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Flagship Titles
POVERTY AND SHARED PROSPERITY 2022
Fiscal Policy for an Inclusive and Equitable Recovery
By the World Bank
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the most pronounced setback in the fight against global poverty since World War II. Hopes for a recovery for many low- and middle-income countries have yet to be realized. High indebtedness and rising food and energy prices—fueled in part by the war in Ukraine and climate shocks among the world’s biggest food producers—have compounded the challenges. 2020 marked a turning point—an era of global convergence gave way to global divergence as the world’s poorest people were hardest hit. The income losses experienced by the poorest were more than double those faced by the richest, widening the income gap. The poorest then began to recover from the pandemic at a slower pace than the richest. The shock and patchy recovery underscore the pressing need to revamp tax and spending policies to put the world back on course to reducing poverty and inequality. The triple challenges of the past two years—COVID-19, climate, and conflict—have delayed progress toward the goal of eliminating extreme poverty. A range of policies and actions is critical to a resilient recovery from the pandemic. Fiscal policies can help promote long-term growth and stability, but achieving the right balance is tricky. This report provides new data on the stark reversal of progress in the fight against global poverty. It explores how to optimize fiscal policy and identifies policies that can help correct course. The risk of future crises is not going away, so this report also addresses how to better protect progress against future shocks and what types of fiscal policies can facilitate a much-needed period of higher growth that boosts the incomes of poor people.
POVERTY AND SHARED PROSPERITY
October 2022. 250 pages. Stock no. C211893 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1893-6). US$49.50
GLOBAL ECONOMIC PROSPECTS, JUNE 2022
By the World Bank
GLOBAL ECONOMIC PROSPECTS
July 2022. 194 pages. Stock no. C211843 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1843-1). US$48.50
The world economy continues to suffer from a series of destabilizing shocks. After more than two years of the pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its global effects on commodity markets, supply chains, inflation, and financial conditions have steepened the slowdown in global growth. In particular, the war is leading to soaring prices and volatility in energy markets, with improvements in activity in energy exporters more than offset by headwinds to activity in most other economies. The war has also led to a significant increase in agricultural commodity prices, which is exacerbating food insecurity and extreme poverty in many emerging market and developing economies. Numerous risks could further derail what is now a precarious recovery. Among them is, in particular, the possibility of stubbornly high global inflation accompanied by tepid growth, reminiscent of the stagflation of the 1970s. This could eventually result in a sharp tightening of monetary policy in advanced economies to rein in inflation, lead to surging borrowing costs, and possibly culminate in financial stress in some emerging market and developing economies. A forceful and wide-ranging policy response is required by policy makers and the global community to boost growth, bolster macroeconomic frameworks, reduce financial vulnerabilities, provide support to the vulnerable population groups, and attenuate the longterm impacts of the global shocks of recent years. Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group Flagship Report that examines global economic developments and prospects, with a special focus on emerging market and developing economies, on a semiannual basis (in January and June). Each edition includes analytical pieces on topical policy challenges faced by these economies.
COMING SOON
GLOBAL ECONOMIC PROSPECTS, JANUARY 2023
January 2023. 236 pages. Stock no. C211906 (ISBN: 9781464819063).
COLLAPSE AND RECOVERY
How the COVID-19 Pandemic Eroded Human Capital and What to Do about It
By Norbert Schady, Alaka Holla, Shwetlena Sabarwal, Joana Silva, and Andres Yi Chang
The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to human capital. This report presents new evidence and analysis to provide a comprehensive diagnostic of the effects of the pandemic on human capital outcomes and identify promising policy responses for governments faced with the task of rebuilding human capital in the wake of the pandemic. The report identifies the mechanisms through which COVID-19 affected the human capital of people at different points in the life cycle and provides estimates of the magnitude of these losses. This analysis underlines differences in impact across countries and groups within countries to understand how the reported blow on human capital has been unequal, exacerbating existing gaps and creating new ones. Grounded in the diagnostic, the report discusses policy responses that attend to afflicted groups in the short-term as well as the medium- to long-term agenda to build back better human capital and make systems more resilient. The longterm policy discussion recognizes COVID-19 as an inflection point, using the opportunity to reimagine systems and institutions, thinking in a completely different way about some key issues. In conclusion, the report reflects on what we have learned from failed policy responses as well as the innovations that proved successful across sectors in preventing or mitigating human capital losses associated with the COVID-19 crisis, and how these lessons can be incorporated across sectors going forward.
