This paper provides empirical estimates
of the impacts of natural disasters on different forms of
capital (with a focus on human and intangible capital and
natural capital), and on real gross domestic product per
capita. The types of disaster considered are droughts,
earthquakes, floods, and storms and their impacts are
measured in terms of the number of people affected or people
affected per capita. The authors find statistically

This report describes a pilot study of
natural risk hazards in the peri-urban extension areas of
the Dakar Metropolitan Area, Senegal. The area subject of
this study stretches across 580 square kilometers, covering
less than 1 percent of the national territory, but housing
about 50 percent of Senegal's urban population. Much of
the rapid population growth of the Dakar Metropolitan Area
is taking place beyond the boundaries of the Department of

Contrary to popular perception, Europe
and Central Asia (ECA) countries are significantly
threatened by climate change, with serious risks already in
evidence. The vulnerability and adaptive capacity of ECA
countries to climate change over the next two decades will
be dominated by socio-economic factors and legacy issues.
The next decade offers a window of opportunity for ECA to
make its development more resilient to climate change while

This paper examines the impacts of
natural disasters on schooling investments with special
focus on the roles of ex-ante actions and ex-post responses
using panel data from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Malawi. The
importance of ex-ante actions depends on disaster risks and
the likelihood of public assistance, which potentially
creates substitution between the two actions. The findings
show that higher future probabilities of disasters increase

The report is organized as follows. The
next section puts the study into context by briefly
discussing the global EACC study and the EACC methodology,
which was applied in this study at a more disaggregated
level. The section highlights the differential impacts of
climate change among different regions of the world,
including Africa. Chapter three presents an overview of the
methodology used, including the key assumptions. An effort

Domestic consumption in most countries
is taxed through general sales taxes, excise taxes on
specific commodities, and a variety of miscellaneous taxes
on such services as hotels and transfers of property. This
note considers only the first two of these categories, with
particular attention to general sales taxes. Consumption
taxes are obviously related both to customs duties and other
taxes on imports and also to production taxes like those

In many countries, place specific
investments in infrastructure are viewed as integral
components of territorial development policies. But are
these policies fighting market forces of concentration? Or
are they adding net value to the national economy by tapping
underexploited resources? This paper contributes to the
debate on the spatial allocation of infrastructure
investments by examining where these investments will

Poverty reduction strategies (PRSs)
provide a central framework for macroeconomic, structural,
and social policies in developing countries. Because of the
numerous and complex links between environment and poverty,
it is important that environmental issues are taken into
account in the PRS process. This paper follows six previous
assessments of the degree of mainstreaming environment in
the PRS process using a similar methodology to present

This policy note focuses on analyzing
critical institutional and planning issues affecting
Dhaka's Metropolitan Area, and suggests policy
recommendations for introducing sound urban environmental
planning to improve the quality of life by mitigating and
reversing environmental degradation. The report concludes
with urgent recommended actions to address gaps in urban
planning and environmental management that focus on

This paper measures the economic impact
of climate on crops in Kenya. The analysis is based on
cross-sectional climate, hydrological, soil, and household
level data for a sample of 816 households, and uses a
seasonal Ricardian model. Estimated marginal impacts of
climate variables suggest that global warming is harmful for
agricultural productivity and that changes in temperature
are much more important than changes in precipitation. This

This Policy Memorandum provides policy
advice to the government of Liberia (GOL) in an effort to
mainstream gender issues in policies, programs, and projects
supporting agricultural production and value-chain
development. It is organized as follows. Section I reviews
women's roles in Liberian agriculture and agricultural
value chains, drawing on a variety of data sources,
including the 2007 Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire

Agriculture is a small but stable part
of the Lebanese economy. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of
Lebanon's active population is involved in the sector
in one way or another. This note is a synthesis of previous
work written on agriculture development in Lebanon and
related public expenditures in the sector. It starts with an
overview of the agriculture sector in Lebanon and its role
and contribution to the economy. Approximately eight percent