World Development Report 2005 : A Better Investment Climate for Everyone

by The World Bank

• ISBN13: 9780821356821
• ISBN10: 0821356828
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780821357248
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-10-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

The World Development Report 2005: The Investment Climate, Growth, andPoverty Reduction provides policymakers, business developers, economic advisers,and academics with an in-depth understanding of the dynamics that shapegovernment policies and behaviors affecting the investment climate. It examineswhat governments can do to improve the investment climates of their countries,spur growth, and reduce poverty. The Report focuses on the opportunities andchallenges faced by developing nations and suggests practical strategies foraccelerating progress. It builds on information from past World DevelopmentReports and draws on new sources of micro-level data, country case studies, andnew research.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Abbreviations and Data Notes	p. xvi
Overview	p. 1
The investment climate is central to growth and poverty reduction	p. 1
Tackling costs, risks, and barriers to competition	p. 4
Progress requires more than changes in formal policies	p. 5
A process, not an event	p. 7
Focus on delivering the basics	p. 9
Going beyond the basics involves additional challenges	p. 12
The international community can lend a hand	p. 14
Improving the Investment Climate	p. 17
The investment climate, growth, and poverty	p. 19
Understanding the investment climate	p. 20
How investment climate improvements drive growth and reduce poverty	p. 24
Sharpening the focus on poverty reduction	p. 31
Creating a better investment climate for everyone	p. 35
Confronting the underlying challenges	p. 36
The basic tension: Firm preferences or the public interest?	p. 37
Restraining rent-seeking	p. 40
Establishing credibility	p. 45
Fostering public trust and legitimacy	p. 50
Ensuring policy responses reflect a good institutional fit	p. 53
Making progress	p. 54
Tackling a broad agenda	p. 56
The investment climate as a package	p. 56
Setting priorities	p. 58
Managing individual reforms	p. 68
Maintaining momentum	p. 71
Strengthening capabilities	p. 74
Delivering the Basics	p. 77
Stability and security	p. 79
Verifying rights to land and other property	p. 80
Facilitating contract enforcement	p. 84
Reducing crime	p. 89
Ending the uncompensated expropriation of property	p. 92
Regulation and taxation	p. 95
Regulating firms	p. 95
Taxing firms	p. 106
Regulating and taxing at the border	p. 111
Finance and infrastructure	p. 115
Financial markets	p. 115
Infrastructure--connecting firms and expanding opportunities	p. 124
Workers and labor markets	p. 136
Fostering a skilled and healthy workforce	p. 137
Crafting interventions to benefit all workers	p. 141
Helping workers cope with change	p. 151
Going Beyond the Basics?	p. 157
Selective interventions	p. 159
The allure--and traps--of selective interventions	p. 159
Experience in specific areas	p. 163
International rules and standards	p. 175
International arrangements and the investment climate	p. 175
Enhancing credibility	p. 176
Fostering harmonization	p. 180
Addressing international spillovers	p. 182
Future challenges	p. 184
How the International Community Can Help	p. 187
How the international community can help	p. 189
Removing distortions in developed countries	p. 189
Providing more, and more effective, assistance	p. 190
Tackling the substantial knowledge agenda	p. 195
Bibliographical note	p. 198
Endnotes	p. 199
References	p. 210
Background papers for the WDR 2005	p. 241
Case studies commissioned by the U.K. Department for International Development for the World Development Report 2005	p. 242
Selected Indicators	p. 243
Measuring the investment climate	p. 244
Challenges in measuring the investment climate	p. 244
The World Bank's new measures	p. 245
Technical notes	p. 250
Selected world development indicators	p. 253
Data sources and methodology	p. 253
Changes in the System of National Accounts	p. 253
Classification of economies and summary measures	p. 254
Terminology and country coverage	p. 254
Technical notes	p. 265
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