Measuring poverty in the Pacific is important to keep poor people on the policy agenda, to design effective policies and programs and to carry out rigorous evaluation so that we know what works and why. There are various definitions of poverty, ranging from a narrow focus on adequate calorie consumption through to broader concepts of...

Papua New Guinea is home to around 6.7 million people, with approximately 87 per cent living in rural areas. Five influential studies conducted over a 30 year period suggest a strong spatial component to disadvantage and show relatively little change in the poorest areas over time. Isolation, lack of income earning opportunities and geography appear...

The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business reports have been ranking countries since 2006. However, do improvements in rankings generate greater foreign direct investment inflows? This study is the first to test such a proposition empirically with Arellano-Bond dynamic panel estimators using the official rankings from 2006 to 2009. The paper shows this relationship is...

Some 18 million people die annually from poverty-related causes. Many more are suffering grievously from treatable medical conditions. These burdens can be substantially reduced by supplementing the rules governing pharmaceutical innovation. Established by the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Agreement, these rules cause advanced medicines to be priced beyond the reach of the poor and steer...

This report presents the findings of a study of Central Finance Agencies (CFAs) that was financed jointly by the Bank Netherlands Partnership Program (BNPP) and the World Bank since July 2008. The work involved the preparation of a framework paper by Bjoern Dressel and Jim Brumby, which employs political economy considerations; a set of case...