Global financial conditions have improved substantially since July 2012, a reflection of the cumulative steps taken by high-income countries' central banks. Gross capital flows to developing countries, which weakened in mid-2012 due to Euro area turmoil, bounced back in the second half of the...

External financing conditions for developing countries have been remarkably favorable in recent months, reflecting expectations of a more drawn-out period of monetary policy accommodation in high-income countries and some narrowing of external vulnerabilities. Additional easing by the European...

Global financial markets were largely stable during the past year, not with-standing the recent uptick in volatility amid uncertainty over the timing of an eventual tapering off of quantitative easing. Improved financial conditions are reflected in a strong rebound in gross capital flows...

This is a companion to the Global Economic Prospects 2010. Most commodity prices reached historical highs in mid-2008, giving rise to the longest and broadest commodity boom of the post-WWII period. Apart from strong and sustained economic growth, the boom was fueled by numerous factors...

In low- and middle-income countries, scaling essential health interventions to achieve health development targets is constrained by the lack of skilled health professionals to deliver services. This paper takes a labor market approach to project future health workforce demand based on an...

What major insights have emerged from development economics in the past decade, and how do they matter for the World Bank? This challenging question was recently posed by World Bank Group President David Malpass to the staff of the Development Research Group. This paper assembles a set of 13...

Economic Complexity is a set of network-based and algorithmic methods for the study of economic development and competitiveness. In this framework, Economic Fitness is an innovative approach that improves the mathematical and conceptual scheme. For convenience, these methods were originally...