“The right data at the right time”: How to effectively communicate research...
Researchers in development often hope that their research can ultimately influence policy. But getting from research results to policymaker persuasion is an ongoing struggle. Yesterday I heard...
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How do taxes and transfers impact poverty and inequality in developing...
We know that fiscal policy can be harnessed to reduce inequality in low- and middle-income countries, but until now, we knew less about its ability to reduce poverty. Our recent volume looks at the...
View ArticleHow going to the movies helped Ugandan high schoolers pass their tests
Who doesn’t enjoy an afternoon at the movies? Yet sometimes a cinema screening can be more than just fun. An experiment in Uganda demonstrates how an inspiring, relatable figure in a movie can...
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Equality of opportunity for what?
Equality of opportunity is a popular policy objective around the world. It is deeply embodied in the American Dream and has resonated with politicians ranging from Margaret Thatcher to Nelson Mandela....
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Learning to realize education’s promise
The 2018 World Development Report (WDR), Learning to Realize Education’s Promise, launched this week. While it draws on research and collective experience—both from within and outside the World...
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Nearly all commodity price indexes rose in September – Pink Sheet
Energy commodity prices increased more than 5 percent in September—the third consecutive monthly gain—led by a surge in oil prices, the World Bank’s Pink Sheet reported. Non-energy prices rose...
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A new twist on the inverse scale-productivity relationship in African...
One of the most storied topics in agricultural economics, dating back to Chayanov’s work on Russian peasants published nearly a century ago, is the inverse relationship between scale (in terms of farm...
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Got wings? Lessons on the survival of the skilled
In a recent exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, “Dinosaurs Among Us,” paleontologists use prehistoric fossil records of bones, feathers, and nests to show that some...
View ArticleEveryone misbehaves: Putting the 2017 Economics Nobel Prize to work for...
Monday’s announcement of the 2017 Nobel Prize for economics, to Richard Thaler, for his groundbreaking work incorporating psychology into economic theory, was a victory not only for the University of...
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A celebration of Richard Thaler’s Nobel Prize and a new field – Behavioral...
Could a parent’s decision to vaccinate a child depend on a free bag of lentils? The premise seems implausible:immunization can be a matter of life and death, and a bag of lentils is worth only a...
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A richer array of international poverty lines
Is poverty absolute or relative? When we think of (one-dimensional) income poverty, should we define the threshold that separates the poor from the non-poor as the cost of purchasing a fixed basket of...
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Trade agreements as public goods
If a trade economist were abruptly woken up by somebody shouting, “preferential trade agreements” (PTAs), their first thought is likely to be “trade creation among participants and trade diversion...
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The 2017 Global Poverty Update from the World Bank
This year’s global poverty update from the World Bank is a minor one. Until reference year 2008, the World Bank published new poverty estimates every three years, and between 2010 and 2013 we released...
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The power and limits of personal connection
I Will Always Write Back is the true story of Martin Ganda and Caitlin Alifirenka, who became pen pals -- between Zimbabwe and the USA -- in middle (or lower secondary) school. Over time, they learn...
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Against the tide: A look at the countries where poverty has been on the rise,...
The last quarter century saw remarkable progress against extreme poverty, globally. Between 1990 and 2013, the percentage of the world’s population living at or under $1.90/day fell from 35.3% to...
View ArticleSystem-wide education reform is hard – but it is possible
The elusive quest to scale Some 15 years ago, I was in a small town in Hoshangabad district (India) attending a workshop with government schoolteachers, where we were examining student test scores....
View ArticleFinancial globalization: A glass half empty?
For many years, financial globalization has been promoted as a vehicle to raise living standards throughout the world, particularly in developing countries. However, a mounting body of empirical...
View Article“Nudge units” – where they came from and what they can do
You could say that the first one began in 2009, when the US government recruited Cass Sunstein to head The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to streamline regulations. In 2010, the...
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Commodity prices to continue rising in 2018
Prices for industrial commodities are forecast to level off in 2018 after big increases this year, the World Bank’s October Commodity Markets Outlook says. Oil prices are expected to rise to an average...
View ArticleAnnual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) - Call for papers
The Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE), organized by the World Bank’s Development Economics (DEC) Vice Presidency, is one of the world's leading conference series promoting the...
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