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The Middle East and North Africa outlook in five charts: Recovery after a...
Also available in: Français | العربية Growth in the Middle East and North Africa region is estimated to have slowed sharply in 2017 and is forecast to recover to 3 percent in 2018. Regional activity...
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Gathering momentum: Growth prospects in Latin America and the Caribbean in...
A cyclical growth recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean began in 2017. The upturn in regional growth, from -1.5 percent in 2016 to 0.9 percent in 2017, reflects broadly improving conditions in...
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Most commodity prices surged in January, led by energy–Pink Sheet
Energy commodity prices surged 9 percent in January, the seventh monthly gain in a row, led by an almost 30 percent increase in U.S. natural gas prices, the World Bank’s Pink Sheet reported.Non-energy...
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Relatively stable: The outlook for growth in emerging and developing Europe...
Growth in the emerging and developing Europe and Central Asia region is estimated to have reached 3.8 percent in 2017, the strongest performance since 2011, helped by stabilizing commodity prices and...
View ArticleWrong criticisms of Doing Business
Also available in: العربية | Español | Français | 中文 While I welcome criticism and comments on the Doing Business (DB) report—or any other data and research product of the World Bank, for that...
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The economic outlook for East Asia and the Pacific in six charts: Strong...
Growth in the EAP region strengthened marginally to 6.4 percent in 2017, 0.2 percentage point higher than expected. The region continued to be a major driver of global growth, accounting for more than...
View ArticleImproving public service delivery through local collective action
In the past two decades, development policy has aimed to involve communities in the development process by encouraging the active participation of communities in the design and implementation of...
View ArticleWhat’s new in social protection – February edition
Can cash transfers increase trust that citizens bestow upon their government… and even help it work a little better? Yes they can, according to a new paper (and accompanying blog) by Evans, Kosec and...
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Bank ownership: Trends and implications
In the wake of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), many wondered whether the strong pre-crisis trend toward greater internationalization in banking would be reversed and, more immediately, whether...
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Machine learning and the measurement of injustice
Machine learning methods are increasingly applied in the development policy arena. Among many recent policy applications, machine learning has been used to predict poverty, soil properties, and...
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Interest rate caps: The theory and the practice
Ceilings on lending rates remain a widely-used instrument in many EMDEs as well as developed economies. The economic and political rationale for putting ceilings on lending rates is to protect...
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What gets measured gets done: Evidence from court
Are judicial reforms worth doing? It turns out, we cannot be sure, but we have a story to tell about a reform, its impact, and the impact of having measured that impact.The literature. The evidence...
View ArticleWhat’s the latest research on the quality of governance?
Last week I attended Stanford University’s Quality of Governance conference, expertly organized by a rising star of the field, Saad Gulzar. I thought I’d follow in the footsteps of Dave Evans and...
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Microcredit that helps more than just the borrower
Prices in African agricultural markets fluctuate a lot: “Grain prices in major markets regularly” rise “by 25-40% between the harvest and lean seasons, and often more than 50% in more isolated...
View Article#InheritPossibility: How is your life different from your parents’ when they...
How has your life changed for you compared to your parents or grandparents when they were your age? How do you see your children’s lives and possibilities compared to your own? To find out we’ve...
View ArticleWhat’s new in social protection – April edition
Let’s start with the perennial question on whether cash transfers affect work incentives… the answer is yes but not by much. A review by Baird et al shows that programs tend to result in little or no...
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Commodities Prices to Rise in 2018
Global commodity prices strengthened in the first quarter of 2018 and are expected to be higher on average this year than in 2017. Broad-based price increases have been supported by both demand—as...
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April 2018 global poverty update from the World Bank
In April, PovcalNet revised the World Bank’s global and regional poverty estimates from 1981 to 2013. The next major update of global and regional poverty estimates is scheduled for October 2018, when...
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Global inflation: Stubbornly low, but subject to upward pressures
Global inflation has been trending up over the last two years, but is still subdued despite a broad-based recovery in economic activity. The reasons for this include the lingering impact of the...
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Private versus public electricity distribution utilities: Are outcomes...
Does the ownership structure of electricity distribution utilities matter? Distribution utilities are usually private or government-owned. There is constant debate as to which is “better” in terms of...
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