"Global value chains (GVCs) powered the surge of international trade after 1990 and now account for almost half of all trade. This shift enabled an unprecedented economic convergence: poor countries grew rapidly and began to catch up with richer countries. Since the 2008 global financial crisis,...

Just like nearly every aspect of human experience, crime, civil conflict, and violence have become increasingly global. Around the world, civil wars, of which there are more today than at any time since the end of World War II, displace greater numbers of people ever further from their countries...

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement will create the largest free-trade area in the world, measured by the number of countries participating. The pact connects 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined GDP valued at USD 3.4 trillion. It has the potential to...

Previous Poverty and Shared Prosperity reports have conveyed the difficult message that the world is not on track to meet the global goal of reducing extreme poverty to 3 percent by 2030. This edition brings the unwelcome news that COVID-19, along with conflict and climate change, has not merely...

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the upsides and downsides of international trade in medical goods and services. Open trade can increase access to medical services and goods (and the critical inputs needed to manufacture them), improve quality and variety, and reduce costs. But excessive...

Over the past 40 years, the number of people in China with incomes below US$ 1.90 per day - the International Poverty Line defined by the World Bank to track global extreme poverty- has fallen by close to 800 million. With this, China has contributed to almost three-quarters of the global...