Since 2006, the World Bank has been ranking almost 200 countries in terms of their ease of doing business (EoDB) to underscore the importance of a thriving private sector in promoting high and inclusive growth. Comparing these metrics for business friendliness among economic partners is more...

Graduating from their checkered histories of financial instability and debt-related problems is a key policy objective in many emerging market economies. The global financial turmoil that erupted in 2008 underscores the importance of this issue once again. This article maps out some of the key...

This study presents a comprehensive process evaluation of the Department of Education's Alternative Learning System (ALS) in the Philippines, examining its effectiveness in providing second-chance education opportunities for out-of-school youth and adults (OSYAs). While the ALS plays a vital...

Roughly a little under half of the world's population is mired in poverty, most in the developing world--about 3 billion people constitute the global base of the economic pyramid. Building on earlier work by Banerjee and Duflo (2007), this paper uses survey data from three countries in order to...

Digging deeper into the self-protection rationale for holding reserves, this paper examines the empirical link between reserve holding patterns and crisis vulnerability, comparing the pre- and post-Asian crisis periods, and across different groups of developing countries. Analyzing data for 51...

This article develops a model of trade-induced learning whereby both domestic and cross-border learning externalities could drive long-run growth. This framework is used to synthesise the emerging empirical evidence, revealing how trade-induced learning could underpin the mechanics behind trade...

In pursuit of economic growth and development, countries have tried to strike a balance between competition and industrial policies across time. This paper will review the empirical evidence on industrial concentration and its economic correlates (notably firms’ performance as measured by...

This paper empirically examines the determinants of child health in developing countries and how public policy may interact with these determinants. It improves on previous empirical studies by conducting a more careful analysis of the determinants controlling for possible endogeneity, and by...