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Russia has manifested considerable interest in accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). This volume contains four policy papers that focus on the most prominent topics during the ongoing WTO accession process: 1. the dispersion of Russia's tariff structure; 2. trade and investment in the service sectors; 3. the treatment of state trading enterprises; and 4. the policy regime governing foreign direct investment. Bringing the Russian Federation into the rules-based WTO system is an objective broadly shared by the world community. Accession to the WTO comes at a critical juncture for the Russian government to focus on many important policy issues to stimulate growth. As part of the process of making liberalization commitments, as required by the existing members of the WTO, accession provides an opportunity to lock in reforms.
Evaluating design alternatives is a first step in introducing optimal water subsidy schemes. The definition of appropriate targeting criteria and subsidy levels needs to be supported by empirical analysis, generally an informationally demanding exercise. An assessment carried out in Panama revealed that targeting individual households would be preferable to geographically based targeting. Empirical analysis also showed that only a small group of very poor households needed a subsidy to pay their water bill.
Annotation This report adds to the discussion of land use in the Brazilian Amazon. It analyzes the harmful effects of increasing levels of rainfall on agricultural settlement and productivity.
Two theories are combined to explain why free trade areas have proliferated more than customs unions have.
This publication contains the proceedings of an international conference, held in Guatemala in October 2001, with participants from law schools, judges, practitioners and government officials from a number of Latin American countries and elsewhere. The conference theme focused on the links between judicial excellence, judicial reform and good practices in the performance of judicial education programmes. Topics considered include: the concept of judicial excellence, ethics and the role of human rights training, e-learning and distance education, in-service training and evaluation, the role of education in promoting judicial reform and attitudinal change in the courts system.
This report analyzes the impact of the financial crisis on investment trends and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of private participation in infrastructure (PPI) in six East Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.
A penetrating look into the extreme plutocracy Vladimir Putin has created and its implications for Russia's future This insightful study explores how the economic system Vladimir Putin has developed in Russia works to consolidate control over the country. By appointing his close associates as heads of state enterprises and by giving control of the FSB and the judiciary to his friends from the KGB, he has enriched his business friends from Saint Petersburg with preferential government deals. Thus, Putin has created a super wealthy and loyal plutocracy that owes its existence to authoritarianism. Much of this wealth has been hidden in offshore havens in the United States and the United Kingdom, where companies with anonymous owners and black money transfers are allowed to thrive. Though beneficial to a select few, this system has left Russia's economy in untenable stagnation, which Putin has tried to mask through military might.
Integrating transition economies into the global commercial and trade market system is a prolonged and risky process. This book is a collection of studies dealing with the different issues related to the liberalization of external relations in economies moving from a socialist to a market-based system The focus is on external sector developments, and the topics deal with balance of payments conditions, exchange rate policies and regimes, international competitiveness, international capital flows, trade, and other matters related to the integration of transition economies into the world economy. An understanding of the principles involved and of the experiences of both transition and advanced...
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.