After years of strong performance in the
run-up to the European Union (EU) accession, Bulgaria’s
growth has slowed down and poverty remains the highest in
the EU. Bulgaria achieved the highest recorded growth rates
between 2000-08 on the back of exceptionally high capital
inflows, structural reforms, sound fiscal management and the
prospects of EU accession. Employment boomed and poverty
fell steeply. Since 2008 – the year of global economic

This paper informs the national and
international policy discussions related to the adoption of
the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
Forest Degradation Programme. Effective program instruments
must carefully consider incentives, opportunity costs, and
community interactions. A choice experiment survey was
applied to rural Ethiopian communities to understand
respondents’ preferences toward the institutional structure

From 2004 to 2012, Zambia experienced a
combination of good economic policies and high rates of
growth not seen since the early years after its
independence. While growth was mainly driven by rising
copper prices, other factors contributed to Zambia’s ability
to take advantage of this growth. The international debt
relief programs in 2004-2005 almost eliminated public debt
and provided the fiscal space for selective, high-priority

Costa Rica stands out for being one of
the most politically stable, progressive, and prosperous
nations in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Political
stability and inclusive social policies have contributed to
solid growth rates and the modernization of the country. The
combination of political stability, the social compact and
steady growth, has resulted in one of the lowest poverty
rates in LAC. Costa Rica is also a global leader for its

China is considered one of the most seriously eroded countries in the world. The
many causes of this degradation can be divided into natural, human-induced and root causes.
The consequences of watershed degradation are severe and reach even beyond the country’s
boundaries. Addressing this issue requires a sustainable participatory and integrated watershed
management approach. The Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Projects, implemented by
the Ministry of Water Resources and co-financed by the World Bank has provided a model that

This program document presents the World
Bank Group (WBG) program and results framework for the
Serbia country partnership framework (CPF) for FY2016-20.
For the first time since 2001, when the transition to a
market economy began accelerating, Serbia has a government
with a solid majority in parliament, enabling it to initiate
and implement the deep reforms necessary to create a
competitive economy and raise the income of the bottom forty

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, focuses on economic policy as the key to mobilizing a
coordinated global response to climate change. He talks
about the need to confront climate change, without which
there will be no hope of ending poverty or boosting shared
prosperity. He adds that the longer the delay in tackling
climate change, the higher the cost will be to do the right
thing for our planet and our children. He affirms that from the

The country partnership framework (CPF)
for Azerbaijan covering the period FY2016-20, sets out the
World Bank Group (WBG) support to the country on its path
toward a sustainable, inclusive, and private sector-led
growth underpinned by a diversified asset base. The
country’s strategic goals are laid out in its development
strategy - Azerbaijan 2020: vision for the future and other
strategic documents that aim at reducing Azerbaijan’s

This Country Partnership Framework (CPF)
sets out the World Bank Group (WBG) program for Albania for
the period FY15-19, aimed at supporting Albanias aspiration
to achieve equitable growth and integration into the
European Union. Albania emerged from the collapse of
isolationist communism in the early 1990s as one of the
poorest countries in Europe. The country then experienced
rapid growth of nearly 6 percent per annum, rising into the

The prime objective of the project/subproject is to improve the power sector in the State of
Mizoram and capacity building to achieve sustainable development in the long term. The Project is
expected to facilitate connection to remote/virgin area, to enhance the capacity & reliability of the system,
to improve voltage profile & to reduce losses and ultimately to enhance satisfaction for all categories of
consumers which in turn will spur growth & overall development in the whole State.

The use of the phrase, ‘political
economy’ originates in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and is
also found in the writings of David Ricardo and Karl Marx.
What is presently understood as ‘economics’ was, at that
time, termed ‘political economy’. This was understood to
mean ‘conditions of production organization in
nation-states’ (Acemoglu and Robinson, 2012, Beuran,
Raballand and Kapoor, 2011). Venerable scholars such as

This paper examines whether cooperative
behavior by respondents measured as contributions in a
one-shot public goods game correlates with reported
pro-forest collective action behaviors. All the outcomes
analyzed are costly in terms of time, land, or money. The
study finds significant evidence that more cooperative
individuals (or those who believe their group members will
cooperate) engage in collective action behaviors that