Once upon a (not long ago) time, there was a widely established set of blueprints for regimes of monetary and exchange rate policies expected to fit a full range of economies, and to serve as a guide for international monetary cooperation. That world is gone with the global economic crisis. As I explain in my new policy note, The Arrival of Asset Prices in Monetary Policy, a reshuffling of views on monetary and exchange rate policies will probably accompany new financial regulation.

Here are some of the issues I discuss in my notendash;and hope to discuss with you too:

This version is not final andnbsp;may benbsp;subject to further changes. The final WDR 2010 will be out in October.

The financial and economic crises of 2008 had gender-specific impacts and placed a disproportionate burden on women, in particular poor, migrant and minority women. Even though both women and men are affected by job losses, women are often laid off first, as men are traditionally considered to be the main ldquo;breadwinnersrdquo;. Some of the implications of the global financial and economic crisis on women are:

The literature on corruption is large and growing. In this and upcoming Fridays Academy commentsnbsp;we willnbsp;attempt to capture the essence of the arguments and provide some empirical evidence on the impact of corruption on growth and poverty reduction. Corruption, which includes bribery, rent-seeking, extortion, embezzlement, is perceived as a major problem facing many countries.nbsp; Corruption has therefore been variously defined to mean lsquo;the misuse of public office for private gain.rsquo;nbsp;nbsp; This does not mean that there is no corruption in the private sector because this is quite common in (private) financial firms.nbsp; But, corruption is more severe in the public sector than in the private sector.nbsp; One of the first known articles on corruption and its punishment is in Kautilyarsquo;s Arthasastra (dating back to 14 BC).nbsp; Corruption is found to be closely inter-related with a countryrsquo;s social norms, formal and informal rules and culture as well as legal environment in a country.nbsp; No matter what, corruption connotes illegal or improper (moral) behavior and is treated as a lsquo;socially and culturally deviant behavior.rsquo;nbsp; From political science point of view, high level of corruption coincides with political instability and tends to reduce citizenrsquo;s trust and faith in institutions.

Measurement of Corruption

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WDI online database available for subscribers. Selected indicators can also be accessed for free with thenbsp;quick query.

A video of a recent presentation ofnbsp;thisnbsp;publicationnbsp;at the World Banknbsp;is now available on-line. Participants included, among others, Deepa Narayan, Project Director of the study, and Geoffrey Lamb, Managing Director of Public Policy at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Its Director, Jeffrey Sachs, is blogging there occasionally among many others. Worth visiting.

The online directory AiDA (Accessible Information on Development Activities),nbsp;has now put together a similar Google mapnbsp;with information about development activities. By clicking on a country we can see a summary of the development activities taking place there, classified according to Sector, Agency and Donor.nbsp;

A one-pagernbsp;also available from the IPC: How Does the Financial Crisis Affect Developing Countries?

More information on this topic at the World Bank's blog Crisis Talk.

More discussion about the Financial Crisis and its impact on developing countries in our own series: Global Dialogues as a Response to the Global Economic Crisis.

You can also access it on-line, for free.

By early-2007, it became clear as housing prices began to decline, losses on sub-primate mortgages originated in 2003-2006 were rising more rapidly than the assumptions used and risk-model predictions.nbsp; The deterioration in borrowing quality and other shortcomings mentioned yesterday gave little comfort to investors.nbsp; The losses were hard to estimate, especially in an environment of house-price busts, and given that the sub-prime MBS had been re-packaged into complex CDOs and CDO-conduits were financed by commercial paper and various notes.

The bursting of the housing bubbles in the United States (as reflected in a surge in defaults and foreclosures since mid-2006 in US, resulted in a plunge in the prices of mortgage-backed securities mdash; assets whose value ultimately comes from mortgage payments.nbsp; These financial losses have left many financial institutions with too little capital mdash; too few assets compared with their debt (US financial firms lost over $1 trillion by Dec 2008). This problem is especially severe because households, corporations, and government took on so much debt during the bubble years (that debt cumulated to over 400% of US GDP in U.S. and about 450% of UK GDP).

Because financial institutions have too little capital relative to their debt, they havenrsquo;t been able or willing to provide the credit the economy needs. (US and European banks have been raising capital of about $400 billion from oil-producing countries and China but there is still a large gap as banks continue to write-down bad loans).

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This new study, based on data from 60,000 interviews in 15 countries, looks at how and why some people manage to escape poverty.

You can access thenbsp;overview on-line, and order the book here.

Duncan Green hasnbsp;posted a nice summary in his blog, From Poverty to Power.

Only a few days left to apply. Next deadline is March 31, 2009.

Eligibility Criteria

Application Guidelines

If you have any questions, please contact the program directly.

Good luck.

In their website, DFID has also opened a consultation website where the public can participate in the debate on how to eliminate world poverty. The results will be included in a new paper to be published this summer. An interesting way of giving voice to the public opinion.

Any others out there?

You can now watch a video of a recent discussion on this topic, at the World Bank.

Daniel Kaufmann,nbsp;who led the work on Governance at the World Bank Institute and now is a Senior Scholar at the Brookings Institutionnbsp;nbsp;quot;writes about some ideas, findings, current events and initiatives on Governance, Corruption and Capture, around the worldquot; in his blog The Kaufmann Governance Post

David Roodman from the Center for Global Development is writing a Microfinance Open Book Blog where henbsp;nbsp;quot;posts and seeks feedback on draft chapters, burning questions, and useful sourcesquot;.

Daniel Kaufmann,nbsp;who led the work on Governance at the World Bank Institute and now is a Senior Scholar at the Brookings Institutionnbsp;nbsp;quot;writes about some ideas, findings, current events and initiatives on Governance, Corruption and Capture, around the worldquot; in his blog The Kaufmann Governance Post

David Roodman from the Center for Global Development is writing a Microfinance Open Book Blog where henbsp;nbsp;quot;posts and seeks feedback on draft chapters, burning questions, and useful sourcesquot;.

Listen to Paul discussing his books The Bottom Billion and Wars, Guns and Votes at Development Drums.

(Hat tip to Chris Blattman)

nbsp;

Urbanization and Growth

The common elements that underscored successful growth and development strategies in a number of countries which were on a high and sustained growth path elements included the maturation and deepening of the market institutions, effective macroeconomic policy management, high levels of savings and investment, openness to trade and financial flows (and adoption of technology), and fast-growing urban areas. During the next few weeks we will analyze one of these elements, the urbanization process, and discuss its contribution to growth and poverty alleviation as well as lay out the major emerging issues in the urbanization process of developing countries.

nbsp;

Trends in Urbanization

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Recent changes in information and communication technologies have contributed to a dramatic increase in the degree of integration and interdependency of countries, markets, and people. Against this background, one aspect of particular concern for small states is the international movement of people. This paper focuses on this particularly important aspect of globalization, with emphasis on the movement of skilled people and its relationship with country size. In addition to overall skilled migration, it provides evidence that controls for migration age in order to distinguish between those educated in the home country and those educated abroad. The authors discuss the growth implications of the brain drain from small countries and policies that may help control it.

More information on International Migration and Development at the World Bank.