World Development Report 1998-1999, now in its twenty-first edition, focuses on the role of knowledge and information as a factor of development, including the important trade-offs in strategies and policies and many other challenges. It examines such important questions as why have some developing countries been able to exploit the rapidly increasing stock of global knowledge more than others and what can be done to help those falling behind? The Report also looks at the challenge of finding the balance between private initiative and public intervention that encourages innovation and manages attendant risks. It deals with the role of international assistance and international organizations, which can help develop understanding about these complex processes, help to transfer lessons of development experience across countries, and help finance crucial knowledge investments of importance to developing countries. Known as the standard reference for international economic data, the World Development Report 1998-1999 provides a set of Selected World Development Indicators as an appendix, presenting social and economic statistics for more than 200 countries.