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Helping poor women grow their businesses with mobile savings, training, and...
Growing a business is not easy, and for women firm owners the challenges can be acute, especially when they are poor and run subsistence level firms. In developing countries, 22 percent of women...
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Pumped up? Prospects for oil markets in 2019
This blog is the second in a series of ten blogs on commodity market developments, elaborating on themes discussed in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook. Earlier blogs are...
View ArticleGlobal solidarity to finance the Sustainable Development Goals
Achieving sustainable development depends on incremental investments in six priority transformations: building human capacities (health, education, new job skills); decarbonising energy; promoting...
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Burning bright or burned out? The outlook for coal and natural gas markets
This blog is the third in a series of ten blogs on commodity market developments, elaborating on themes discussed in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook. Earlier blogs can...
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Food prices to edge up in 2019 but energy, trade, and foreign exchange could...
This blog is the fourth in a series of ten blogs on commodity market developments, elaborating on themes discussed in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook. Earlier blogs are...
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Beverage prices weak on good crops and currency movements
This blog is the fifth in a series of ten blogs on commodity market developments, elaborating on themes discussed in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook. Earlier blogs are...
View ArticleFirst day on the job
After months of early NY Penn Station mornings trying to remember whether to get on the Amtrak north to New Haven or south to DC, I am thrilled to transition from incoming Chief Economist to Chief...
View ArticleThe rich can stop feeling guilty – and start paying taxes
Tax avoidance by the world’s wealthiest people and largest companies is widespread. The excuse is that such avoidance is legal. Rich individuals and corporations look for jurisdictions that have low...
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Raw materials outlook: Cotton, rubber prices to stabilize in 2019
This blog is the sixth in a series of ten blogs on commodity market developments, elaborating on themes discussed in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook. Earlier blogs are...
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The shifting gravity of global poverty
Thirty years ago, 1 in 7 of the world’s extreme poor – those living on less than $1.90 a day – were in Sub-Saharan Africa. Over the years, as other regions successfully reduced their poverty levels,...
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From risk to opportunity: Expanding the risk management toolbox to build more...
Time and again, we witness how natural disasters reinforce poverty and other development challenges. Disasters strike countries around the world with alarming frequency – including severe storms,...
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Fertilizer prices to rise in 2019 on supportive fundamentals
This blog is the seventh in a series of ten blogs on commodity market developments, elaborating on themes discussed in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook. Earlier blogs...
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Rebound in metal prices? All eyes on China and trade
This blog is the eighth in a series of ten blogs on commodity market developments, elaborating on themes discussed in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook. Earlier blogs are...
View ArticleThe jobs train now departing from platform ...
We have been living with digital platforms for about a decade now and their impact on changing how we work is beginning to make itself felt. Even so, it merits much greater attention and...
View ArticleDigital platforms in China
From the e-commerce site Taobao.com to the social media app WeChat, China has drawn global attention to its digital platform economy. A third of the top-200 digital platforms were born in China...
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Of firms and profits
Last week I spoke at the World Bank’s Productivity Bootcamp, organized by Ana Cusalito, Bill Maloney, and Jan De Loecker. A psychologist might say that the professor in me could not let go of teaching....
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Energy prices fell 15 percent in November–Pink Sheet
Energy commodity prices plunged more than 15 percent in November, led by oil (-19 percent) and coal (-7 percent), the World Bank’s Pink Sheet reported.Non-energy prices declined by 1 percent, due to...
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Service delivery to the poor: A labor of love or just another job?
When the going gets tough, do the tough need higher pay? Many public policies and nearly all international aid aim to improve the well-being of the poor. Front-line service providers may not embrace...
View ArticleAddressing tax avoidance
The OECD base erosion and profit shifting initiative, aimed at closing tax avoidance gaps in the international system, is meant to be inclusive. Today roughly two-thirds of the initiative’s members...
View ArticleTeachers are not the problem
The Economist recently published an article about the promise of technology to improve the quality of education in low- and middle-income countries. It gives a balanced view of technology’s potential:...
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