This paper provides the first quantitative analysis of optimal patent policy in trading economies. We develop a new framework that combines trade and growth theory into a tractable quantitative model, which we estimate to match patent and trade data. Counterfactual analysis yields three main...

The new loss and damage funding framework under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) emphasises the importance of channelling support through national systems and mechanisms. This approach could prove particularly challenging for African least developed ountries...

This paper investigates the effect of digital financial inclusion, creative innovations, and green finance on the stability of the national banking system in twenty-nine low-financially developed economies spanning the period 2011-2021. We demonstrate that digital financial inclusion promotion...

The complexity of global supply chains and the interconnected nature of resource systems present significant challenges in ensuring equitable resource access and management. Good governance and an effective financial system are vital for managing natural resources sustainably. This study...

Several indicator and index frameworks have been reported to assess management efficiency and promote transparency, facilitating decision-making and innovation. However, they cannot be applied in cities with limited information, making them impractical. This study proposes a Sustainable Urban...

This study explores perceptions of public debt management among Debt Management Offices (DMOs) in low- and middle-income countries. Based on a survey conducted in October 2023 covering 27 countries, it examines DMOs' views on the relationship between public debt and economic growth, the...

Trying to meet unlimited human needs with limited resources causes production activities to deplete or pollute natural resources. Ensuring the sustainability of natural resources and the environment is essential to leaving a livable world for future generations. The concept of sustainable...

Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship are important for economic growth and development. Yet insufficient attention has been paid to psychological characteristics such as personality characteristics as factors for women entrepreneurship in emerging economies. This study aims to investigate the...

Background Foodborne disease is a great concern to low- and middle-income countries. To prevent illness and death, intervention strategies need to be implemented across the food safety system and should include promoting the adoption of safe food handling practices. The positive association...

This paper investigates the cyclicality of international reserves and their role in macroeconomic stabilization. We challenge two widely held assumptions: (1) central banks typically manage IR counter-cyclically—accumulating reserves during booms and drawing them down during downturns; and (2)...

This evaluation assesses the World Bank Group's contributions to supporting electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa during 2015-24. Electricity access is an end user's ability to use an energy supply for the desired energy services. As such, electricity access includes both supply and demand...

Fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) have upended development progress. Overlapping and mutually reinforcing crises, including worsening climate challenges, ideological polarization and extremism, growing economic disparities, and weak governance and corruption, have all exacerbated the...

Research on the labor market implications of artificial intelligence has focused principally on high-income countries. This paper analyzes this issue using microdata from a large set of low- and middle-income countries, applying a measure of potential artificial intelligence occupational...

Diarrhea and growth faltering in early childhood reduce survival and impair neurodevelopment. This paper assesses whether a national program in the Democratic Republic of Congo reduced diarrhea and stunting and strengthened local water and sanitation institutions. The program combined (i) funds...

The report is organized into six main sections. The first section provides an overview of the context in Edo. Section two summarized the central interventions part of EdoBESST and how they are based on the available evidence. Section three assesses the impact of interventions in terms of outputs...

The representation and significance of women in the labor force have grown significantly over the past five decades around the globe. Using nationally representative data from more than 90 countries, this paper documents distinct gender patterns in employment transitions across both sectors and...

The World Bank estimates that closing the gender gap in employment would increase long-run gross domestic product (GDP) per capita by 20 percent (Pennings 2022). Realizing this achievement, however, depends not only on removing gender barriers to employment but also and most emphatically on...

This note provides guidance for policymakers, World Bank country teams, and development practitioners to enhance the quality, affordability, and sustainability of home-based childcare (HBC) services in low-income settings. It outlines a comprehensive approach to recognizing HBC as a public good...

Life-cycle wage growth rates vary significantly across countries. In this paper, we examine the role of the local distribution of firm productivity in shaping life-cycle wage profiles by introducing a random search model that disentangles the effects of firm productivity distribution, on-the-job...

Personality traits, preferences, and attitudes significantly influence labor market outcomes, and these non-cognitive skills are shaped by the social environment. While curriculum interventions can impact these skills, the effect of compulsory education on non-cognitive skills is less well...

The WTO Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (IFDA) offers significant development perspectives by speeding up and streamlining administrative procedures and reducing transaction costs. Domestic regulatory reforms, combined with comprehensive special-and-differential treatment as...

The volatility of exchange rates is considered to be an important measure of a country's economic vulnerability and has a direct or indirect causal relationship with a large number of macroeconomic variables. The aim of this study is to analyze the macroeconomic variables in the economic...

This paper examines policy coherence in Ghana's poultry sector by assessing potential interactions between policy objectives. Using panel simultaneous equation models and the data-driven synthetic control method, we analyze the effects of policy interventions on domestic poultry production...