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One of the main reasons for noncompliant firms' poor environmental performance is the information gap on Mexico's environmental policy. Pollution control could be improved through systematically fuller communication targeted to noncompliant firms - including more environmental education, especially of senior managers; Survey evidence from Mexico reveals large observed differences in pollution from factories in the same industry, or the same area, or operating under the same regulatory regime. Many factories have adopted significant measures for pollution control and are in compliance with environmental regulations, but some have made little or no such effort. For lack of data, systematic research on the reasons behind such variations in plant-level environmental performance (especially on how impediments to pollution control affect plant behavior) is rare, even in industrial societies. Drawing on a recent plant-level survey of Mexican factories, Dasgupta identifies a number of performance variables characteristic of compliant and noncompliant plants, as well as factors that non-compliant plants perceive to be obstacles to pollution control. Noncompliant firms made less effort than compliant firms to change materials used, to change production processes, or to install end-of-pipe treatment equipment. They had significantly fewer programs to train their general workers in environmental responsibilities. They lagged behind in environmental training, waste management, and transportation training. They received less technical training, especially about the environment, environmental policy and administration, and clean technology and audits. Responses about obstacles to better environmental performance included scarcity of training resources, government bureaucracy, high interest rates, and Mexico's lack of an environmental protection culture. Respondents said that senior managers did not emphasize the environment, assigned more priority to economic considerations, and were not trained in the subject. There were too few suitable programs, training was not recognized, and workers were not interested in the subject. Most important, however, little information was available about Mexico's environmental policy. These findings suggest the importance of technical assistance - especially training and information. In Mexico, the information gap on policy is a major problem. Mexican environmental agencies should invest more in technical assistance and environmental training targeted to noncompliant enterprises. Environmental education, especially of senior managers, could significantly improve pollution control. Maintaining close contact with noncompliant firms, designing programs targeted to them, and pursuing them systemically should increase their responsiveness to regulations. This paper - a product of Infrastructure and Environment, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the determinants of environmental performance in developing countries. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project The Economics of Industrial Pollution Control in Developing Countries (RPO 680-20). The author may be contacted at sdasgupta@worldbank.org.

Economics --- Economies --- Emissions --- Environment --- Environmental --- Environmental Economics and Policies --- Environmental Information --- Environmental Management --- Environmental Performance --- Environmental Quality --- Environmental Regulations --- Information --- Metals --- Monitoring --- Options --- Policy Makers --- Polluters --- Pollution --- Pollution Control --- Regulation --- Regulations --- Technology

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The use of expert or qualitative surveys to rank countries' business investment conditions is widespread. However, within the economic literature there are concerns about measurement error and endogeneity based on characteristics of the respondents, raising questions about how well the data reflect the underlying reality they are trying to measure. This paper examines these concerns using data from 79,000 firms in 105 countries. The findings show that first, qualitative rankings correlate well with quantitative measures of the business environment, using both quantitative measures from within the survey and from external sources. Second, there are systematic variations in perceptions based on firm characteristics - focusing in particular on size and growth performance. However, it is not that an optimistic view of the business environment is simply the expression of a firm's own performance. Rather, firm size and performance affect the relative importance of certain constraints, particularly in areas such as finance, time with officials/inspectors, corruption, and access to reliable electricity. The results also show that much of the variation in subjective responses by firm types is largely due to differences in the objective conditions across firm types. There is little evidence that size and performance have non-linear effects in how constraining a given objective condition is reported to be. Overall, concerns about endogeneity remain in using business environment indicators to explain firm performance, but this stems primarily from the fact that who you are and how well you are doing can affect the conditions you face rather than whether the indicator used is qualitative or quantitative.

Access to Finance --- Access to finance --- Allocative efficiency --- Bribes --- Corruption --- E-Business --- Economic development --- Economic growth --- Empirical evidence --- Employment growth --- Environment --- Environmental Economics and Policies --- External finance --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- International bank --- Lack of access --- Limited access --- Limited access to finance --- Metals --- Microfinance --- Multipliers --- Policy makers --- Private Sector Development --- Property rights --- Public goods --- Tax rates --- Transport --- Transport Economics, Policy and Planning --- Wages

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In the past decade, the World Bank has promoted improving business environments as a key strategy for development, which has resulted in a significant amount of investment in collecting firm-level investment climate surveys across countries. What lessons have emerged from the papers using these new data? The key finding is that the effects of business environments are heterogeneous and depend crucially on industry, initial conditions, and complementary institutions. Some elements of the business environment, such as labor flexibility, low entry and exit barriers, and a reasonable protection from the "grabbing hands" of the government, seem to matter a great deal for most economies. Other elements, such as infrastructure and contracting institutions (courts and access to finance), hinge on their initial status and the size of the market.

Access to Finance --- Corporate taxes --- Debt Markets --- Developed countries --- Economic activity --- Economic circumstances --- Economic development --- Economic growth --- Emerging Markets --- Empirical studies --- Environment --- Environmental Economics & Policies --- Environments --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Labor Policies --- Market competition --- Policy makers --- Private property --- Private Sector Development --- Producers --- Production costs --- Property rights --- Public goods --- Retained earnings --- Social Protections and Labor --- Tax rates --- Transaction costs --- Unemployment --- Wages

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Remittances are a sizeable source of external financing for developing countries. In the L'Aquila 2009 G8 Summit, leaders pledged to reduce the cost of remittances by half in 5 years (from 10 to 5 percent). Yet, empirically, little is known about what drives the cost of remittances. Using newly gathered data across 119 country corridors, this paper explores the factors that determine the cost of remittances. Considering average costs across all types of institutions, the authors find that corridors with larger numbers of migrants and more competition among remittances service providers exhibit lower costs. By contrast, remittance costs are higher in richer corridors and in corridors with greater bank participation in the remittances market. Comparing results across all banks and all money transfer operators separately, the analysis finds few significant differences. However, estimations for Western Union, a leading player in the remittances business, suggest that this firm's prices are insensitive to competition.

Access to Finance --- Debt Markets --- Developing countries --- Economic Theory and Research --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Foreign direct investment --- Government policies --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Infant --- Infant mortality --- International Conference on Migration --- Level of education --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Migrant --- Migrants --- Number of migrants --- Policy makers --- Policy Research --- Population Policies --- Progress --- Recipient country --- Remittance --- Remittances --- Rural population --- Service provider --- Service providers

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Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader, 3rd Edition probes the legal and ethical issues at the heart of public health through an incisive selection of judicial opinions, scholarly articles, and government reports. Crafted to be accessible to students while thorough enough for use by practitioners, policy makers, scholars, and teachers alike, the reader can be used as a stand-alone resource or alongside the internationally acclaimed Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint, 3rd Edition. This updated edition reader includes new discussions of today's most pressing health threats, such as chronic diseases, emerging infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, biosecurity, opioid overdose, gun violence, and health disparities.

Public health laws --- Public health --- Moral and ethical aspects. --- academic. --- antimicrobial resistance. --- biosecurity. --- chronic disease. --- ethical issues. --- ethics. --- government reports. --- government. --- gun violence. --- health disparities. --- health threats. --- infectious disease. --- justice. --- law and order. --- law student. --- legal issues. --- opioid overdose. --- policy makers. --- public health law. --- public health. --- reader. --- revolt. --- revolution. --- scholarly. --- scholars. --- teachers. --- textbook. --- workbook.