20,693 research outputs found
Ease of Doing Business: The Bahamas
Get PDFFrom productivity performance indicators derived from the World Bank, The Bahamas is underperforming relative to our Caribbean economies and even other small economies within Latin America and the Caribbean. This policy brief outlines and explains these deficiencies using the enterprise surveys of the World Bank and the Compete Caribbean PROTEqIN database and describes the four major "bottlenecks" to private sector output growth and productivity, while suggesting what policy measures will be required to improve productivity and cost competitiveness, and spur economic growth within the archipelago
Mitigating Project Risks World Bank : Support for Government Guarantees
No full textThe World Bank has two distinct
financial vehicles to support developing country governments
wanting to provide guarantees to attract private investors:
issuing guarantees to investors and making loans to host
governments to fund guarantees. The author explains how
these vehicles work and reviews some of their advantages and disadvantages
Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Grievance Mechanisms in World Bank-Financed Projects
No full textThis paper explores which factors influence the success of a GM and under what circumstances GMs trigger, or fail to trigger, improvements in project design, changes in power dynamics, or community relations. By doing so, it aims to produce clearer insights into the roadblocks as well as the dynamics of positive change achieved through GMs (Aslam, Grandvoinnet, and Raha 2015: 70). Although the World Bank offers several avenues for grievance redress to project beneficiaries, this paper focuses on project-level GMs in IPF, which are the responsibility of the World Bank’s clients, that is, public sector agencies and ministries. The key research question explored is: What factors influence the effectiveness of project-level GMs? This paper relies on a mixed-methods approach. Fifteen qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted over a six-week period in February and March 2020 by the author with World Bank practitioners specializing in social safeguards policies and the supervision of social aspects, including GM implementation, in World Bank-financed projects. In April 2020, an online survey of 94 GM focal points in implementing agencies was conducted in 24 countries; its 23 questions probed the design, track record, strengths, and weaknesses of project-level GMs (World Bank 2021a). Follow-up discussions were then held with eight project implementation unit (PIU) members from two projects. Finally, the paper also relies on extensive case study analysis
Microenterprise Development Review: Volume 2 : No. 2 : January, 2000
No full textThe first article of this issue of the Microenterprise Development Review highlights four key issues that credit unions in Latin America must grapple with today to become effective financial institutions: rehabilitation, supervision, governance, and consolidation. The second article discusses the lack of reliable information about borrower credit in the region and the methods employed by financial institutions to offset risk. The author argues that credit bureaus can solve this problem by providing the necessary information to evaluate a borrower\u27s ability and willingness to repay their debts
Microenterprise Development Review: Volume 7 : No. 2 : December, 2004
No full textThe first article of this issue of Microenterprise Development Review discusses activity based costing (ABC) systems. Activity-based costing (ABC) inserts an additional, intermediate step in the traditional costing process by first assigning the costs (direct and indirect) to various activities, which are then allocated to the individual products and branches. The author argues that when properly designed, an ABC system can highlight a wide range of issues within a microfinance institution. The second article explores the alternative ways small and medium sized enterprises finance themselves in Latin America. This article includes case studies from across the region as well as recommendations
Allan Sproul papers, Bancroft Library
No full textFinding aid dated April 1968 for the Allan Sproul Papers at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, and copied for Everett Cooley of the University of Utah\u27s Marriott Library in 1982. Includes biographical data on Sproul, who served as head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1941 to 1956
Comment on 'Counting the World's Poor' by Angus Deaton
No full textThis issue provides a usefully critical
discussion of the current methods used by the World Bank for
measuring poverty. The author will not address all the
points raised by Deaton- avoiding those on which the author
thinks there is broad agreement that the World Bank s
current methods can be improved. These include the way that
(invariably troublesome) income surveys are handled, the
scope for better use of subjective-qualitative welfare data,
and the need to better acknowledge the limitations of
welfare metrics based solely on consumption of market goods.
This leaves two main issues that are very important for
global poverty measurements- namely, how currency
conversions are done and whether the poverty measures should
be anchored to the national accounts. On both counts, Deaton
makes recommendations for changing current methods. Before
considering his recommendations, the author will briefly
describe how the World Bank measures poverty
Author Professor Allan Greenwood, 1979
No full textProfessor Allan Greenwood (centre) discusses his book 'Electrical Transients in Power Systems' with Nick Zorbas (left) and Professor Werner Rieder.
Photograph originally appeared in the 'Swinburne Newsletter', 14 June 1979
CBR Withdrawals: Understanding the Uneven Occurrence Across the Caribbean
No full textMultiple studies have highlighted the Caribbean as one of the geographic regions most severely impacted by the decline in correspondent banking relationships (CBRs). However, when examined at a disaggregated level, the Caribbean experience of de-risking is uneven across territories. Some countries have experienced sudden, widespread withdrawals of CBRs, which may appear concerted. Others have experienced some CBR losses and associated difficulties but over time have managed to find replacement relationships or reinforced existing CBRs, while still others have experienced very little to no loss of CBRs. For countries within a relatively small geographic region, the level of disparity as it relates to the loss of CBRs may appear counter-intuitive. The World Bank (2015) produced a report which may be regarded as one of the first multifaceted attempts at understanding the decline in CBRs globally. The utility of this study was the substantial effort by the World Bank to identify the motivating factors behind the decision to terminate CBRs. The authors identified the drivers of de-risking by surveying a cross section of interest groups, namely, large international banks providing correspondent banking services, local and regional banks with the capacity to act as both a respondent and a correspondent, and banking supervisors of both correspondent and respondent banks. The findings highlighted that while each financial institution and regulatory authority had its own unique mix of factors contributing to its own unique experience, the drivers could generally be grouped into two broad categories: Business-related causes, with the decision to terminate a CBR based solely on economic terms; and regulatory risk-related causes, with the decision to terminate CBRs based on the higher risk of money laundering/terrorist financing (ML/TF) and the potential for material loss. The authors also identified the fundamental linkage between the two categories, highlighting that in theory the inherent level of risk should influence the expected returns profile of the CBR for the correspondent bank. This suggests that the termination of CBRs by large international correspondent banks is a relatively complex decision incorporating multiple factors. Based on various discussion forums and constantly evolving analysis of global CBRs, some factors which may constitute key elements behind the de-risking decision include size of the economy and aggregate cross border flows, country and financial institution risk profile, and structure of the financial system. As the Caribbean region continues along the path of economic development, it is critical that regional economies maintain access to the global payments infrastructure. The purpose of this technical note is two-fold. It aims to better understand the inherent characteristics of the region which may have contributed to the varying degrees of CBR termination to date, and it aims to better understand the perceived shortfalls in the region. These insights are key for the development and implementation of any corrective measures to enhance the region’s appeal to correspondent banks and to ensure that this global phenomenon does not become a hindrance to the region’s growth and development
The Development of Sculpture in the Quito School
No full textMagdalena Gallegos de Donoso, Ecuadorian anthropologist and art historian, author of over fifty exhibition catalogues, Director of the Central Bank of Ecuador Museums
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