This paper investigates the relationship between (internal) armed conflict and sustainable development. Using annual panel data on 192 countries from 2000 to 2024, we employ a variety of econometric techniques to trace the impulse responses between conflict fatalities and Sustainable Development...

Although Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the backbone of economic activity and inclusive growth in Indonesia, and recent data from Jambi Province reveal a disconnect between robust post-pandemic recovery and meaningful poverty reduction. While regional GDP climbed from 0.99% to...

This paper examines the challenges that African governments are grappling with as part of a renewed international effort to expand electricity access. It shows how the crux of the challenge is twofold: one, to enable poor people to make productive use of electricity to raise their incomes and...

Amidst slower global growth, a shifting labor market, and rising protectionism, governments around the world are increasingly turning to a once controversial policy. Industrial policy—the range of policy tools governments use to shape what an economy produces, rather than leaving it to markets...

The influence of political stability on financial crime remains a subject of ongoing debate. While stability is often associated with policy continuity, regulatory credibility, and more effective enforcement, an alternative view suggests that unstable democracies may outperform stable...

The weaponization of agricultural trade has once again emerged as critical in the study of modern geopolitics due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Although Russia has used its wheat exports as a means of enhancing its geopolitical influence over countries in the Global South, evidence...

This paper investigates the relationship between (internal) armed conflict and sustainable development. Using annual panel data on 192 countries from 2000 to 2024, we employ a variety of econometric techniques to trace the impulse responses between conflict fatalities and Sustainable Development...

This introduction grounds the middle-income (MI) trap by looking at the empirical realities of firms, sectors, national, and subnational institutions embedded in global value chains (GVCs). While MI-trap scholarship has shed light on macro-structural constraints, it often overlooks international...

The Global Gateway is considered a key instrument of EU development cooperation. Introduced in 2021, it was announced as a 'win-win' strategy for both, the EU's competitiveness agenda and developing countries' strive for sustainable development. The Global Gateway epitomises the current shifts...

This study analyzes how Entrepreneurship Education Programs (EEPs) are discussed in the scientific literature, focusing on their relationship with social entrepreneurship, socioeconomic inclusion, sustainable development, and economic growth. The study adopts a narrative literature review with...

Since the late 1980s, extreme poverty has declined sharply, life expectancy and schooling have increased, and electoral democracy has expanded. However poverty reduction has slowed in recent years, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, amid intensifying conflict, fragility, climate...

We provide new evidence on the effect of minority elected state representatives on economic development and schooling in India. Using data on candidates in all state assembly elections from 1974 to 2017, we exploit two discontinuities in the reservation of constituencies for Scheduled Castes...

This chapter presents a tractable framework for the study of technology adoption and diffusion in the context of economic development. Firms in countries behind the world technology frontier can rapidly adopt new techniques from the world frontier. Lower absorptive capacity (because of weak...

A new generation of policies can trace the path from wealth to inclusion. Building on its urban and youthful population, Equatorial Guinea can shift from a model of extraction to one of prosperity. This report—the World Bank's first Poverty and Equity Assessment for Equatorial...

The Strategic Roadmap for Carbon Market and Climate Finance in the Forest Sector, tailored for each of the Congo Basin countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo), provides a comprehensive, country-specific...

This paper studies the complementarities between energy and digital infrastructure in developing countries. Using geospatial data on power transmission lines, power plants, cell towers, and fiber-optic nodes matched to settlement-level wealth indicators across sub-Saharan Africa, and detailed...

The international order is undergoing profound change as rivalry among major powers realigns the global balance. This is also having an impact on European development policy. In many European Union (EU) member states, funding for official development assistance (ODA) is declining. At the same...

The process of transition and growth in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) provides interesting insights, considering the countries' historical relationship with the Soviet Union. The 20 years after the Eastern enlargement of the European Union show an integrative power within the Single Market....

First-class universities play an extremely important role in cultivating high-quality talents and technological innovation, serving as a significant indicator of a country's level of higher education development, developmental strength, and potential. However, there is little literature studying...

Background During the last decades, there has been a great interest on the link between macroeconomic conditions and health. More precisely, many studies had studied as health outcome cardiovascular disease mortality, focusing in different countries, determinants, and using numerous econometric...

This paper analyzes the relationship between intergenerational educational mobility and long-term growth across the world using different mobility measures, comparing absolute mobility indicators with relative mobility indicators. The analysis is carried out across a panel of 68 countries over...

DPI is an approach to digitalization focused on creating "foundational, digital building blocks designed for the public benefit." By providing essential digital functions at society scale that can be reused across sectors, DPIs enable public and private service providers to build on these...