November 2022. 150 pages. Stock no. C211901 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1901-8). US$43.95
MAKING CITIES GREEN, RESILIENT, AND INCLUSIVE
By the World Bank
August 2022. 300 pages. Stock no. C211832 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1832-5). US$54.95
The world needs urgent action to confront the challenges of human-induced climate change. Climate change is impacting developing countries hard, and these impacts are only expected to get worse. The past few decades have witnessed big demographic shifts, including aging and migration, and turbulent social changes—trends that are partly related to and have implications for climate change. The challenges posed by climate change have been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, further exacerbating rising inequality and poverty. Cities are increasingly central to the war against extreme poverty and climate change, because cities are where most people live and work. Cities also face a wide variety of stresses that arise from the congestion and crowding associated with urbanization. Within any given country, a city is part of a wider system of cities that is interlinked through flows of trade, labor, capital, and ideas. Stresses felt by one city can therefore be expected to have impacts on other cities. When poorly managed, the stresses that cities face may also feedback to further exacerbate climate change and the erosion of natural capital. This report informs policies for green, resilient, and inclusive urban development. The objective of this report is to help cities not merely survive, but to thrive under the changing climate stressors.
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THE HIDDEN WEALTH OF CITIES
Creating, Financing, and Managing Public Spaces
February 2020. 450 pages. Stock no. C211449 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1449-5). US$55.00
ENVIRONMENTALLY HARMFUL SUBSIDIES
By Richard Damania, Esteban Balseca, Joshua Gill, Kichan Kim, Jun Rentschler, Jason Russ, and Esha Zaveri
Government subsidies make up enormous shares of public budgets and are likely larger shares of public spending today than at any point in human history. While these subsidies are well intentioned, they are often counterproductive, failing to achieve their stated goals and causing harmful spillovers on the economy, the environmental, and human health. This report examines subsidies' impacts on the world's stock of foundational natural capital—air quality, agriculture, and fisheries—that are critical for human health and nutrition and underpin much of the economy. In doing so, the report presents new research, data, and methods to answer three key questions: i. How large is the magnitude of total subsidies in the natural resource space? ii. What are the impacts of these subsidies on equity, efficiency, and the environment, and the gains from reforming or eliminating them entirely? iii. Which subsidy reform methods are the most effective and politically feasible?
October 2022. 250 pages. Stock no. C211900 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1900-1). US$49.50
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THE CHANGING WEALTH OF NATIONS 2021
Managing Assets for the Future
December 2021. 500 pages. Stock no. C211590 (ISBN: 978-1-14648-1590-4). US$60.50
THE PATH TO 5G IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
Planning Ahead for a Smooth Transition to the Fifth Generation of Mobile Technology
By Rami Amin, Niccolo Comini, Vivien Foster, Natalija Gelvanovska-Garcia, Kay Kim, Hyea Won Lee, Maria Claudia Pachon, Je Myung Ryu, and Zhijun William Zhang
October 2022. 200 pages. Stock no. C211604 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1604-8). US$48.50
The global race for 5G has seen countries riding a new wave of wireless technology. 5G is the next-generation mobile communication technology that enables a significantly higher level of performance over 4G mobile communications and provides a new layer of connectivity to support innovative, data-intense applications. With the estimated impact of 5G on global GDP in the trillions of US dollars, 5G will drive job creation, productivity, and competitiveness across a range of sectors. For some countries, 5G services may seem a distant future given the costs of infrastructure deployment and expensive handsets, while for others, it is an onramp to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and has been folded into national strategy planning. 5G trials, pilots, and deployments have been progressing across the world, but most deployments are in high-income countries. There remain significant barriers for developing countries, threatening to further widen the digital divide and limit access to the economic opportunities that 5G connectivity enables. What does this mean for developing countries, and how could they respond? This flagship report surveys the technical capabilities of 5G and explores how it can help countries reach connectivity goals and broader development objectives by using 5G as a layer of connectivity alongside 4G and other modalities of connectivity. It also provides a guide for policy makers to better understand the opportunities, challenges, and risks posed by 5G, so they can plan for an enabling policy and regulatory ecosystem that supports the path to infrastructure deployment and adoption.
