Using data collected during several missions, the author finds that the principal reasons for low revenue mobilization are (1) the adverse fiscal impact of trade liberalization, (2) the defiscalization of agriculture in the 1970s, (3) the collapse of the uranium boom in the 1980s, and (4) the poor record of the VAT in mobilizing revenue. The large reduction in tariffs during the 1980s and 1990s in the context of structural adjustment programs and West African regional integration initiatives had adverse effects on trade tax revenue during the period 1980 2003.

Azerbaijan's early transition to an
independent, market-based economy has been tumultuous,
entailing significant economic costs, and social impacts.
Yet, unlike many transition economies, sound economic
reforms since 1995, have enabled the country to achieve
macroeconomic stability, and resume growth. Notwithstanding,
the impact on poverty reduction has been modest,
particularly in the case of the urban poor who did not

Afghanistan has come a long way since
emerging from major conflict in late 2001. Important
political milestones mandated by the Bonn Agreement (two
Loya Jirgas, a new Constitution, recently the Presidential
election) have been achieved. The economy has recovered
strongly, growing by nearly 50 percent cumulatively in the
last two years (not including drugs). Some three million
internally- and externally-displaced Afghans have returned

This report is part of a strategy to
promotes trade competitiveness within the East Asia and
Pacific Region. It presents an overview of the logistics
issues facing East Asia countries and proposes a development
agenda for them. Based on the recognition that the
countries have basic differences in their level of
development, extent of openness, and composition of trade,
it begins by discussing the benefits of improved logistics.

The Little Green Data Book 2004 is based
on the World Development Indicators 2004, and represents a
succinct collection of information. It is a collaboration
between the Development Economics Data Development Group,
and the Environment Department of the World Bank. Under the
headings of agriculture, forests, biodiversity, energy,
emissions and pollution, water and sanitation, and
'greener' national accounts, it presents key

This Fisheries Sector Approach Paper has
been written in recognition of the mounting challenges that
the World Bank and the developing world face in meeting the
fishery sector-related Millennium Development Goals and the
outcomes of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable
Development. It augments the Bank's Rural Strategy,
Reaching the Rural Poor, which advocates a holistic approach
to rural poverty reduction, and support for equitable

The author looks at the feasibility and potential of instituting small-scale irrigation dams to reduce Ethiopia s dependence on rainfed agriculture and the associated food insecurity. He develops a theoretical framework to assess the welfare implications of irrigation development programs and provides empirical evidence from microdam construction and reforestation projects in northern Ethiopia. The author pays particular attention to health-related costs of establishing small-scale irrigation dams in areas prone to waterborne diseases.

Azerbaijan's early transition to an
independent, market-based economy has been tumultuous,
entailing significant economic costs, and social impacts.
Yet, unlike many transition economies, sound economic
reforms since 1995, have enabled the country to achieve
macroeconomic stability, and resume growth. Notwithstanding,
the impact on poverty reduction has been modest,
particularly in the case of the urban poor who did not

The authors assess impacts of rural road
rehabilitation on market development at the commune level in
rural Vietnam and examine the variance of those impacts and
the geographic, community, and household factors that
explains it. Double difference and matching methods are used
to address sources of selection bias in identifying impacts.
The results point to significant average impacts on the
development of local markets. They also uncover evidence of

According to Myint's "vent-for-surplus"
theory, development of the economies of Indonesia, the
Philippines, and Thailand from the nineteenth century on
depended on the natural advantage of large tracts of unused
"empty land" with low population density and abundant natural
resources of the type typically found in Southeast Asia and
Africa at the outset of Western colonization. When these
economies were integrated into international trade, hitherto

This report builds on the consensus
developed at the August 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on
Sustainable Development. It draws on the effort to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. And it looks
beyond, to 2050, to envision a future that is far more
prosperous and more equitable than today. This work raises
some hard questions: How do we ensure that the progress
achieved by 2015 is sustainable? What quality of growth will

The major constraints to RNF growth,
according to a large survey of rural entrepreneurs,'
include (1) flood and natural disasters; (2) access to
electricity; (3) road conditions, (4) access to finance and
(5) transportation to markets. Bangladesh's
vulnerability to frequent floods and other natural disasters
severely hampers operations of more than a third of rural
firms. The next most important constraint to RNF growth is