The study uses a cluster-randomized trial among 1,578 children from 979 households in rural El Salvador to test the impacts of TOMS shoe donations on children's time allocation, school attendance, health, self-esteem, and aid dependency. Results indicate high levels of usage and approval of the...

The information and communications technology sector has undergone a dynamic process of globalization and fragmentation in the past few decades, leading to the creation of global value chains. Global value chains are populated by a constellation of specialized actors collectively responsible for...

Global value chains have altered the nature of global trade and offer significant opportunities for developing countries to expand exports, access technology, and raise productivity. Policy makers rightly seek to understand what it takes to participate in global value chains. In practice, this...

This paper analyzes how the exchange rate elasticity of exports has changed over time and across countries and sectors, and how the formation of global value chains has affected this relationship. The analysis uses a panel framework covering 46 countries over the period 1996-2012, and first...

This is a background paper to the 2014 World Development Report. Risk is inherent to the pursuit of opportunity. This paper surveys the recent literature and looks at the risks and opportunities firms and their workers face in the global value chains. First, it examines the risk-sharing...

Preferential trade agreements today are more numerous and deeper than they were a quarter century ago. Do deep agreements promote countries' integration into global value chains? What are the economic mechanisms? How do countries choose their trade agreement partners? Would the undoing of deep...

Infrastructure development is critical to delivering growth, reducing poverty, and addressing broader development goals. This paper surveys the literature on the linkages between infrastructure investment and economic growth, discusses the role of infrastructure in participation in global value...

Global value chain participation affects the exchange rate pass-through to export prices and export volumes. The paper develops a partial equilibrium model of international trade with cross-border production and shows that higher participation in global value chains reduces the elasticities....

Trade and participation in global value chains can play a key role in economic diversification and development. This paper deepens the discussion about productivity growth and upgrading in agriculture in Africa, and the role of national, regional, and international value chains in supporting...

Preferential trade agreements have become deeper over time, often encompassing policy areas that go beyond traditional trade policy, such as investment, competition, and intellectual property rights protection. In the literature, a prominent argument why countries sign "deep" agreements is to...