This paper develops a dynamic model that
explains the pattern of population and production allocation
in an economy with an urban location and a rural one.
Agglomeration economies make urban dwellers benefit from a
larger population living in the city and urban firms become
more productive when they operate in locations with a larger
labor force. However, congestion costs associated with a too
large population size limit the process of urban-rural

The wide media coverage of the series as
well as the interest in the blog show that the debate has
been gradually moving from ministerial corridors to the
public arena. This latest update foresees that the Tanzanian
economy will maintain its resilience by continuing to grow
at about 7 percent in the coming years. If some clouds are
looming on the external and fiscal horizons, the update
argues that the risks they pose should be manageable. The

In past four years, the World Bank, in
close cooperation with the Government of Zimbabwe, and the
support of international partners - has carried out a number
of studies and technical assistance activities in key areas
of the socio-economic recovery. In line with Bank’s Africa
strategy of fostering Africa’s economic transformation and
poverty reduction, the overall goal of these studies has
been to support broad-based development of Zimbabwe by

Urbanization is undoubtedly a key driver
of development - cities provide the national platform for
prosperity, job creation, and poverty reduction. But
urbanization also poses enormous challenges that one is
familiar with: congestion, air pollution, social divisions,
crime, the breakdown of public services and infrastructure,
and the slums that one billion urban resident's call
home. Urbanization is perhaps the single most important

As the global population heads toward 9 billion by 2050, decisions made today will lock countries into growth patterns that may or may not be sustainable in the future. Care must be taken to ensure that cities and roads, factories and farms are designed, managed, and regulated as efficiently as possible to wisely use natural resources while supporting the robust growth developing countries still need.

This report looks at the growth poles
policy in Romania to determine ways to increase its
effectiveness and efficiency for the next programming cycle
(2014-2020). The growth poles policy in Romania has been
initiated in 2008, as a means to support a balanced economic
development of the country, while still targeting
investments to maximize economic impact. A total of seven
growth poles have been designated and are currently

Within any economy, agriculture is the
sector that is most sensitive to climate change. In Armenia,
however, the risks are even more pronounced because the
majority of the rural population depends on agriculture for
their livelihoods. This publication outlines the policy
options available to Armenia, based on a rigorous evaluation
of the impacts of climate change on agricultural systems. It
provides a solid foundation for taking strategic and, in

The Mapping Carbon Pricing Initiatives Report maps existing and emerging carbon pricing initiatives around the world. It does not provide a quantitative, transaction-based analysis of the international carbon market since current market conditions invalidate any attempt to undertake such an analysis. The development of national and subnational carbon pricing initiatives in an increasing number of countries calls for a different focus.

A data set of key macro-sustainability
indicators, constructed after several fact-finding missions,
and World Bank methodologies on estimating wealth accounting
are used to study Mauritania's wealth, which is
estimated to be between USD50 and USD60 billion. The
country's produced wealth represents roughly 12 percent
of total wealth, much less than in lower-middle-income
countries; by contrast, natural wealth represents

Changes in climate and their impact on agricultural systems and rural economies are already evident throughout Europe and Central Asia (ECA). Adaptation measures now in use in Moldova, largely piecemeal efforts, will be insufficient to prevent impacts on agricultural production over the coming decades. There is growing interest at country and development partner levels to have a better understanding of the exposure, sensitivities, and impacts of climate change at farm level, and to develop and prioritize adaptation measures to mitigate the adverse consequences.

Decision makers facing abatement targets
need to decide which abatement measures to implement, and in
which order. This paper investigates the ability of marginal
abatement cost (MAC) curves to inform this decision,
reanalysing a MAC curve developed by the World Bank on
Brazil. Misinterpreting MAC curves and focusing on
short-term targets (e.g., for 2020) would lead to
under-invest in expensive, long-to-implement and

This strategic environmental assessment
(SEA) is a technical piece intended to assist in the current
and future identification of priority industrial pollutants
and economic instruments to minimize industrial waste. This
industrial sector SEA is one of six pieces of technical
support envisioned by the Himachal Pradesh (HP) inclusive
green growth (IGG) development policy loan (DPL) to fill
knowledge gaps and strengthen operational success of the