Directions in Development - Public Sector Governance – serie

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are an accelerator in closing the "accountability gap" for more open and collaborative governance.

Public resources - if invested well in public infrastructure and services - can catalyze private and community efforts and unleash an inclusive growth and development process. But public investment attracts political interest, usually of the kind that undermines efficiency. Too often public projects are poorly designed, under-funded, long-delayed, or badly implemented, with little benefit to the population. This is a critical challenge for many countries, both rich and poor. Paradoxically, some countries are even unable to spend their limited investment budgets while others lack “shovel ready” projects for a fiscal stimulus. The quality of institutions is fundamental. This book identifies eight key institutional features that countries need to adopt to ensure that public investments support growth and development. Very broadly, the eight stages correspond to a disciplined system for guiding, appraising, reviewing and selecting projects that are most likely to stimulate inclusive development, and following through to ensure that they are implemented, adjusted, operated and evaluated to deliver the public services that citizens and the private sector expect. A review of over 30 countries suggests that these eight features are present in all countries that manage resources efficiently but most countries are missing key features. Not surprisingly, those weaknesses contribute to poor investment and development outcomes. Strengthening institutions for public investment management is critical to developmental success.This book provides a clear, non-technical discussion on approaches to improving project appraisal, dealing with uncertainty (an issue that is likely to grow in importance with the effects of climate change), integrating procurement skills into project design and implementation, and of managing the decision on public private partnerships. By providing a simple but comprehensive framework and global experience, the book provides policy makers the guidance to adopt good functional principles in the design of institutions to strengthen public investment management.

Looking at the economic growth of seemingly similar countries one can find striking differences. Why has Australia gotten so much ahead of New Zealand, in spite of the latter being held up as a paragon of free market reform? How is it possible that Austria, with its persistently oversized state enterprise sector, has managed to (nearly) catch up with Switzerland? How can we account for the differences in economic growth between Estonia and Slovenia, and which of these two countries has been more successful at systemic transformation? Why is Mexico so much poorer than Spain, despite having been wealthier all the way into the 1960s? Why has Venezuela, which in 1950 had a per capita income higher than that of Norway and remains a major exporter of oil, slipped behind Chile? Why is Costa Rica lagging behind Puerto Rico, even though in the 1970s the U.S. territory's fast development slowed to a crawl and is now far below other comparable island economies? Why has 'communist' China outstripped 'capitalist' India? Why has Pakistan's growth lagged behind that of Indonesia, even though the latter suffered one of the deepest crises in world economic history in the years 1997-98? Why, even before the 2010 earthquake, the Dominican Republic has been visited by several dozen times more tourists than Haiti, despite being situated on the same island?This book strives to answer these (and many other) questions. They are all part of a broader question that we wish to address: how do differences in economic growth arise?

This edited volume presents the comprehensive review of the work on developing assessment frameworks for democratic parliaments. The book identifies areas of internationally agreed consensus among the current sets of standards and principles, and areas of potential further consensus by examining national case studies and drawing a first set of lessons of experience. Additionally, it brings in regional perspectives on standards for democratic parliaments. Since parliaments are just beginning to test or apply the different frameworks many will need assistance from partners in the parliamentary strengthening and donor community to take such an exercise forward. Therefore, there is a need for broader understanding on principles behind different benchmarks, to discuss the relevance of each type of benchmark framework to specific regional and national context, and to determine how Parliaments would benefit from changes that would allow them to meet the benchmark.

Latin America and Caribbean countries suffer from large efficiency gaps in technology adoption, innovation, structural change, resource allocation, institutions, and poverty reduction, which hamper their growth to higher income levels.

With over 100 right to information (RTI) laws also called freedom of information or access to information laws now in place globally, the groundwork has been laid to advance more transparent, accountable and inclusive governance as a pathway to poverty reduction and economic development.

This volume provides a narrative description of the institutional and management decisions, infrastructure, systems and processes, impact, and lessons learned and policy implications for developing countries from Korea's multi-decade Digital Governance experience.

The focus of this book is on a specific outcome of the rule of law: the enforcement of laws and policies, and the determinants of this enforcement. Are there significant and persistent differences in implementation across countries? Why are some laws and policies more systematically enforced than others?

Performance budgeting is a reform adopted by governments in many OECD countries and encouraged by development agencies. This book explores the experiences of 7 countries and suggests a fresh approach to avoid classic pitfalls and adopting ideas from successful reformers.

This handbook is part of the wider WBG engagement in supporting countries with Domestic Resource Mobilization. The publication aims to cover all relevant aspects that have to be considered when introducing or strengthening transfer pricing regimes aimed at addressing country specific risks and promoting compliance among taxpayers.

This volume explores methods and insights for data collection and use in fragile contexts, with a focus on Sudan.It poses several questions on the political economy of data, and then sets out a framework for assessing the validity, reliability, and potential impact of data on decision-making in a fragile country.

This book reviews the trends in tax revenue collection in developing countries. The book reviews the special challenges facing low income countries, which have traditionally relied on indirect revenues in the context of limited formalization of their economies.

Central American countries spend significant public resources subsidizing electricity, but the majority of subsidies go to higher-income households. This study assesses the fiscal and welfare impacts of electricity subsidies in Central America, and simulates reform options.