Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of
Macedonia has closed several gaps in gender inequalities,
particularly in education and health, but key disparities
persist in access to economic opportunities and agency,
particularly among certain ethnic groups. This report
provides an overview of gender disparities in several
outcomes related to human and physical endowments, access to
economic opportunities, and agency. In addition, it offers

This volume is organized as follows.
Chapter one address two questions: how has spatial
concentration evolved with growth and development, and what
are the efficiency implications of too much or too little
spatial concentration? This chapter summarizes the various
models that analyze growth by geographic concentration and
sets the foundation for concepts discussed in later
chapters. Chapter two focuses on urbanization in

Disasters are increasing worldwide with
more devastating effects than ever before. The absolute
number of disasters around the world has almost doubled
since the 1980s, but the average number of natural disasters
in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has almost tripled
over the same period. In MENA the interplay of natural
disasters, rapid urbanization, water scarcity, and climate
change has emerged as a serious challenge for policy and

This study investigates the impact of the Golden Quadrilateral highway project on the urban and rural growth of Indian manufacturing. The Golden Quadrilateral project upgraded the quality and width of 5,846 km of roads in India. The study uses a difference-in-difference estimation strategy to compare non-nodal districts based on their distance from the highway system. For the organized portion of the manufacturing sector, the Golden Quadrilateral project led to improvements in both urban and rural areas of non-nodal districts located 0-10 km from the Golden Quadrilateral.

The report has four main parts. In the
first, the commission reviews the 13 economies that have
sustained, high growth in the postwar period. Their growth
models had some common flavors: the strategic integration
with the world economy; the mobility of resources,
particularly labor; the high savings and investment rates;
and a capable government committed to growth. The report
goes on to describe the cast of mind and techniques of

In countries ravaged by a history of
civil war and genocide, the overarching goal for local
government and international donors alike is to promote
social cohesion, stability and community reconstruction. In
Sierra Leone, reconstruction programs emphasize a
decentralized approach to: (i) rapidly build market
institutions; (ii) enhance community decision making; and
(iii) strengthen intra and inter-community tolerance and

The aim of this study is to explore the
relationship between women's labor market outcomes and
partner violence among Tanzanian women, and to estimate the
difference in women's weekly earnings between women who
have been abused and women who have not. In addition, this
study estimates the lost earnings to women because of
partner violence as a share of Tanzania's gross
domestic product. Partner violence is the most common form

As countries develop, the demand for
water increases while water supply becomes less certain and
is often not enough to meet demand. In general, pressures
from both environment and human activities can increase the
likelihood of water scarcity. Such pressures include
increased socio-economic development and population growth,
change in people's diets, competition for available
water among different user sectors and growing climate

Access to markets is argued to have a
significant role in development. In order to quantify the
access of places to markets, policy makers are showing
increasing interest in accessibility indicators (Yoshida and
Deichmann 2009). This paper seeks to examine the spatial
relationship of access to market in the Kyrgyz Republic
using a recent census and household survey in order to
identify possible linkages with rates of poverty and other

This note summarizes findings from an
analysis of Vanuatu national leasing data drawn from the
Vanuatu department of lands databases for the period of
1980-2010. It provides a preliminary indication of how much
of Vanuatu is currently under lease, where land is being
leased, how leased land is being used, the length of leases,
and the extent that leases have been subdivided. The profile
also highlights areas where data collection needs to be improved.

After a policy-engineered slowdown in
2012, which saw GDP growth decline to 4.8 percent, the
lowest since 2008, Bhutan's economy is expected to
rebound to 6.5 percent this year, supported by hydropower
construction and higher electricity and food production,
following favorable rains. The tight fiscal stance
introduced in 2012 has been maintained to bring spending in
line with lower non-hydro revenues and a slowdown in foreign

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate
substantially exceeded China's population growth, which
averaged 1.4 percent annually between 1978 and 2009, and
real GDP per capita accordingly grew at 8.6 percent annually
during this period. China's urban population resides
primarily in city districts (shiqu) and town districts
(zhenqu), which constitute the urban core of larger
administrative units called cities (shi) and respectively