The region has been transformed by these developments, changing from a set of countries that rapidly integrated with the world to one that is also aggressively exploiting the sources of dynamism that lie within Asia. But countries in East Asia now face the domestic side-effects of rapid growth...

Today, Europe is a continent of low participation, low employment labor markets. Many observers would like to blame poor employment outcomes on the Euro or on austerity. But these are dangerous distractions from real problems that constitute imperatives for structural reform. There are...

The author uses the regional structure of the economy, proxied by the shares of services and industry in regional gross domestic product (GDP), as an indicator of the demand for educated workers. By examining whether the level of schooling as a function of shares of services and industry differs...

Without the advantages of low wages or high skills, East Asian economies are following a new path of regional integration, led by China. Along this path, policy-makers must manage a migration of 2m people a month to East Asia's cities, a sharp and unprecedented increase in income inequality, and...

Over the past 25 years, significant levels of public debt and external finance are more likely to have enhanced macroeconomic vulnerability than economic growth in developing countries. This applies not just to countries with a history of high inflation and past default, but also to those in...

Development is accompanied by significant spatial transformations--changes in the distribution of people and economic activities. The World Development Report 2009 Reshaping Economic Geography draws lessons from history and academic research to develop a concise framework for understanding these...

The "World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography" ( <link rid="b10">WDR 2009a</link>) was written to inform policy debates about urbanization, lagging areas, and globalization. During almost two years of consultations and dissemination, the report met with broad acceptance among government officials,...