Despite the well-documented benefits of improved sanitation and washing facilities, a considerable number of people, even in middle-income countries, still lack access to modern sanitation and home-based bathing facilities. This paper leverages household budget survey data from two Central Asian...

This paper investigates the determinants of corporate green bond issuance using annual firm-level data for 300 issuers of green bonds, which issued green bonds over the period 2017-2021. Using the Poisson fixed-effects models we find that bond-specific characteristics, such as maturity, coupon...

Private green finance is imperative for climate change mitigation and adaptation, but the share of private green finance remains small, and the studies that have tackled the efficacy of policy instruments in promoting green finance are limited. Many economies, especially in Asia, have...

This paper contributes to the existing literature by investigating the impacts of crude oil price shocks on financial markets through an examination of the effect of oil price shocks on green bond issuance. Green bond issuance has been growing fast over the past several years; despite this, the...

The transition to sustainable energy requires an assessment of drivers of the use of clean and dirty fuels for cooking. Literature highlights the importance of access to modern fuel for switching from dirty fuels. Though access to cleaner fuels such as electricity promotes clean fuel use, it...

Despite complete electrification in Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic, the reliance on coal for heating residential spaces is high. Using microdata from the national household surveys from Kazakhstan in 2017 and the Kyrgyz Republic in 2016, this study examines the factors affecting residential...

Scaling up private investment in renewable energy is indispensable for achieving decarbonization of the global economy, low carbon transformation, and climate-resilient growth. As advocated by the United Nations, governments should create a level playing field for private investment in renewable...

The impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak have heavily affected CAREC member countries, which include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, the People's Republic of China (PRC), Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The COVID-19 crisis and the...

This study empirically investigated the factors affecting firms' ability to adjust production in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This study used firm-level survey data from the Enterprise Survey implemented by the World Bank Group, including a standard Enterprise Survey (Baseline) and two...

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of information and communications technology (ICT) not only for the economy but also for human well-being. However, the investment gap in ICT infrastructure has been growing and is expected to reach more than $30 billion by 2040. We argue that one...