World Bank Institute

About: World Bank Institute is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Government & Accountability. The organization has 77 authors who have published 166 publications receiving 23488 citations.

strengthening legislatures: some lessons from the pacific region

Abstract: There is universal agreement among development stakeholders that parliaments play a crucial role in enhancing good governance, economic growth, and development as well as the general quality of democracy. It follows from this fact that several international organizations (IOs) have embarked in activities that seek to strengthen legislative capacity. However, we note that there is a lack of consensus—among IOs and in key literature—on the right approach to strengthen parliaments. Consequently, IOs have been offering varying legislative-strengthening exercises that have inevitably produced significantly different and, at times, disappointing outcomes. Using a multicase study design that includes five Pacific countries, we show that to attain positive and significant outcomes, legislative capacity-building initiatives need to be country specific and informed by local needs assessment. We further reassert that no amount of legislative capacity-building effort can enhance parliamentary performance in the absence of local political will. Related Articles Nohlen, Dieter. 2009. “Constitutional Jurisdiction and the Consolidation of Democracy.” Politics & Policy 37 (1): 3-30. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2008.00159.x/abstract Legler, Thomas F. 2012. “The Shifting Sands of Regional Governance: The Case of Inter-American Democracy Promotion.” Politics & Policy 40 (5): 848-870. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2012.00382.x/abstract Pelizzo, Riccardo. 2008. “The Cartel Party and the Italian Case.” Politics & Policy 36 (3): 474-498. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2008.00117.x/abstract Related Media Data and Statistics: United Nations Development Program. 2011. http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home.html Hay un consenso entre los interesados en el desarrollo de que los legislativos juegan un papel crucial en la ampliacion del buen gobierno, el crecimiento economico y el desarrollo asi como de la general calidad de la democracia. Es por esta razon que varias Organizaciones Internacionales (OI) han asumido actividades que buscan fortalecer a los legislativos. Sin embargo notamos que no hay consenso entre las OI, sobre la forma correcta de fortalecer la capacidad legislativa. Consecuentemente, las OI han estado ofreciendo varios ejercicios de fortalecimiento, que inevitablemente han producido diferentes, cuando decepcionantes resultados. Con un diseno de multicasos de estudio de cinco naciones del pacifico demostramos que para obtener resultados positivos y significativos las iniciativas necesitan ser especificas y basadas en evaluaciones de necesidades. Concluimos que se require acompanar de voluntad politica cualquier esfuerzo de construccion de capacidades para que efectivamente se pueda mejorar el desempeno legislativo.

Economic Integration Among Taiwan, Hong Kong and China: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of economic integration among Taiwan, Hong Kong and China (CEA). A seven-region, seven-sector computable general equilibrium model for world production and trade is developed for this purpose. The simulation results demonstrate that the three Chinese economies would benefit greatly from further integration by means of liberalizing trade policies. The opportunity cost of isolating the United States from East Asia is high for both the US and the three Chinese economies, suggesting that an economically integrated CEA is in the long-term strategic interest of the United States.

Governance and the city: an empirical exploration into global determinants of urban performance

Abstract: The authors contribute to the field of urban governance and globalization through an empirically-based exploration of determinants of the performance of cities. They construct a preliminary worldwide database for cities, containing variables and indicators of globalization (at the country and city level), city governance, city performance (access and quality of infrastructure service delivery), as well as other relevant city characteristics. This city database, encompassing hundreds of cities worldwide, integrates existing data with new data gathered for this research. The findings suggest that good governance and globalization (at both the country and city level) do matter for city-level performance in terms of access and quality of delivery of infrastructure services. The authors also find that globalization and good city governance are significantly related with each other. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that there are complex interactions between technology choices, governance, and city performance, as well as evidence of a nonlinear (U-shaped) relationship between city size and performance, challenging the view that very large cities necessarily exhibit lower performance and pointing instead to potential agglomeration economies. The framework also suggests a way of bridging two seemingly competing strands of the literature, namely viewing the city as a place or as an outcome. The authors conclude by pointing to the need for expanding the database and the econometric framework, and suggest research directions and policy implications emerging from this initial investigation on governance and the city.

World Health Report 2000 "Financial fairness indicator": useful compass or crystal ball?

Abstract: The World Health Report 2000 generated a huge amount of controversy when it set out to rank the performance of national health systems using data, statistical measures, and an explanatory rationale that were neither well understood nor broadly accepted. This article demystifies the conceptual and empirical underpinnings of the report's "financial fairness index," which resulted in country rankings that often seem counterintuitive. The author concludes that the index is seriously flawed, that rankings produced by the index should not be used, and that future WHO reports should avoid imputing financial fairness scores for countries that do not have real data.