World Bank

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.

The Process of Socialist Economic Transformation

Abstract: In this paper, we consider the reform process in those Central and East European countries that have made the decision to move from a more-or a less-planned socialist system to a private market economy, one in which private ownership predominates and most resources are allocated through markets. Because the reform process is both complex and intertwined with political factors—especially the shift towards representative democracy—and because there are substantial differences among the reforming countries, no single detailed road map can guide the way to the new systems. Rather, the paper sets out general considerations that provide a framework for reform and relates the choices to some initial conditions of the various reforming countries. (The framework applies also to the Soviet Union, or in the event of its disintegration, to its successor states as they move to market systems.)

Legal Institutions and Financial Development

Abstract: A burgeoning literature finds that financial development exerts a first-order impact on long-run economic growth, which raises critical questions, such as why do some countries have well-developed growth-enhancing financial systems while others do not? The law and finance theory focuses on the role of legal institutions in explaining international differences in financial development. First, the law and finance theory holds that in countries where legal systems enforce private property rights, support private contractual arrangements, and protect the legal rights of investors, savers are more willing to finance firms and financial markets flourish. Second, the different legal traditions that emerged in Europe over previous centuries and were spread internationally through conquest, colonization, and imitation help explain cross-country differences in investor protection, the contracting environment, and financial development today. But there are countervailing theories and evidence that challenge both parts of the law and finance theory. Many argue that there is more variation within than across legal origin families. Others question the central role of legal tradition and point to politics, religious orientation, or geography as the dominating factor driving financial development. Finally, some researchers question the central role of legal institutions and argue that other factors, such as a competitive products market, social capital, and informal rules are also important for financial development. Beck and Levine describe the law and finance theory, along with skeptical and competing views, and review empirical evidence on both parts of the law and finance view.

Estimating the benefit incidence of an antipoverty program by propensity score matching

Abstract: This brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study, entitled Estimating the benefit incidence of an antipoverty program by propensity score matching, conducted between 1997 and 1998, in Argentina. The study observed that the average direct gain to the participant is found to be about half the gross wage. Over half of the beneficiaries are in the poorest decile nationally, and 80 percent are in the poorest quintile. The Propensity Score Matching (PSM) estimator is reasonably robust to a number of changes in methodology. Participants are more likely to be poor than non-participants. Participants are less well-educated, live in poorer neighborhoods and are more likely to be members of neighborhood associations and political parties. Average gains are similar between men and women, but are higher for younger workers. Funding for the study derives from the World Bank Research Committee.

Access to Markets and the Benefits of Rural Roads

Abstract: Transport infrastructure plays a central role in rural development, yet little is known about the size - or, especially, the distribution - of benefits from road investments. Among other benefits, rural roads provide cheaper access to both markets for agricultural output and for modern inputs. The author develops and implements a method for nonparametrically estimating the benefits from road projects at the household level. The idea is that since these benefits get capitalized in land values, they can be estimated by examining how the value of farmland falls with distance from agricultural markets. Household-level benefits from hypothetical road projects are calculated from the predicted appreciation in value of the household's farmland. These predicted benefits are then related to household per-capita expenditures to assess their distributional consequences. The empirical analysis, using data from Nepal, shows large benefits from extending roads into remote rural areas, much of these gains going to poorer households. But rural road construction is not the magic bullet for poverty alleviation. The benefits are neither large enough nor targeted well enough to reduce income inequality appreciably.