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An Indian government effort to encourage account ownership produces...
Can government policies designed to promote financial inclusion encourage people to open an account at a bank or other financial institution? Results from our paper using a new survey of 13,000 adults...
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Energy and fertilizer prices rose in October, raw materials and precious...
Energy commodity prices increased more than 3 percent in October, a fourth consecutive monthly gain, led by a strengthening in oil, according to the World Bank’s Pink Sheet. Agriculture prices edged...
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Where Commodity Prices Are Going, Explained In Nine Charts
The most recent World Bank Commodity Markets Outlook forecasts commodities prices to level off next year after big gains for industrial commodities—energy and metals—in 2017. Commodity prices appear to...
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Using satellite data to gauge terrorist incomes
The growing availability of satellite imagery and analysis means that all kinds of things we used to think were hard to quantify, especially in conflict zones, can now be measured systematically. For...
View ArticlePro-market activism: A new role for the state in promoting access to finance
The debate on whether the state should play an active role in broadening access to finance or not is one that has lingered for decades. A recent book (de la Torre, Gozzi, and Schmukler, 2017) argues...
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How teaching with the test (not to the test) improves learning
“Test and punish”? There’s a debate raging in American schools today: how (and how much) should children be tested? The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act created a system where all children in all...
View ArticleHow well does regulation of private schools work in Sub-Saharan Africa?
A growing number of students in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are enrolled in private primary or secondary schools. The World Development Report 2018 (on which I was a co-author) highlighted an...
View ArticleDidn’t make it to our trade research conference? Here’s what you missed
What would bring together the China trade shock, road blocks in the West Bank, and the Belt and Road initiative? The 6th Annual IMF-World Bank-WTO Trade Research Conference, at which staff of the...
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Energy prices surged in November, beverages and fertilizer prices fell–Pink...
Energy commodity prices surged 8 percent in November—the fifth consecutive monthly gain—led by a 9 percent increase in oil prices, the World Bank’s Pink Sheet reported.Agriculture prices made marginal...
View ArticleFeeding the craving for precision on global poverty
Online pundits, hurried journalists and policymakers love precision. They crave numbers. Preferably exact numbers; ranges suggest uncertainty and make them anxious. As a result, they will love the...
View ArticlePopulism and development policy
Populism – the idea that a particular social group speaks for the nation as a whole, and should be first in the line for social benefits – threatens the core values of the post-World War order. It...
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Global poverty today, the 1908 winter in St. Petersburg, and ‘controversy bias’
Robert Allen’s recent AER paper on “Absolute Poverty: When Necessity Displaces Desire” is a fascinating read, on many levels. The paper uses linear programming (LP) to compute (four variants of)...
View ArticleAre public credit guarantees worth the hype?
Public credit guarantees have become a popular instrument to expand lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). More than 30 percent of credit guarantee schemes around the world have some form of...
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Bouncing back: Resilience as a predictor of food insecurity
One in eight people worldwide still go to bed hungry every night, and the increased severity of natural disasters like droughts only exacerbates this situation. Humanitarian agencies and development...
View ArticleMigration: The future depends on our actions today
Around 250 million migrants currently live outside their countries of birth, making up approximately 3.5 percent of the world population. Despite the widespread perception of a global migration...
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How did starting a business become easier than ever?
With more jobs and competitiveness in mind, many economies worldwide have simplified their business start-up rules and regulations over recent years. Since the first Doing Business report was launched...
View ArticleTest for what and what to test
“If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it” Lord Kelvin Despite the recent proliferation of standardized testing in education, there is still a significant number of countries that oppose it....
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The outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa in five charts: Striving for recovery
The global economic recovery will see economic conditions improving in Sub-Saharan Africa. Activity is projected to pick up across the region over the forecast horizon, helped by firming commodity...
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The outlook for growth in South Asia in five charts: Robust prospects
South Asia’s growth prospects appear robust, with household consumption expected to remain strong, exports expected to recover, and investment projected to revive with the support of policy reforms and...
View ArticleWhat’s new in social protection – January edition
This column sets out a monthly selection of social protection materials that I found particularly interesting or helpful in illuminating a certain social protection issue. It is not meant to be...
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