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Policy-oriented discussions often assume that "better targeting" implies larger impacts on poverty or more cost-effective interventions. The literature on the economics of targeting warns against that assumption, but evidence has been scarce. The paper begins with a critical review of the strengths and weaknesses of the targeting measures found in practice. It then exploits an unusually large micro data set for China to estimate aggregate and local-level poverty impacts of the country's main urban antipoverty program. Standard measures of targeting are found to be uninformative, or even deceptive, about impacts on poverty and cost-effectiveness in reducing poverty. In program design and evaluation, it would be better to focus directly on the program's outcomes for poor people than to rely on prevailing measures of targeting.

Administrative costs --- Cash transfers --- Counterfactual --- Household income --- Political economy --- Political support --- Poor --- Poverty Impact Evaluation --- Poverty Monitoring and Analysis --- Poverty Reduction --- Public Spending --- Services and Transfers to Poor --- Targeting

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Vietnam is implementing a long run reform agenda for the power sector, with the aim of restructuring the sector to improve internal operations, efficiency, and the quality of services. The World Bank has an ongoing engagement in the sector which started in 1995. The design and implementation of the power sector reform strategy has been supported through technical assistance and lending operations, as well as preparation of a proposed series of Power Sector Reform Development Policy Loans (DPLs). A number of Poverty and Social Impact Assessment (PSIA) activities will be carried out in support of Vietnam's power sector reforms and as part of the World Bank's due diligence work for the power sector DPLs. This PSIA focuses on assessing the distributional impacts of recent tariff reforms introduced in March, 2009 which changed Vietnam's Incremental Block Tariff (IBT) structure for residential consumers. In addition to changes in lifeline tariffs and coverage, all on-grid rural consumers were brought under a unified tariff structure.

Administrative Costs --- Electricity --- Employment --- Energy --- Energy and Poverty Alleviation --- Energy Production and Transportation --- Food Consumption --- Household Consumption --- Household Surveys --- Income Distribution --- Inequality --- Poverty Reduction --- Power Sector --- Private Sector --- Purchasing Power --- Rural Electrification --- Rural Poverty --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Social Development --- Technical Assistance

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Nonperforming Loans (NPLs) in the banking system constituted 16.5 percent of total loans, owing primarily to the corporate sector. The Credit Bureau, maintained by the Association of Serbian Banks, also discloses dramatic increases in corporate and retail defaults over the past year. NPL resolution and loan loss mitigation is hampered by a still evolving but uneven collateral and enforcement framework that complicates restructuring and leads to delays and lower recoveries in execution procedures. Corporate debt resolution is further complicated by a pattern of corporate misconduct designed to circumvent a creditor's legitimate enforcement rights. This is particularly acute in response to account blockages. In an effort to survive, business owners frequently engage in a pattern of corporate fraud to avoid their legitimate obligations by creating alter ego or shell companies through which to conduct their ongoing business activities, with all funds passing through the new legal entity. That entity is free from debt and can open bank accounts, engage in contracts, and carry on business as usual using the corporate assets of the prior legal entity under cleverly disguised lease or contractual use obligations. In most modern economies, such practices constitute fraud or fraudulent transfers that can carry stiff penalties, including loss of business privileges. Other reported abuses include applying for voluntary dissolution during which the owner or a friendly receiver continues to operate the business for years in an apparent wind-down of the business, while ignoring creditor claims.

Administrative Costs --- Asset Management --- Bank Accounts --- Bankruptcy --- Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress --- Capital Markets --- Collateral --- Debt Markets --- Debt Restructuring --- Deposit Insurance --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial and Private Sector Development --- Financial Crisis --- Financial Institutions --- Financial Regulation & Supervision --- Fraud --- Insolvency --- Legal Framework --- Mortgages --- Ownership Rights --- Penalties --- Property Rights --- Receivership --- Small Businesses --- Standards and Financial Reporting --- Transparency

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The World Bank financed the Gujarat State Highway Project (GSHP) during 2001-07. The project development objective was to enhance the capacity of the Government of Gujarat (GOG) for effective and efficient planning and management of road infrastructure, while concurrently maximizing existing road infrastructure asset productivity through priority investments and increased maintenance funding. The project not only achieved its objective and targets successfully, but also was implemented with a significant cost reduction (about 23 percent). The GSHP resulted in a reduction in the backlog of major maintenance and an improved network to meet rapidly growing transport demand in the state. The project had the unique distinction of no contract disputes, a rarity among the highway development projects in India. The project also set best practices in developing and managing a very comprehensive asset management system, state of the art quality assurance framework and a very comprehensive training and capacity building program. The annual road sector allocation has grown from USD 30 million in 1995-1996 to an impressive USD 610 million in 2010-11, currently the second largest among all the Indian states. This study attempts to identify the key elements of the Gujarat road sector reforms and explores whether and, if so, how such reforms can be replicated across other Indian states and possibly even in other countries in the region.

Accountability --- Administrative Costs --- Asset Management --- Bridges --- Bureaucracy --- Capacity Building --- Decision Making --- Disclosure --- Employment --- Financial Management --- Financial Services --- Good Governance --- Governance --- Highways --- Housing --- Human Resources --- Insurance --- Investment Climate --- Legal Framework --- Municipalities --- National Governance --- Ports --- Productivity --- Public Finance --- Public Procurement --- Public Sector --- Public Sector Development --- Public Sector Management and Reform --- Railways --- Rehabilitation --- Resettlement --- Roads --- Rural Development --- Rural Roads & Transport --- Sanitation --- Transparency --- Transport --- Vehicles

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This report is the output of the finalize toolkit phase (phase three) for the project sustainability toolkit for transport projects. The overall objective, as defined in the terms of reference, is 'to make development projects more sustainable by reducing the risk of failure of projects attaining their long-term development goals and enhance the prospects for their sustained impact on development ensuring that there is local commitment to longer-term buy-in'. The main deliverable of the project is a project sustainability toolkit, of which this report outlines the final version. This toolkit helps to gauge the potential for the project to be sustainable into the long-term and provide advice to help overcome common barriers to the successful development and implementation of projects. The guidance covers the expected opportunities and constraints related to sustainability. The toolkit is intended to reduce the risk of project failure in terms of sustainable development and enable recipient country clients to incorporate core sustainability principles into transport projects at every stage of project planning, design and delivery. This will improve the prospects for longer-term sustainability and will enhance the long-term impacts of development projects. Task Team Leaders (TTL's) will benefit from additional evidence that supports investments intended to consolidate long-term development, and borrowers will benefit from projects with improved and demonstrable longer-term beneficial impact. The toolkit provides general advice for transport sector investments and is not modally specific. Information on the sub-components of the key sustainability principles has not been included since it was considered that this did not add value or further understanding of the issues.

Adaptation to Climate Change --- Administrative Costs --- Airports --- Carbon Emissions --- Climate Change --- Communities --- Community Involvement --- Decentralization --- Development Economics & Aid Effectiveness --- Development Policy --- Economies of Scale --- Employment --- Employment Opportunities --- Environment --- Environmental Economics & Policies --- Financial Management --- Gender --- Habitat --- Indigenous Peoples --- Legislation --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Municipalities --- Regional Rural Development --- Resettlement --- Risk Management --- Roads --- Rural Development --- Savings --- Sustainability --- Technical Assistance --- Transport --- Vehicles