuals belonging to high castes than among those belonging to low castes. Because extreme social hierarchies are typically accompanied by a culture that stresses status-seeking, it is plausible that the observed social preference patterns are at least partly shaped by this culture. Thus, an exciting question for future research is the extent to which different institutions and cultures produce preferences that are conducive or detrimental to economic development.
387 citations
Authors
Showing all 7881 results
Name | H-index | Papers | Citations |
---|---|---|---|
Joseph E. Stiglitz | 164 | 1142 | 152469 |
Barry M. Popkin | 157 | 751 | 90453 |
Dan J. Stein | 142 | 1727 | 132718 |
Asli Demirguc-Kunt | 137 | 429 | 78166 |
Elinor Ostrom | 126 | 430 | 104959 |
David Scott | 124 | 1561 | 82554 |
Ross Levine | 122 | 398 | 108067 |
Barry Eichengreen | 116 | 949 | 51073 |
Martin Ravallion | 115 | 570 | 55380 |
Kenneth H. Mayer | 115 | 1351 | 64698 |
Angus Deaton | 110 | 363 | 66325 |
Timothy Besley | 103 | 368 | 45988 |
Lawrence H. Summers | 102 | 285 | 58555 |
Shang-Jin Wei | 101 | 415 | 39112 |
Thorsten Beck | 99 | 373 | 62708 |