Women, Business and the Law 2021 is the seventh in a series of annual studies measuring the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The project presents eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they move through their lives and careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. This year’s report updates all indicators as of October 1, 2020 and builds evidence of the links between legal gender equality and women’s economic inclusion. By examining the economic decisions women make throughout their working lives, as well as the pace of reform over the past 50 years, Women, Business and the Law 2021 makes an important contribution to research and policy discussions about the state of women’s economic empowerment. Prepared during a global pandemic that threatens progress toward gender equality, this edition also includes important findings on government responses to COVID-19 and pilot research related to childcare and women’s access to justice.

We study bank portfolio allocations during the transition of the real sector to a knowledge economy in which firms use less tangible capital and invest more in intangible assets. We show that, as firms shift toward intangible assets that have lower collateral values, banks reallocate their portfolios away from commercial loans toward other assets, primarily residential real estate loans and liquid assets. This effect is more pronounced for large and less well capitalized banks and is robust to controlling for real estate loan demand. Our results suggest that increased firm investment in intangible assets can explain up to 20% of bank portfolio reallocation from commercial to residential lending over the last four decades.

The World Bank Group A to Z provides the most concise and essential information about the mission, policies, procedures, products, and services of the new World Bank Group. This second edition is a follow-up to the first volume released for the 2014 Annual Meetings. The World Bank Group A to Z series builds on previous editions of A Guide to the World Bank to include features not found in its predecessors including: a graphical introduction to the World Bank Group, highlighting the Bank Group's goals, financials, regions, and results; examples and photos of Bank Group projects and programs; and tools to guide you to the information you are looking for (even if you don’t know exactly what that is). It also reflects the wide-ranging reforms that have taken place within the World Bank Group in recent years, including the launch of the new World Bank Group Strategy; new approaches to development; the establishment of new Global Practice Groups and Cross Cutting Solutions Areas; and the goal of becoming a "Solutions Bank," one that will marshal the vast reserves of evidence and experiential knowledge across the five World Bank Group agencies and apply them to local problems. With more than 280 entries arranged in encyclopedic A-to-Z format, readers can easily find up-to-date information about the five agencies of the World Bank Group and the wide range of areas in which they work: from agriculture, education, energy, health, social protection and labor to gender, jobs, conflict, private sector development, trade, water and climate change. The World Bank Group's work in all of these areas now focuses on two new twin goals: eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity of the poorest 40 percent in every developing country.

Whether considering the art of debate; understanding dialogic teaching methods; the necessity of questioning; or the ability to assess and develop these skills, this book has been written by a classroom teacher, for classroom teachers, in the hope that oracy is dragged out of the shadows and recognised for its significance to improving students’ life skills and future aspirations. When we think about the transferable skills all students will take with them post-academia, oracy, literacy and numeracy should logistically stand proudly side by side. This triad of skillsets are the key components that are used to measure intellectual development in childhood, as well as being further instilled and nurtured in all students throughout their education. However, as children become students and as these students become critical thinkers, an element of this crucial triad appears to have been disowned in recent years. In 2020, oracy appeared to have even less relevance in academia, with the only supportive provision for both Language and Literature to deal with any missed learning being the eradication of any recorded proof of this skill. Yet another indication that oracy has, in some circumstances, been cast into the shadows and banished into the realm of the subject specific curricular. We need to be realistic and embrace the idea that this skill is a necessity to success for all learners post-academia. Training students in the ability to communicate effectively with different audiences in different contexts, needs to be brought back into the spotlight in the hopes that we can attempt to resolve any misconceptions regarding oracy’s place in the curriculum. Through the recognition of the theoretical understanding of communication that will provide the foundations for this book, the aim is that it acts as a supportive guide that will provide suggestions and strategies in order to hopefully empower and encourage educators in all subjects in education, thus restoring the use and appreciation for this necessary skill both inside and outside the classroom. For so long, focus has been on the stress and rigor of assessments, and the fulfilment of the curriculum to ensure that all students can navigate their GCSE examinations. This book will question whether this will have a detrimental effect on students who may have been exposed to fewer of the skills that they will require when leaving an educational setting and venturing into everyday life. So, let’s address the elephant in the room, and provide it a voice.

This volume offers a simple, systematic guide to creating a knowledge sharing practice in your organization. It shows how to build the enabling environment and develop the skills needed to capture and share knowledge gained from operational experiences to improve performance and scale-up successes. Its recommendations are grounded on the insights gained from the past seven years of collaboration between the World Bank and its clients around the world—ministries and national agencies operating in various sectors—who are working to strengthen their operations through robust knowledge sharing. While informed by the academic literature on knowledge management and organizational learning, this handbook’s operational background and many real-world examples and tips provide a missing, practical foundation for public sector officials in developing countries and for development practitioners. However, though written with a public sector audience in mind, the overall concepts and approaches will also hold true for most organizations in the private sector and the developed world.

In the wake of the financial crises of the late 1990s, there was a surge of interest in the systematic assessment of financial sectors, with a view to identifying vulnerabilities and evaluating the sector's developmental needs. Consequently, there has been an increased demand from financial sector authorities in many countries for information on key issues and sound practices in the assessment of financial systems and the appropriate design of policy responses. In response, Financial Sector Assessmsnet presents a general analytical framework and broad guidance on approaches, methodologies and key techniques for assessing the stability and development needs of financial systems. It synthesizes current global sound practices in financial sector assessment.