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Channel: Let's Talk Development - A blog hosted by the World Bank's Chief Economist
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Where babies, I mean, datasets, come from…

For most researchers, datasets come into the world in Stata format.  For those privileged few with the opportunity to collect primary data, conception happens in a concept note or grant proposal, which...

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Stock-markets lead to more FDI...or is it vice-versa?

Most studies on the relationship between foreign direct investments (FDI) and financial market development focus on financial market development as a link between FDI and economic growth. However at...

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Friday round up: Visualizing financial inclusion, food insecurity, behavioral...

The Guardian's Global Development Professionals Network blog has created visualizations using Global Findex data.  The FAO finds in its 'The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015' report that 795m...

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Prosperity of Nations: Does culture matter for entrepreneurship?

Economists have been increasingly looking at culture to explain the divergent economic fortunes of nations. Does culture matter for development? If it does, what kind of culture?  In a recent paper we...

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Remembering John Nash

Last weekend, as my wife and I drove back to Washington after visiting James Madison’s home and the birthplace of the American constitution in Virginia, our daughter called to give us the news. John...

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Internet access boosts firm performance – even in difficult business...

The Internet may boost private sector development in developing and emerging countries by improving access to market information, by facilitating more effective coordination of firms’ production and...

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Seeing more development, less fear in migration

Despite UN warnings that as many as 30,000 migrants may drown in the Mediterranean this year on their perilous way to Europe, western naval intelligence estimates that between 450,000 to 500,000...

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Addressing rising inequality in G20 economies

Income inequality has been rising in a majority of G20 economies, in some of them significantly. This rising trend in inequality has more recently started to focus attention on policies to promote a...

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When theory about insurance doesn’t fit with reality

Poor rainfall is one of the greatest risks faced by poor farmers throughout the world, but success has been elusive in developing private-sector financial products to manage this risk. Traditional...

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​How effective is growth for poverty reduction? Do all countries benefit...

Economic growth has been vital for reducing extreme poverty and improving the lives of many poor people around the world. This is an indisputable fact.  However, does economic growth affect poverty...

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​When it comes to fiscal policy, it’s better to save for a rainy day than to...

While pro-cyclical fiscal policies – ie. expansionary fiscal policies in booms and contractionary fiscal stances in downturns - remain a common feature among developing countries, some countries have...

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Agenda for lifting growth: macro, structural, or macro-structural?

Global growth has repeatedly disappointed in the past few years. Successive forecasts of an acceleration of global growth have failed to materialize, with outcomes consistently falling short of...

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What does the end of the commodity boom mean for poverty in Latin America?

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has made significant gains in poverty reduction in the 2000s - by 2013 less than a quarter of the region’s population lived on less than $4 a day and just over one...

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The yawning divide between big city and countryside Tanzania

Achieving shared prosperity, one of the World Bank’s twin-goals, isn’t just a middle-income country’s preoccupation. It has a special resonance in Tanzania, a US$1,000 per capita economy in East...

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Large scale mining in Africa is a mixed blessing for women

The African continent is rich in natural resources, like oil, gas and minerals that contribute to a large share of exports, and are now a major source of foreign direct investment. In our paper...

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Getting women to the top of the career ladder through education

In the face of significant social and cultural barriers, it is tempting to be cynical about a role for education in promoting women managers in developing economies. Consider the number of factors...

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Natural resource booms are a mixed blessing for local communities, too*

The impact of natural resource wealth on macroeconomic outcomes is well researched, with the debate centered on whether resources are bad for development (i.e., the phenomenon of the resource curse)....

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More people in the developing world are eating out. Measuring this well could...

Most of you probably buy lunch during the week, but can you recall what you ate yesterday? How about last week, did you snack in the afternoon? How much did you spend? Answering these questions is not...

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Should the World Bank issue credit ratings?

In any country, election year is a time when incumbents and hopefuls steeped in the rough and tumble of vote-getting are in urgent need of sporting some successes. Economists often talk of ‘political...

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Save first, then spend: history’s lessons on the influence of low oil prices...

The impact of falling oil prices is becoming increasingly visible, but the global economy is yet to hit a nice stride - oil exporters face severe headwinds, oil-importing China continues to slow,...

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