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China has defied the declining trend in domestic content in exports in many countries. This paper studies China's rising domestic content in exports using firm- and customs transaction-level data. The approach embraces firm heterogeneity and hence reduces aggregation bias. The study finds that the substitution of domestic for imported materials by individual processing exporters caused China's domestic content in exports to increase from 65 to 70 percent in 2000–2007. Such substitution was induced by the country's trade and investment liberalization, which deepened its engagement in global value chains and led to a greater variety of domestic materials becoming available at lower prices.

Excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco have long been a dependable and significant revenue source in many countries. More recently, considerable attention has been paid to the way in which such taxes may also be used to attain public health objectives by reducing the consumption of products with adverse health and social impacts. Some have gone further and argued that explicitly earmarking excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco to finance public health expenditures—marrying sin and virtue as it were—will make increasing such taxes more politically acceptable and provide the funding needed to increase such expenditures, especially for the poor. The basic idea—tax "bads" and do "good" with the proceeds—is simple and appealing. But designing and implementing good "sin" taxes is a surprisingly complex task. Earmarking revenues from such taxes for health expenditures may also sound good and be a useful selling point for new taxes. However, such earmarking raises difficult issues with respect to budgetary rigidity and political accountability. This note explores these and other issues that lurk beneath the surface of the attractive concept of using increased sin excises on alcohol and tobacco to finance "virtuous" social spending on public health.

This economy profile for Doing Business 2016 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for Congo, Democratic Republic of. To allow for useful comparison, the profile also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. Doing Business 2016 is the 13th edition in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2015 Congo, Democratic Republic of ranks 184. A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and over time. Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labor market regulation. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2015 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period from January to December 2014).

Uganda's economy underwent significant structural change in the 2000s whereby the share of non-tradable services in aggregate employment rose by about 7 percentage points at the expense of the production of tradable goods. The process also involved a 12-percentage-point shift in employment away from small and medium enterprises and larger firms in manufacturing and commercial agriculture mainly to microenterprises in retail trade. In addition, the sectoral reallocation of labor on these two dimensions coincided with significant growth in aggregate labor productivity. However, in and of itself, the same reallocation could only have held back, rather than aid, the observed productivity gains. This was because labor was more productive throughout the period in the tradable goods sector than in the non-tradable sector. Moreover, the effect on aggregate labor productivity of the reallocation of employment between the two sectors could only have been reinforced by the impacts on the same of the rise in the employment share of microenterprises. The effect was also strengthened by a parallel employment shift across the age distribution of enterprises that raised sharply the employment share of established firms at the expense of younger ones and startups. Not only was labor consistently less productive in microenterprises than in small and medium enterprises and larger enterprises across all industries throughout the period, it was also typically less productive in more established firms than in younger ones.

Policy attitude towards trade integration and foreign direct investment (FDI) is often a controversial yet popular subject. This note presents evidences from recent policy researches that arguing that engaging in an open trade and investment regime have brought productivity gains which is key factor for sustaining increase in income per-capita. Evidence from Indonesia also suggests that foreign owned plants have become increasingly important, generating a significant share of exports and overall output, as well as more productive and more export intensive than domestic plants, and to spend more on RD and training. FDI also have positive impact on firms in the same sector, through competition and demonstration effects, and in upstream sectors, as suppliers to foreign-owned plants improve the quality of their own products to meet their clients more exacting needs. Evidence also suggests a positive impact from import competition in improving allocative efficiency across manufacturing plants which is a key element in driving productivity in manufacturing sector.

In 2011, the World Bank Group commenced a multiyear program designed to support countries in systematically examining and strengthening the performance of their education system. Part of the World Bank's new Education Section Strategy, this evidence-based initiative, called SABER (Systems Approach for Better Education Results), is building a toolkit of diagnostics for examining education system and their component policy domains against global standards and best practices of countries around the world. The objectives of this report are to examine the system according to key policy areas, identify successes and challenges in the system, and provide recommendations to support the advancement of EMIS in Solomon Islands. Recommendations and activities aim to improve overall EMIS functionality in a sustainable and effective manner to ensure better access and use of information for decision making, planning, and student learning. This profile summarizes key points are as follows: Institutionalization of EMIS as the core management information system of the government will require strong policies and a dedicated EMIS budget. The policy should include clearly outlined mandatory practices to be adopted by various education stakeholders at each level of the education system. Efforts should be made to improve the local capacity of EMIS staff by investing in their professional development activities. EAs should be involved in the process of data collection, processing, and dissemination. The type of data collected and indicators produced by EMIS must be reviewed and further developed to include student level data. Integration of other education databases into EMIS will result in more effective utilization of education data for decision making. EMIS needs to be supported by regular internal and external audits to improve the accuracy of data collected and utilized indecision making. The quality of feedback reports sent to schools should be enriched with more relevant micro level information on school performance. Clearly articulated data utilization and dissemination strategies need to be developed, including processes to ensure the timely production of an annual statistics handbook, as well as additional utilization and dissemination opportunities such as pamphlets and web-based portals.

The Country Opinion Survey in Mozambique assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Mozambique perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Mozambique on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Mozambique; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Mozambique; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Mozambique; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Mozambique.

The Country Opinion Survey in Russia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Russia perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Russia on: 1) their views regarding the general environment in Russia; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Russia; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Russia; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Russia.

The Country Opinion Survey in Mali assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Mali perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral and bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Mali on: 1) their views regarding the general environment in Mali; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Mali; 3) overall impressions of the WBGs effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Mali; and 4) their perceptions of the WBGs future role in Mali.

The Country Opinion Survey in Swaziland assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Swaziland perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Swaziland on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Swaziland; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Swaziland; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Swaziland; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Swaziland.

The Country Opinion Survey in Mexico assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Mexico perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Mexico on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Mexico; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Mexico; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Mexico; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Mexico.

The Country Opinion Survey in Albania assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Albania perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Albania on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Albania; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Albania; 3) overall impressions of the WBGs effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Albania; and 4) their perceptions of the WBGs future role in Albania.

The Country Opinion Survey in Haiti assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Haiti perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Haiti on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Haiti; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Haiti; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Haiti; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Haiti.

The Country Opinion Survey in Costa Rica assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Costa Rica perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Costa Rica on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Costa Rica; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Costa Rica; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Costa Rica; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Costa Rica.

The Country Opinion Survey in El Salvador assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in El Salvador perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in El Salvador on 1) their views regarding the general environment in El Salvador; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in El Salvador; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in El Salvador; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in El Salvador.