Cities' development matters to
Pakistan. It is central to economic growth, job creation and
quality of life. This is also one of the core themes in the
2011 Government of Pakistan Framework for Economic Growth
(FEG). This paper explores the conditions for
growth-enhancing spatial change in Pakistan s cities.
Cities' development matters to Pakistan. Two strands of
analysis are developed. First, it reviews the performance

"Ecosystem services" has
become a catch-phrase for the complex connections between
the natural environment and human well-being. This paper
considers the impact of changes in the supply of ecosystem
services, and programs to increase their supply, on
near-term growth of gross domestic product. It focuses on
the relationship between locally generated versus
transboundary services and growth in developing countries,

The paper provides an up-to date and
selective review of the literature on how social safety nets
contribute to growth. The evidence is carefully chosen to
show how safety nets have the potential to overcome
constraints on growth linked to market failures, and is
organized into 4 distinct pathways: i) encouraging asset
accumulation by changing incentives and by addressing
imperfections in financial markets caused by constraints in

This documented case of climate change
adaptation in Campeche Mexico grapples with a problem that
is fundamental to addressing climate change risks in areas
of high vulnerability, which is how to reach consensus and
take decisions under an uncertain future. The state of
Campeche in Mexico, is used as an example. With its long
coastline, Campeche is highly vulnerable to current and
projected future climate threats. Two different approaches

Much of the rural poor -- who are
growing in number -- are concentrated in ecologically
fragile and remote areas. The key ecological scarcity
problem facing such poor households is a vicious cycle of
declining livelihoods, increased ecological degradation and
loss of resource commons, and declining ecosystem services
on which the poor depend. In addition, developing economies
with high concentrations of their populations on fragile

After five consecutive years of robust growth, the total value of the global carbon market stalled at $142 billion. Suffering from the lack of post-2012 regulatory clarity, the value of the primary Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) market fell by double-digits for the third year in a row, ending lower than it was in 2005, the first year of the Kyoto protocol. The Assigned Amount Unit (AAU) and the United States Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) markets shrank as well.

This paper analyzes real estate market dynamics over the past decade in the city of Ahmedabad, India, with a view to improving the living conditions of the large population living in slums. The paper combines census data, the National Sample Survey, and slum household surveys to review the demand side of the market. Satellite photography was used to estimate the production of both formal and informal housing over the past ten years. Analysis of the execution of the development plan for the Ahmedabad region and town planning schemes shows how the system of housing supply has evolved.

Long-term economic growth is the key
driver for increasing the economic wellbeing of the
population, but the pattern and the incidence of growth also
matter. Economic growth narrowly based on certain enclave
sectors or benefitting small groups is neither socially
stable nor sustainable. Along these lines, the World Bank
recently revised its institutional strategy, establishing
two goals, namely: (i) ending extreme global poverty, the

The female population deficit in India
has been explained in a number of ways, but the great
heterogeneity in the deficit across districts within India
still remains an open question. This paper argues that
across India, a largely agrarian economy, soil texture
varies exogenously and determines the workability of the
soil and the technology used in land preparation. Deep
tillage, possible only in lighter and looser loamy soils,

This report investigates Egypt's
regional economic growth, explores the causes for
geographically unbalanced development, and proposes policy
options to make unbalanced growth compatible with inclusive
development. In Egypt, despite rapid progress in most
welfare indicators in lagging regions, there are still
substantial gaps in consumption and opportunities between
growth poles and the rest of the country. This report's

While agreeing on the choice of an
optimal investment decision is already difficult for any
diverse group of actors, priorities, and world views, the
presence of deep uncertainties further challenges the
decision-making framework by questioning the robustness of
all purportedly optimal solutions. This paper summarizes the
additional uncertainty that is created by climate change,
and reviews the tools that are available to project climate

In this issue: cities: planning,
coordinating, and financing for a better future; measuring
inequality of opportunity; breaking out of the middle-income
trap; real-time macro monitoring and fiscal policy; bank
regulation and supervision: a crisis update; how does
nationalizing water services affect quality? And what drives
investments under the clean development mechanism?