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Economic volatility has come into its own after being treated for decades as a secondary phenomenon in the business cycle literature. This evolution has been driven by the recognition that non-linearities, long buried by the economist's penchant for linearity, magnify the negative effects of volatility on long-run growth and inequality, especially in poor countries. This collection organizes empirical and policy results for economists and development policy practitioners into four parts: basic features, including the impact of volatility on growth and poverty; commodity price volatility; the financial sector's dual role as an absorber and amplifier of shocks; and the management and prevention of macroeconomic crises. The latter section includes a cross-country study, case studies on Argentina and Russia, and lessons from the debt default episodes of the 1980s and 1990s.
The authors examine the performance of the crop insurance scheme in Karnataka, a southern state of India and the second driest state in the country. Their analysis highlights weaknesses in product design, implementation challenges, and operational problems. The authors' finding is that the crop insurance scheme in its current form does not achieve its objectives, either explicit (risk management) or implicit (safety net and containment of both the central and state governments' contingent liability). The crop insurance scheme performs poorly both in terms of coverage (number of hectares insured and number of farmers purchasing insurance) and financial performance. The authors provide a framework for designing a crop insurance scheme based on the premise that insurance is a cost effective risk management techniques. They also provide some new ideas and thinking toward both improving the existing crop insurance scheme and exploring alternatives to the current product, based on an area-yield approach.
Private voluntary health insurance already plays an important role in the health sector of many low and middle income countries. The book reviews the context under which private insurance could contribute to an improvement in the financial sustainability of the health sector, financial protection against the costs of illness, household income smoothing, access to care, and market productivity. This volume is the third in aseries of in-depth reviews of the role of health care financing in providing access for low-income populations to needed healthcare, protecting them from the impoverishing effects of illness, and addressing the important issues of social exclusion in government financed programs.
Huge economic losses from natural disasters, including nearly 100 000 fatalities world wide in 1999 alone, gave rise to a renewed recognition by government, industry and the public that national governments and international agencies cannot simply go on as they have in the past. Changes in financial cover, better enforcement procedures for building standards, better business contingency planning, and well developed emergency response were demanded from all sides. In this volume an international group of experts present recent research on the variety of approaches adopted by different countries to assess natural hazard risks and the incentives for mitigating and financing them, the particular focus being in earthquake risks. The volume also presents an in-depth summary of recent reforms in Turkey related to seismic risks, with comparative research from many other countries. Linkages are emphasised between science and engineering infrastructure, insurance and risk management, and public policy.
In providing support for disaster-prone areas such as the Caribbean, the development community has begun to progress from disaster reconstruction assistance to funding for investment in mitigation as an explicit tool for sustainable development. Now it must enter a new phase, applying risk transfer mechanisms to address the financial risk of exposure to catastrophic events that require funding beyond what can be controlled solely through mitigation and physical measures.
This publication is a compilation of reports on research projects initiated, under way, or completed in fiscal year 2001 (July 1, 2000 through June 30, 2001). The abstracts cover 150 research projects from the World Bank and grouped under 11 major headings including poverty and social development, health and population, education, labor and employment, environment, infrastructure and urban development, and agriculture and rural development. The abstracts detail the questions addressed, the analytical methods used, the findings to date and their policy implications. Each abstract identifies the expected completion date of each project, the research team, and reports or publications produced.
Over the last three decades drought episodes have resulted in severe social problems in Mediterranean countries, receiving broad attention from the international scientific and policy communities. The experiences in the development and implementation of drought management plans highlight the success and challenges of coping with drought for societies with different vulnerabilities and emphasize risk-based drought management as a critical approach to mitigate the impacts associated to drought-induced water shortages. Based on these experiences and the current methods for evaluating risk, the book synthesises guidelines for drought management that link science and policy and that can be applie...
This report examines the existing constraints and opportunities to implement a catastrophe insurance system which can resolve the key obstacles currently impeding broader implementation of a risk funding approach. The four main pillars in such a strategy involve: strengthening the insurance sector regulatory requirements and supervision; establishment of broad based pooled catastrophe funding structures with efficient risk transfer tools; promoting public insurance policies linked to programs for loss reduction in the uninsured sectors; and strengthening the risk assessment and enforcement of structural measures such as zoning and building code compliance.
Almost 90 percent of Moroccan agriculture is not irrigated, and since most of Morocco's crops depend on adequate rainfall, yields and production vary widely. A drought insurance program based on rainfall index contracts is feasible in parts of Morocco and could significantly benefit its farmers.
Structural adjustment has not promoted domestic deforestation, but it has increased net imports of wood products, implying some displacement of pressure onto other countries' forest resources. Devaluations have significantly increased the exploitation of forest resources.