Attempts to measure competitiveness (CP) across countries have typically neglected the world¿s smallest economies. Hence, a simple composite index, the Small State Manufactured Export CP Index or SSMECI, was developed to benchmark industrial CP. The SSMECI represents the first attempt to provide a comprehensive picture of the CP performance of small states. The performance of small states varies across geographical regions, income groups, & country size classes. High-performing small states had better macroeconomic conditions, higher levels of foreign invest., more trade openness, better levels of educ., & modern infrastructure. A coherent, market-oriented CP strategy in small states is vital to success on international markets. Tables.

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.

The world economy is experiencing a very strong but uneven recovery, with many emerging market and developing economies facing obstacles to vaccination. The global outlook remains uncertain, with major risks around the path of the pandemic and the possibility of financial stress amid large debt loads. Policy makers face a difficult balancing act as they seek to nurture the recovery while safeguarding price stability and fiscal sustainability. A comprehensive set of policies will be required to promote a strong recovery that mitigates inequality and enhances environmental sustainability, ultimately putting economies on a path of green, resilient, and inclusive development. Prominent among the necessary policies are efforts to lower trade costs so that trade can once again become a robust engine of growth. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Global Economic Prospects. The Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group Flagship Report that examines global economic developments and prospects, with a special focus on emerging market and developing economies, on a semiannual basis (in January and June). Each edition includes analytical pieces on topical policy challenges faced by these economies.

Over the past two decades, the percentage of the world’s population living on less than a dollar a day has been cut in half. How much of that improvement is because of—or in spite of—globalization? While anti-globalization activists mount loud critiques and the media report breathlessly on globalization’s perils and promises, economists have largely remained silent, in part because of an entrenched institutional divide between those who study poverty and those who study trade and finance. Globalization and Poverty bridges that gap, bringing together experts on both international trade and poverty to provide a detailed view of the effects of globalization on the poor in developing nations, answering such questions as: Do lower import tariffs improve the lives of the poor? Has increased financial integration led to more or less poverty? How have the poor fared during various currency crises? Does food aid hurt or help the poor? Poverty, the contributors show here, has been used as a popular and convenient catchphrase by parties on both sides of the globalization debate to further their respective arguments. Globalization and Poverty provides the more nuanced understanding necessary to move that debate beyond the slogans.

An analysis of the relationship between growth and inequality of factor income in the Philippines, focusing on the role played by the labor market. A decomposition methodology is proposed, which provides a direct linkage between growth, inequality, and labor market characteristics. The paper provides empirical analysis using both, the Family Income and Expenditure Survey and Labor Force Survey, covering the period 1997-2003.