This study incorporates data from comparable surveys across five African countries - Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Senegal, and Tanzania - to analyze how small and micro enterprises have been positively and negatively affected by policy liberalization schemes. Som

Indonesia experienced strong economic growth at greatest risk, that too would be useful for strategy formulation purposes, especially in cases in the 1970s with the help of high oil prices, a where employment protection is an important period of stagnation in the 1980s when oil prices declined and another period of strong economic objective. Finally, to the extent that policies can growth after 1986 when substantial trade and alter the probability ofsuccess or failure in coping investment liberalization enabled a dramatic with shocks, it would be useful to know which of policies is most effective and under what surge in labor-intensive manufacturing export set production. Recently, the regional financial crisis conditions. of 1997-1998 dealt Indonesia a severe shock The recent crisis in East Asia provides an from which it has not yet fully recovered. How opportunity to examine the link between industrial structure and economic resilience. The relative have its SMEs done through the twists and turns of the economy in the past quarter century? impact of the crisis by size of firm can be judged Unfortunately, the data needed to track the per in part by the effects on capacity utilization and formance of the SME sector are not as good for employment. The table below summarizes some Indonesia as for many of the other countries in results from a survey sponsored by the World East Asia.

Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) have been recognized as a major contemporary source of employment and income in a growing number of developing countries. Yet, relatively little is known about the characteristics and patterns of change in these enterprises. This volume examines the dynamics of MSEs in the development process. Drawing on a unique set of surveys conducted in twelve countries in Africa and Latin America the authors map the patterns of change in MSEs in the developing world. Subjects covered include: * significance of new start and closure rates of MSEs * factors involved in expansion rates and growth patterns of MSEs * the role of gender in MSEs evolution.

Reviews the World Bank's experience in industrial restructuring in 46 countries during the past 14 years. The study finds that for most completed public enterprise restructuring operations, sustainability of benefits was a large problem, mainly because of fragile sector reforms and inadequate governance and management. Those completed for the private sector experienced poor outcomes from inadequate attention to country economic conditions and policy distortions. To overcome such problems, the study recommends that future restructuring operations be designed and implemented to have an impact at the firm level.

All 15 new independent states established in the economic space of the former Soviet Union suffered big declines in output and trade after gaining independence. This study summarizes cross-country experience on the role of trade and payments policies in the linked contraction of output and trade by drawing on eight country case studies: Estonia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The results of the case studies show that trade reform and reorientation of trade toward the rest of the world have done much to arrest the decline in output usually associated with the transformation from plan to market. Also available in English: Stock no. 13615 (ISBN 0-8213-3615-0).

IFC Discussion Paper No. 30. Draws on a case study of a cement plant in Estonia to compare the private costs of curbing pollution with the social benefits that may accrue to the population. The study concludes that the social benefits exceed private costs by a margin that sufficiently justifies the environmental investment.

Agricultural liberalization and the Uruguay round; The Uruguay round: an assessment of economywide and agricultural reforms; Trade in manufactures: the outcome of the Uruguay round and developing country interest; Liberalizing manufactures trade in changing world economy; The Uruguay round and market access: opportunities and challenges for developing countries; Assessing the Uruguay round.

World Bank Discussion Paper No. 341.In 1994, Mexico successfully completed a first phase of telecommunications reforms, which included the privatization of its state-owned telephone company. This report provides a concise overview of the second wave of reforms that began in 1995 and tracks related key events to May 1996. This second phase opened the markets to competition, ensuring a greater diversity and better quality of services.

World Bank Technical Paper No. 295. The progress made by the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in privatizing state-owned enterprises has created millions of new shareholders. But for the citizenry to buy and sell shares, these countries must develop stock markets and related institutions such as brokerages, clearing and settling organizations, and regulatory agencies. This paper examines the role of capital markets in the new market economies of Central and Eastern Europe and to what extent governments in the region should encourage the development of such markets. The authors address questions of whether the capital markets will serve merely as a forum for trading stocks or become a source of new equity capital to help restructure the enterprises of the region and whether governments should take a hands-off approach by letting the necessary institutions develop as they are needed or should actively create stock exchanges and establish the overall legal and regulatory framework.