Doing Business 2020

Doing Business 2020
Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2019-11-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464814414

Seventeen in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 190 economies, Doing Business 2020 measures aspects of regulation affecting 10 areas of everyday business activity.

Enabling the Business of Agriculture 2017

Enabling the Business of Agriculture 2017
Author: World Bank Group
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 684
Release: 2017-04-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464810222

Enabling the Business of Agriculture 2017, the third report in the series, offers insights into how laws and regulations affect private sector development for agribusinesses, including producer organizations and other agricultural entrepreneurs. Globally comparable data and scored indicators encourage regulations that ensure the safety and quality of agricultural inputs, goods and services but are not too costly or burdensome. The goal is to facilitate the operation of agribusinesses and allow them to thrive in a socially and environmentally responsible way, enabling them to provide essential agricultural inputs and services to farmers that could increase their productivity and profits. Regional, income-group and country-specific trends and data observations are presented for 62 countries and across 12 topics: seed, fertilizer, machinery, finance, markets, transport, water, ICT, land, livestock, environmental sustainability and gender. Data are current as of June 30, 2016. For more information, please see http://eba.worldbank.org

Global Productivity

Global Productivity
Author: Alistair Dieppe
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 552
Release: 2021-06-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464816093

The COVID-19 pandemic struck the global economy after a decade that featured a broad-based slowdown in productivity growth. Global Productivity: Trends, Drivers, and Policies presents the first comprehensive analysis of the evolution and drivers of productivity growth, examines the effects of COVID-19 on productivity, and discusses a wide range of policies needed to rekindle productivity growth. The book also provides a far-reaching data set of multiple measures of productivity for up to 164 advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies, and it introduces a new sectoral database of productivity. The World Bank has created an extraordinary book on productivity, covering a large group of countries and using a wide variety of data sources. There is an emphasis on emerging and developing economies, whereas the prior literature has concentrated on developed economies. The book seeks to understand growth patterns and quantify the role of (among other things) the reallocation of factors, technological change, and the impact of natural disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic. This book is must-reading for specialists in emerging economies but also provides deep insights for anyone interested in economic growth and productivity. Martin Neil Baily Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution Former Chair, U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisers This is an important book at a critical time. As the book notes, global productivity growth had already been slowing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and collapses with the pandemic. If we want an effective recovery, we have to understand what was driving these long-run trends. The book presents a novel global approach to examining the levels, growth rates, and drivers of productivity growth. For anyone wanting to understand or influence productivity growth, this is an essential read. Nicholas Bloom William D. Eberle Professor of Economics, Stanford University The COVID-19 pandemic hit a global economy that was already struggling with an adverse pre-existing condition—slow productivity growth. This extraordinarily valuable and timely book brings considerable new evidence that shows the broad-based, long-standing nature of the slowdown. It is comprehensive, with an exceptional focus on emerging market and developing economies. Importantly, it shows how severe disasters (of which COVID-19 is just the latest) typically harm productivity. There are no silver bullets, but the book suggests sensible strategies to improve growth prospects. John Fernald Schroders Chaired Professor of European Competitiveness and Reform and Professor of Economics, INSEAD

Policy Uncertainty in Japan

Policy Uncertainty in Japan
Author: Ms.Elif C Arbatli
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2017-05-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484302362

We develop new economic policy uncertainty (EPU) indices for Japan from January 1987 onwards building on the approach of Baker, Bloom and Davis (2016). Each index reflects the frequency of newspaper articles that contain certain terms pertaining to the economy, policy matters and uncertainty. Our overall EPU index co-varies positively with implied volatilities for Japanese equities, exchange rates and interest rates and with a survey-based measure of political uncertainty. The EPU index rises around contested national elections and major leadership transitions in Japan, during the Asian Financial Crisis and in reaction to the Lehman Brothers failure, U.S. debt downgrade in 2011, Brexit referendum, and Japan’s recent decision to defer a consumption tax hike. Our uncertainty indices for fiscal, monetary, trade and exchange rate policy co-vary positively but also display distinct dynamics. VAR models imply that upward EPU innovations foreshadow deteriorations in Japan’s macroeconomic performance, as reflected by impulse response functions for investment, employment and output. Our study adds to evidence that credible policy plans and strong policy frameworks can favorably influence macroeconomic performance by, in part, reducing policy uncertainty.