This paper empirically investigates what drives the growth of private businesses in Timor-Leste and the policy actions needed to facilitate growth amid global uncertainty, especially for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). It uses the linear probability model (LPM) to identify...

This report, developed under the World Bank’s technical assistance program “Financial and Private Sector Development Policies for Fostering Sustainable Growth in Brazil,” examines strategies for strengthening disaster risk financing in response to floods. It provides an overview of federal...

We study how variation in the allocation mechanism of public demand shapes firm performance and aggregate productivity. Exploiting the quasi-random implementation of an efficient or lottery-like auction format in the Italian construction sector, we find that when the same amount of public...

Energy security risks and private sector development are inherently intertwined and serve as pivotal determinants in shaping the evolutionary trajectory of the renewable energy (RE) industry, especially in emerging economies, where the transition to sustainable energy constitutes a critical...

ypical debt sustainability metrics characterize Kenya's sovereign debt as "unsustainable" since around 2019. Further, the data show that, over time, commercial banks' private sector lending has declined while lending to the government has grown. Given these observations, this study examines...

O Atualização Económica de JIOBSão Tomé e Príncipe fornece uma análise abrangente do desempenho económico, desafios e perspetivas do país. O relatório está dividido em dois capítulos: o Capítulo 1, que se centra no estado da economia, e o Capítulo 2, que examina o papel e o...

After each economic crisis, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic, governments have used public investment as a crucial tool to help economies recover quickly. However, a significant concern is how to structure such investments to meet the intended objectives while avoiding risks during...

Using data from the World Bank Business Ready (B-READY) 2024 project and the United Nations University's World Risk Index (WRI), this Brief finds that streamlined, transparent building regulations can lower disaster risks across income levels, primarily by enhancing economies' capacities to...

Esta actualização do Estudo de Diagnóstico sobre a Integração do Comércio (EDIC) centra-se nos constrangimentos e oportunidades relacionados com o comércio que afectam a capacidade de Angola para diversificar e aumentar o comércio regional e global

Sierra Leone's economy continues to navigate complex domestic and global challenges constraining growth and jeopardizing macro stability. Fiscal policies remained loose, and the deficit continued to exceed budget targets for the fourth consecutive year, hurting policy credibility and debt...

Zimbabwe's economy experienced significant volatility in recent years, with strong post-pandemic growth driven by agriculture, mining, and remittance-fueled services. However, an El Niño-induced drought severely impacted agricultural production and electricity generation, causing a slowdown and...

Taxation is often described as the material expression of the social contract. However, this conceptualization largely reflects the Anglo-European experience and provides limited explanatory power for analysing taxation in African states, which did not experience the type of state-society...

In the 2010s, Peru experienced an increase in public educational investment, a substantial improvement in public school learning outcomes, and an erosion in the private sector learning premium. We use longitudinal, geo-coded register data on primary schools and pupils in urban areas to study how...

This article aims to investigate whether the effect of public investment on private investment differs in regimes of relatively high and low-income inequality in Brazil from 1996 to 2022.The linear vector autoregressive (VAR) model was applied to estimate the effect of public investment on...

Based on extensive research-including 38 interview respondents, four focus groups, participant observation, and extensive document analysis throughout Southeastern California-this article examines perceived patterns of corruption associated with a rapid boom in utility-scale solar energy...

The transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy is urgently needed to mitigate the profound impacts of climate change. However, this essential transition presents one of the greatest socioeconomic challenges of our era, particularly in terms of employment. Millions of workers in fossil...

Nigeria has the potential to become an economic powerhouse. Its large and growing population and its regional trade ties through the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) offer the potential for expanded markets for goods and services. Nigeria's population is projected to grow by 45...

This paper estimates high-dimensional fixed effects models using detailed administrative data to characterize the public-private wage gap in Lithuania between 2010 and 2020. We quantify that public sector employees earn, on average, 10% more than their private sector counterparts. A...

This study examines factors influencing full (FP) versus partial (PP) privatization and how markets respond to government control in PP and FP firms. Exploiting China's 2005 NTS reform as a natural experiment, we find that treated PP firms experienced significantly lower post-reform performance,...

The report assesses two Department of Education's (DepEd) student financial assistance schemes under the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) program. Those schemes are the Educational Service Contracting (ESC) and the Senior High School Voucher (SHSV)...

The railway sector is essential to economic growth and connectivity, offering efficient and sustainable transport solutions. However, growing threats from climate change and natural disasters are placing increasing strain on railway infrastructure. To maintain long-term operational stability,...

Both World Bank shareholders and the Bank’s management have emphasised the need for large-scale private investment to achieve development and climate goals. For the World Bank Group, this means collaborating more closely between its different institutions, an issue that World Bank President...