The expected growth in the world's population over the next 25 years increases the urgency of addressing questions of poverty and development. This annual conference brings together leading international academics and practitioners to debate current issues in development policy and their implications for the global economy. This book contains the collection of conference papers from the 13th annual conference held in May 2001, which focused on two broad themes of globalisation and inequality; and health and development issues.

'Institutions fix the confines of and impose form upon the activities of human beings.' --Walton Hamilton, 'Institutions', 1932. The 'World Development Report 2002: Building Institutions for Markets' undertakes the complex issue of the basic institutions needed for markets to function properly. This year's 'World Development Report' goes beyond a simple examination of institutional structure and explores the functions of institutions. Recognizing that one size does not fit all, the report asks what do all institutions which support markets do? The answer is simple: Institutions channel information, define and enforce property rights, and increase or prevent competition. Understanding the functions that current institutions and their proposed replacements would provide is the first step. The report contends that once you have identified the institutional functions that are missing, you can then build effective institutions by following some basic principles: - Complement what exists already - in terms of other supporting institutions, human capacities, and technology. - Innovate to suit local norms and conditions. Experimenting with new structures can provide a country with creative solutions that work. - Connect communities of market players through open information flows and open trade. Open trade and information flows create demand for new institutions and improve the functioning of existing structures. - Compete among jurisdictions, firms, and individuals. Increased competition creates demand for new institutions as old ones lose their effectiveness. It also affects how people behave - improving institutional quality. These broad lessons and careful analyses, which links theory with pertinent evidence, are provided in the report. 'World Development Report 2002: Building Institutions for Markets' contains selected 'World Development Indicators'.

At the start of each decade the World Development Report focuses on poverty reduction. The World Development Report, now in its twenty-third edition, proposes an empowerment-security-opportunity framework of action to reduce poverty in the first decades of the twenty-first century. It views poverty as a multidimensional phenonmenon arising out of complex interactions between assets, markets, and institutions. This Report shows how the experience of poverty reduction in the last fifteen years has been remarkably diverse and how this experience has provided useful lessons as well as warnings against simplistic universal policies and interventions. It shows how current global trends present extraordinary opportunities for poverty reduction but also cause extraordinary risks, including growing inequality, marginalization, and social explosions. The World Development Report 2000/2001 explores the challenge of managing these risks in order to make the most of the opportunities for poverty reduction.

Annotation Presents selected papers from the 16th Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, held in May 2004. It reviews the lessons of 60 years of development experience, addressing topics such as infrastructure, behavioural economics, trade, poverty, and globalization.

The world economy is experiencing a very strong but uneven recovery, with many emerging market and developing economies facing obstacles to vaccination. The global outlook remains uncertain, with major risks around the path of the pandemic and the possibility of financial stress amid large debt loads. Policy makers face a difficult balancing act as they seek to nurture the recovery while safeguarding price stability and fiscal sustainability. A comprehensive set of policies will be required to promote a strong recovery that mitigates inequality and enhances environmental sustainability, ultimately putting economies on a path of green, resilient, and inclusive development. Prominent among the necessary policies are efforts to lower trade costs so that trade can once again become a robust engine of growth. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Global Economic Prospects. The 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.

This annual conference is a global gathering of the world's leading scholars and practitioners. Among the attendees are participants from developing countries, think tanks, NGOs, and international institutions. These papers concern issues such as: Higher Education and International Migration in Asia: Brain Circulation; Interfaces in Higher Education: Two Sector in Sync?; Financing Higher Education: Lessons from developed economies, options for developing economies; Well-springs of Modern Economic Growth: Higher Education, Innovation and Local Economic Development; Higher Education, Innovation.

The Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) brings together the world's leading scholars and development practitioners for a lively debate on state-of-the-art thinking in development policy and the implications for the global economy.The ABCDE is a forum for discussion and debate of important policy issues facing developing countries. The conferences emphasize the contribution that empirical and basic economic research can make to understanding development processes and to formulating sound development policies.The 14th conference addressed four timely and important themes in development: trade and poverty, Africa's future in terms of industrial and/or agricultural development, education and empowerment, and investment climate and productivity. This book is a collection of conference papers from this forum, written by researchers in and outside the World Bank.

The global economy has experienced four waves of rapid debt accumulation over the past 50 years. The first three debt waves ended with financial crises in many emerging market and developing economies. During the current wave, which started in 2010, the increase in debt in these economies has already been larger, faster, and broader-based than in the previous three waves. Current low interest rates mitigate some of the risks associated with high debt. However, emerging market and developing economies are also confronted by weak growth prospects, mounting vulnerabilities, and elevated global risks. A menu of policy options is available to reduce the likelihood that the current debt wave will end in crisis and, if crises do take place, will alleviate their impact.

This report was prepared by a team led by Roberto Zagha, under the general direction of Gobind Nankani.

The book, which draws on data published by the World Bank, is addressed to teachers, students, and all those interested in exploring issues of global development.