After decades of billion dollar scandals around long-serving dictators removing vast fortunes from their impoverished nations, the broader phenomenon of which this is part has acquired a label: Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs). The term encompasses the international transfer of moneys generated by...

This paper investigates whether legal reforms intended to create a market-friendly regulatory business environment have a positive impact on economic and financial outcomes. After conducting a critical review of the legal origins literature, the authors first analyze the evolution of legal rules...

Accountability is one of the cornerstones of good governance. Establishing accountable institutions is a top priority on the international development agenda. Yet, scholars and democracy practitioners know little about how accountability mechanisms develop and thus can be supported by...

This Report aims to inspire and guide the researchers and practitioners who can help advance a new set of development approaches based on a fuller consideration of psychological and social influences. (Page 2)

At the UN General Assembly of September 2015, countries around the world committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By 2030, counties committed to attain poverty and hunger eradication, healthy lives, quality education, gender equality and sustainable development. Countries also...

The impact of opening to trade on economic institutions is likely to be multifaceted and depend crucially on country-specific circumstances. In the past decade an active body of research has studied this relationship. This framework makes is especially clear why international trade opening has...

Mexico’s pursue and implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a pro-growth policy strategy that deepened Mexico’s economic liberalization process at a time of crisis and macroeconomic stabilization. In that context, NAFTA constituted a commitment device to...

This paper presents an innovative methodology for discovering policies that are consistent with economic development. A development footprint narrative is advanced to suggest that laggard countries can improve their good overall economic performance when tracking policy indicators of more...