This paper looks at how various project- and client-related factors determine the non-financial success of EBRD investments. Non-financial project success is defined as the extent to which transition objectives, such as the demonstration of new financing methods or the expansion of competitive...

The spectre of populism is haunting Europe and the West, but what is driving this populism? In this paper we look at the implications of the Great Recession on voting for anti-establishment parties, as well as for general trust and political attitudes, using regional data across Europe. Our...

Scholars have long argued that social trust contributes to economic growth and development. This paper looks at the relationship between income and trust by taking data from Russia, where GDP dropped by 8 per cent in 2009. We find that a drop in income is associated with a decrease in social...

This paper looks at the determinants of the quality of economic institutions such as rule of law and control of corruption in a large sample of countries. The analysis pays particular attention to the quality of democratic institutions as a potential determinant. Both types of institutions –...

This paper aims to identify the reasons why economic growth in Egypt, although comparable to its peers, failed to significantly reduce unemployment, lower poverty levels or raise overall productivity. We use cross-country comparisons, counterfactual scenarios and regression analysis to...

Most conventional macroeconomic measures of innovation, such as research and development (R&D) spending or patenting, focus on frontier innovation in contrast to the adoption and adaptation of existing technologies. To capture technology adoption at the country level, this paper exploits a novel...

The global reach of Europe's banks is extensive and their foreign operations have supported financial development in European host countries, as has the profitability of bank groups headquartered in Europe. However, financial fragmentation threatens to reverse these gains and is evident in terms...

In this paper we study the quantity-quality trade-off among professionals and how this trade-off may change in the presence of concerns over self-image. Concern over self-image (self-reputation) can motivate performance at work (Bénabou and Tirole, 2002), but there is little empirical work to...

This paper looks at the links between inequality of opportunity and views about the underlying processes that support economic success or failure. Unlike income inequality, inequality of opportunity isolates the extent to which inequality in circumstances beyond an individual's control...

The paper provides a cross-country empirical analysis of the impact of corruption on foreign direct investment flows. The gravity model estimates suggest that if control of corruption in the destination country improves, investment flows from cleaner countries rise more than they do from...