The report benchmarks eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa Region along the proposed framework through a checklist of indicators, pointing to policy gaps and poor governance features...
In 2003 Botswana was the first country in Africa to provide antiretroviral therapy (ART) to all citizens living with HIV. It achieved the 90-90-90 UNAIDS Fast-Track targets ahead of 2020 and is on track...
This paper assesses the trade impact of regional trade agreements signed by Georgia. Using information from the World Bank’s Deep Trade Agreements database and the Exporters’ Dynamics Database for Georgia ...
Procurement of commonly used items is a challenge for government agencies. There are many examples of abuse and failure to achieve value for money in such procurement, in some cases attributable to...
Limited competition hinders the optimal use of telecommunication services in the Dominican Republic, which lags peer countries in mobile subscriptions and internet penetration. Despite recent reforms...
Efforts to improve weather and climate services involve both public and private actors in the meteorological value chain governed by two determinants, to protect society from the impact of extreme meteorological ...
Regional trade agreements increasingly include provisions that regulate state-owned enterprises. This paper combines new information on the content of “deep” regional trade agreements and data on Chinese...
This paper explores the economic impacts of preferential trade agreements, focusing on the provisions they contain, beyond phasing out tariffs. Clustering 278 preferential trade agreements based on...
Modern trade agreements contain a large number of provisions besides tariff reductions, in areas as diverse as services trade, competition policy, trade-related investment measures, or public procurement...
During the last two decades, ECOWAS countries have managed to implement an efficient regulation that led to market liberalization, fast development of the mobile market and major investment in regional...
This paper addresses several shortcomings in the productivity and markup estimation literature. Using Monte-Carlo simulations, the analysis shows that the methods in Ackerberg, Caves and Frazer (2015) ...
Collusive agreements among competitors create unmitigated harm. When competitors agree to limit competition, i.e. to form economic cartels, the poor pay up to 50 percent more for essential goods, growth...
Limited competition hinders the optimal use of telecommunication services in the Dominican Republic, which lags peer countries in mobile subscriptions and internet penetration. Despite recent reforms...
It is conventional wisdom that industrial policies can be at odds with competitive markets. This note examines the historical basis for industrial policy and empirical effects. Although the direct effects...
Removing regulatory barriers in services is key to unlocking productivity in Croatia. Croatia has more restrictive regulations than most other EU member states, and prior World Bank research shows that...
This paper analyzes competition in the retail banking markets in Latin America. Retail banking services, that is banking products and services for consumers and small businesses, including deposit accounts ...
This report summarizes findings of an HIV allocative efficiency study conducted in Kenya between 2018 and 2020. The study was commissioned to contribute to the evidence base for strategic planning processes...