Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are recognized as crucial drivers of economic development, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The advent of digital platforms, characterized by economies of scale and significant cross-network externalities in two-sided markets,...

Successful exporting countries are often seen as successful economies. This paper studies the role of new exporting entrepreneurs – defined as firms that became exporters – in determining export growth in a fast growing and export oriented middle-income country i.e., Costa Rica during...

The literature on the correlation between exports and economic development runs deep into the history of economic thought and permeates policy debates. This paper studies the microeconomic structure of export growth in Costa Rica, with special emphasis on the extensive margin of trade,...

In the past dozen years, a literature has developed arguing that urbanization has unfolded differently in post-independence Sub-Saharan Africa than in the rest of the developing world, with implications for African economic growth overall. While African countries are more urbanized than other...

As digital platforms continue to evolve, they facilitate the exchange of information and create opportunities for innovation-driven growth and introduce new challenges for enterprises navigating research and development-driven transformation. In the study, we used the Probit model, IV-Probit...

Over the past decade, nighttime lights have become a widely used proxy for measuring economic activity. This paper examines the potential for high frequency nighttime lights data to provide “near real-time” tracking of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in Morocco. At the national...

Amid continuing urban growth and the accelerating effects of climate change, East Asian cities suffer from more extreme temperatures than surrounding rural areas - being up to 2 degrees Celsius hotter on average. This urban heat island (UHI) effect is caused by cities' relative lack of...

This publication, which is based on the unique methodology and tools developed for the World Bank Institute/Harvard School of Public Health Flagship Course on Health System Reform and Sustainable Financing, provides a powerful set of resources to help policy makers better navigate the...

With more than 70 percent of its population living in cities, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is among the most urbanized regions in the world. Yet, although its cities are, on average, more productive than those elsewhere in the world, their productivity lags that of North American and...

The ongoing crisis should spur deeper European integration, rather than a return to the nationalism of the past. The World Development Report 2009, reshaping economic geography, spotlights several issues for new European Union (EU) member states. From 1950 to 1990, Eastern Europe was impermeable...