This chapter emphasizes the importance of health policy and its implementation and connection to economic growth. The chapter also offers a different view of progress in the provision of better health facilities. The study looks at today’s health systems—the amalgam of people, practices, rules, and institutions that serve the health needs of a population—and at the economics behind them. The role good health plays in individuals’ and households’ ability to rise and remain above the poverty line is stressed. Several health reports are presented.

The second issue in a new series, Global Financial Development Report 2014 takes a step back and re-examines financial inclusion from the perspective of new global datasets and new evidence. It builds on a critical mass of new research and operational work produced by World Bank Group staff as well as outside researchers and contributors.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the relationship between financial and real sector development. The different chapters, written by leading contributors in the field, survey research on the importance of financial development for economic growth, the causes and consequences of financial fragility, the historic development of financial systems in several major economies and regions of the world, and the regulatory and supervisory underpinnings of financial sector development.

A stable and sound financial system plays a critical role in mediating funds from surplus units to investors, making it a prerequisite for economic development. Financial intermediaries have been vulnerable to adverse changes in the local and global economy and experienced frequent bubble-and-bust episodes historically. Analyses of financial crises reveal that the incentive created by neo-liberal financial principles is inconsistent with stable financial systems, and viable solutions require structuring institutions in a way that incentives are well aligned with the fundamental principles of financial systems. By drawing on the theoretical framework of the financial restraint model, this book analyses financial sectors’ rents or bank rents and their effects on banks’ performance and stability, and presents evidence on the relationship between rent and incentive through case studies of both developed and developing countries.

If the growing demand for global governance breathed new life into the established G7/8 and the more recent G20, it raised questions about the evolving and optimal relationship between them. One answer arose from the G20’s third summit, when it proclaimed the G20 would govern global finance and economics, while the old G8 would focus on development and security. Yet this rough division of labour did not address which issues lay within each category and how interconnections would be addressed to create comprehensive, coherent global governance for a complex world. This volume considers these questions. It explores the summits’ performance, the division of labour during their coexistence, their comparative strengths and limitations, and how the future partnership could be improved to benefit the global community. The authors explain the recent evolution and performance of the G8 and G20 summits and their evolving empirical relationship. They consider the G8/G20 relationship with other actors engaged in global governance, notably the major multilateral organizations and civil society. They assess G7/8 and G20 effectiveness and accountability. And they identify, based on this empirical and analytical foundation, how the relationship can be improved for today’s tightly wired world.

Financial stability is one of the key tenets of a central bank’s functions. Since the financial crisis of 2007-2009, an area of hot debate is the extent to which the central bank should be involved with prudential regulation. This book examines the macro and micro-prudential regulatory frameworks and systems of the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Canada and Germany. Drawing on the regulator frameworks of these regions, this book examines the central banks’ roles of crisis management, resolution and prudential regulation. Alison Lui compares the institutional structure of the new ‘twin-peaks’ model in the UK to the Australian model, and the multi-regulatory US model and the single regulatory Canadian model. The book also discusses the extent the central bank in these countries, as well as the ECB, are involved with financial stability, and argues that the institutional architecture and geographical closeness of the Bank of England and Financial Policy Committee give rise to the fear that the UK central bank may become another single super-regulator, which may provide the Bank of England with too much power. As a multi-regional, comparative study on the importance and effectiveness of prudential regulation, this book will be of great use and interest to students and researchers in finance and bank law, economics and banking.

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through Finance, Technology and Law Reform Achieving the SDGs requires a fundamental rethink from businesses and governments across the globe. To make the ambitious goals a reality, trillions of dollars need to be harnessed to mobilise finance and accelerate progress towards the SDGs. Bringing together leaders from the World Bank, the financial and business sectors, the startup community and academia, this important, topically relevant volume explains what the SDGs are, how they came about and how they can be accelerated. Real-world case studies and authoritative insights address how to direct investment of existing financial resources and re-align the global financial system to reflect the SDGs. In depth chapters discuss how financial institutions, such as UBS Wealth Management, Manulife Asset Management and Moody’s Rating Agency are supporting the SDGs. The opportunities arising from Blockchain, Big Data, Digital Identity and cutting-edge FinTech and RegTech applications are explored, whilst the relevance of sustainable and transparent global supply chains is underscored. Significant attention is paid to law reform which can accelerate progress of the SDGs through SME Financing, Crowdfunding, Peer-to-Peer Lending and tax restructuring. To achieve the ‘World We Want’, much needs to be done. The recommendations contained within this book are critical for supporting a fundamental shift in thinking from business and governments around the world, and for building a more just and prosperous future for all.

This edition of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Minerals Yearbook discusses the performance of the worldwide minerals and materials industries during year 2013 and provides background information to assist in interpreting that performance. These annual reviews are designed to provide timely statistical data on mineral commodities in various countries. This volume covers data from Asia and the Pacific. Each report includes sections on government policies and programs, environmental issues, trade and production data, industry structure and ownership, commodity sector developments, infrastructure, and a summary outlook. Audience: Government employees and contractors, as well as businesses and employees, all working in mineral-related trades, especially with interests in statistics about mineral commodities overseas, will find this resource invaluable.

This book analyzes how financial liberalization affected the development of the financial crisis in Europe, with particular attention given to the ways in which power asymmetries within Western Europe facilitated financial liberalization and distributed the costs and gains from it. The author combines institutional narrative analysis with empirical surveys and econometrics, as well as country-level studies of financial liberalization and its consequences before and after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

Low growth, low investment, insufficient spend on infrastructure, weak bank lending to the corporate sector, and funding deficiencies of small and medium-sized enterprises are all causes of concern in Europe. To many, they point to fundamental problems in the financing of European companies and in Europe's financial systems. Are these concerns valid and do the structure and performance of the financial system lie at their heart? If so, what should be done to address them, and have the right policy prescriptions been identified to date? A product of the Restarting European Investment Finance research programme, Finance and Investment: The European Case brings together leading researchers to consider the causes of the persistently low level of investment in Europe. It examines the extent to which the financial system is a contributory factor and identifies possible remedies, considering the relation of finance to corporate sector investment, the lending behaviour of banks, the provision of equity financing, and the role of public sector institutions, regulation, and taxation. Finance and Investment provides one of the most comprehensive and thorough analyses of any financial system undertaken to date. It reflects a large body of research using new and existing data sets, employing advanced empirical tools, and exploiting the unique insights provided by the tumultuous events of financial and sovereign debt crises. Together, they comprise an exceptional body of knowledge to advance academic thinking and guide policy formulation.