Lessons from COVID-19
By Mauro Testaverde and Jacquelyn Pavilon
For thousands of years, migration has been a source of social and economic well-being for people living on different shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Whether through higher earnings for migrants, access to labor for receiving countries, or remittances for sending communities, migration has been an important driver of development in the Mediterranean region. The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has severely disrupted this complex web of movements, raising questions about whether migration will continue to be an important driver of the region's well-being. As time passed, it became clear that the drivers of migration are so strong that mobility restrictions can only reduce movements, not halt them entirely. Building Resilient Migration Systems in the Mediterranean Region: Lessons from COVID-19 presents evidence on the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on mobility in the region to inform policy responses that can help countries restart migration safely and better respond to future shocks. While some of the challenges that emerged during the pandemic are specific to public health crises, others are common to different types of shocks, including those related to economic, conflict, or climate-related factors. To inform this reform process, this book suggests a set of actions that can help Mediterranean countries to maximize the benefits of migration for all people living in the region, while at the same time ensuring the sustainability of migration flows. As a whole, these proposed policy actions point to a vision of migration resilience that, even during crises, can address key labor shortages, keep both migrant and native populations safer, sustain household incomes, and ameliorate blows to economic growth. The COVID-19 pandemic has created momentum for policy reforms. Whether this crisis can illuminate the way toward better adapting migration systems to future crises will depend on learning its lessons.
July 2022. 164 pages. Stock no. C211855 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1855-4). US$43.95
THE ECONOMICS OF WATER SCARCITY IN MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Institutional Solutions
By Dominick de Waal
September 2022. 300 pages. Stock no. C211739 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1739-7). US$43.00
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the most water-scarce region in the world. The region is home to 6 percent of the world’s population but has just 1 percent of the world’s freshwater resources. In 2011, over 60 percent of the region’s population lived in areas with high or very high surface water stress, compared with a global average of about 35 percent. Over 70 percent of the region’s gross domestic product is generated in areas with high to very high surface water stress, compared with a global average of about 22 percent. Accelerating economic and population growth, combined with climate impacts, call for a new burst of innovation to solve the problem of water scarcity. Unsustainable volumes of water are being withdrawn, degrading ecosystems and aquifers. Weakening trust in social and political institutions has become a constraint to pursuing reforms to address the problem of unsustainability. The challenge of coping with water shortages is fueling further distrust and social frustration that boils over onto the streets, which is particularly the case in the countries affected by conflict and fragility. The unprecedented global economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic is posing challenges to the water sector in MENA. The pandemic-induced disruption of global supply chains and the need to create jobs in rural areas may also create incentives for countries to move away from trade to selfsufficiency in food production, with implications for water use in agriculture. This report uses an economics lens to understand the institutions through which scarce resources are allocated and managed across competing needs. The lessons learned from this analysis will enable external partners to help policy makers and their societies strengthen legitimacy and trust for judicious management of the complex trade-offs involved in defining water policy.
LAND MATTERS
By Anna Corsi and Harris Selod
Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region, land is a scarce and valuable resource. The projected increase in land demand due to demographic trends coupled with decreasing land supply due to climatic and governance factors indicate a looming crisis happening at a time when the region is also facing dramatic social and political transformation. Reserves for land cultivation are almost exhausted, while total built-up area will need to expand to accommodate high demographic growth. Yet, land remains inefficiently, inequitably, and unsustainably used. There are strong barriers to accessing land for both firms and individuals. Firms resort to political connections to access land, resulting in land misallocation. Women are 2 to 3 times more likely to fear losing their property in the case of spousal death or divorce and their rights are not sufficiently supported by institutions and genderimbalanced social norms. Refugees also face difficult access to land, with conflict in the region causing displacement of millions of people who lack necessary housing, land, and property rights. This report identifies and analyzes the economic, environmental, and social challenges associated with land in MENA countries, shedding light on policy options to address them. It focuses on two main constraints—scarcity of land and weak land governance—and how they affect land use and access, the resulting inefficiencies and inequities, and associated economic and social costs. It highlights the need for MENA countries to think about land more holistically and to reassess the strategic trade-offs involving land while minimizing land distortions and serving economic development. It is also an attempt to fill the major data gaps and promote a culture of open data, transparency, and inclusive dialogue on land. These efforts are important steps that will contribute to renewing the social contract, accompany economic and digital transformation, and facilitate recovery and reconstruction in the region.
Can Better Governance and Management of Scarcity Avoid a Looming Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa?
ANNA CORSI HARRIS SELOD
August 2022. 128 pages. Stock no. C211661 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1661-1). US$48.50
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LAND MATTERS
French Edition
September 2022. 160 pages. Stock no. C211890 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1890-5). US$43.95
LAND MATTERS
Arabic Edition
September 2022. 128 pages. Stock no. C211889 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1889-9). US$43.95
JOBS UNDONE
By Asif M. Islam, Dalal Moosa, and Federica Saliola
July 2022. 156 pages. Stock no. C211735 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1735-9). US$48.50
A decade since the spark of the Arab Spring, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region continues to suffer from limited creation of more and better jobs. Youth face idleness and unemployment. For those who find jobs, informality awaits. Few women attempt to enter the world of work at all. Meanwhile, the available jobs are not those of the future. These labor market outcomes are being worsened by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Jobs Undone: Reshaping the Role of Governments toward Markets and Workers in the Middle East and North Africa explores ways to break these impasses, drawing on original research, survey data, wide-ranging literature, and young entrepreneurial voices from the region. The report finds that a prominent reason behind MENA's unmet jobs challenge is a lack of market contestability in the formal private sector. Few firms in the region enter the market, few grow, and those that exit are not necessarily less productive. Moreover, firms in the region invest little in physical capital, human capital, or research and development, and they tend to be politically connected. At the macro level, economic growth has been mediocre, labor productivity is not being driven by structural change, and the growth of the stock of capital per capita has declined. New evidence generated for this report shows that the lack of dynamism is due to the prevalence of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). They operate in sectors where there is little economic rationale for public activity and they enjoy favorable treatment—flouting the principles of competitive neutrality. Meanwhile, labor regulations add to market rigidity, while gendered laws restrict women's potential. To change this reality, the state must reshape its relationship toward markets, toward workers, and toward women. The region must create a level playing field between SOEs and the private sector, replace labor rigidities with appropriate social protection and labor market programs, and remove barriers to women's economic participation. Governments can also foster new sectors and occupations, gradually propelling market contestability and job creation. All reforms will have to rely on improved data capacity and transparency to create a new social contract between governments and the people of the region.
A DIGITAL ECONOMY FOR AFRICA
Opportunities and Challenges for More Productive and Inclusive Growth
By the World Bank
Africa is characterized by an urgent need to boost productivity and more inclusive growth. Low digital access and use, combined with affordability challenges and limited competition, prevent digital technology (DT) adoption from playing its role in addressing Africa's productivity and inclusion challenges. This report highlights characteristics specific to the region: (1) Africa has a "youth bulge" phenomenon—it is the region with the fastest growing labor force yet the lowest levels of human capital; (2) Africa has a large number of countries afflicted by fragility, conflict, violence, and climate shocks; (3) emerging DT innovations are starting to address some of Africa's specific challenges; and (4) Africa is home to all 10 economies worldwide where more adults have a mobile money account than a financial institution account. This report is intended to provide conceptual and empirical findings to help support the ongoing implementation of a continent-wide Digital Transformation for Africa initiative that will span to 2030. These specific features of the African continent, elaborated below, motivate this report. The continent-wide initiative seeks to support policies and investments across five pillars of the digital economy: (1) digital infrastructure, (2) digital skills and literacy, (3) digital entrepreneurship, (4) digital financial services, and (5) digital platforms.
October 2022. 200 pages. Stock no. C211737 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1737-3). US$48.50
AMBIENT AIR POLLUTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN SOUTH ASIA
By Muthukumara S. Mani
SOUTH ASIA DEVELOPMENT MATTERS
October 2022. 200 pages. Stock no. C211831 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1831-8). US$49.50
Air pollution exposure is the second-most important risk factor for ill health in South Asia, contributing to between 13 percent and 22 percent of all deaths. In addition, approximately 58 million disability adjusted life years (DALYs) are lost through chronic and acute respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses. Of the top 30 cities in the world with the poorest air quality in 2016, 17 are in South Asia. The impact of air pollution transcends boundaries. While countries have introduced promising initiatives in recent years, comprehensive health-centered strategies are lacking. The multiplicity of sources and modes of exposure adds complexity to the problem of air pollution in South Asia. In addition to a rapidly growing road transport sector, factories and power plants, as well as agricultural and solid waste, contribute to air pollution. Many measures are often discussed to deal with air pollution, including transitioning to a low-emissions fleet, increasing public transportation, updating fuel emissions standards and improving traffic flow management, and better management of landfills and agricultural waste. The challenge is that implementation of these measures would require a better understanding of the spatial dimensions of pollution and underlying sources, as well as costs and benefits associated with deployment of several instruments. Governments are often confronted with these difficult questions: Which interventions are warranted? Up to what cost? Where and when should they be implemented? Attaining better information and managing risks effectively will help policy makers deal with the host of uncertainties without compromising on their broader objectives of economic growth and poverty reduction.
This report aims to identify and map air pollution hotspots in South Asia in terms of concentration and exposure, understand the various sources of pollution in hotspot areas (from Kabul to Dhaka), and help categorize policy actions and interventions based on a systematic analysis of costs and benefits.
