Thailand’s economy showed signs of mild improvement in November supported by stronger exports and retail trade. Government stimulus measures, including the co-payment scheme and travel incentives, helped lift activity in hotels and restaurants, though overall household consumption remained...

Economic growth decelerated to 1.5 percent in the first half of 2025, driven by contraction in the hydrocarbon sector and marked slowdown in non-hydrocarbon sector output. Hydrocarbon sector output fell 3.2 percent (you) as daily crude oil production declined 3.1 percent (yoyo) while natural gas...

Lebanon’s economy recorded positive growth in 2025, marking a modest step toward a potential path for long-term recovery. The improvement reflects a rebound in tourism, alongside early signs of macroeconomic stabilization and some base-effect-driven gains following years of deep contraction....

This Country Program Evaluation examines the World Bank Group’s support to Jamaica from FY2014 to FY2025 across successive strategies and an interim period without a formal framework. The evaluation seeks to identify lessons to inform future Bank Group engagement in support of Jamaica’s...

This Country Program Evaluation (CPE) assesses the performance of the World Bank Group’s (WBG) assistance to the Republic of Kosovo from fiscal years (FY) 2012 to 2025, seeking to identify lessons to inform future WBG engagements in Kosovo, including the next CPF, which is expected in FY27....

Unternehmen in Deutschland bewerten die Wirtschaftspolitik der Bundesregierung überwiegend kritisch. In den ifo Konjunkturumfragen vom Januar 2026 vergeben sie insgesamt eine Durchschnittsnote von 4,2; auch in den einzelnen Politikfeldern fallen die Bewertungen ähnlich schwach aus, ohne...

Unternehmen in Deutschland bewerten die Wirtschaftspolitik der Bundesregierung überwiegend kritisch. In den ifo Konjunkturumfragen vom Januar 2026 vergeben sie insgesamt eine Durchschnittsnote von 4,2; auch in den einzelnen Politikfeldern fallen die Bewertungen ähnlich schwach aus, ohne...

Households often struggle to understand policy interventions, limiting the effectiveness of policy transmission. We study how economic policy signals reach and influence households, focusing on the role of professional economists as interpretive intermediaries. When policy signals are complex...

The acquisition of Greenland has repeatedly been a topic of discussion within US government circles since the 19th century. That is because of the island’s strategic loca­tion and its resources. In the summer of 2019, US President Donald Trump made his first bid to purchase Greenland from the...

Context: Azerbaijan's vocational education and training (VET) system has undergone a significant reform, culminating in the enactment of the Law on Vocational Education in 2018. Despite not being a member of the European Union (EU) and lacking formal political, economic, or cultural alignment...

This Country Program Evaluation reviews the World Bank Group’s engagement in Ethiopia during FY2013–FY2023 across three distinct periods: rapid growth with rising macroeconomic imbalances and political unrest (FY13–FY18); government-led openings to economic reform (FY19–FY20); and...

Strong growth has continued during 2025 as large financial inflows have contributed to robust domestic demand, but the medium-term outlook remains vulnerable to a less favorable external environment in the context of regional and global uncertainty. Tajikistan’s favorable economic performance...

Since 2016, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reforms have improved governance, business regulations, capital markets, the labor market, and the external sector, narrowing structural gaps with frontier economies and improving economic performance. This paper summarizes progress, estimates the output...

In 2025, fragile and conflict-affected (FCS) included 38 economies that are home to 1 billion people. The recent shocks have intensified fragility-related pressures even in more stable economies. This paper provides a comprehensive discussion of macroeconomic challenges and policies under...

In an important and much cited study, Pettersson-Lidbom (2008) identifies significant left-wing majority coalition effects on economic outcomes for Swedish local governments, 1974-1994. We first replicate the original study and then extend the original research by applying Pettersson-Lidbom's...

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...

The interplay between government economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and bank risk remains a key concern in the financial stability literature. This study advances the field by examining the dynamic, time-varying impact of EPU on bank risk, explicitly differentiating between short- and long-term...

Britain is experiencing a prolonged period of economic stagnation, if not decline. Most people believe living standards have declined and that the country is heading in the wrong direction. Support for economic growth is broad and deep, spanning all age groups, regions and political...

This assessment provides a long-term analysis of Hungary's economic trajectory under the administration of Viktor Orbán since 2010. Taking the start of the European financial crisis in 2009 as a baseline, it evaluates the impact of 'Orbánomics' - a policy mix defined by deterioration in...

This paper examines the challenges that African governments are grappling with as part of a renewed international effort to expand electricity access. It shows how the crux of the challenge is twofold: one, to enable poor people to make productive use of electricity to raise their incomes and...

Growth is projected to slow to 1.6 percent in 2026 before edging up to about 2.3 percent in 2027 as global and domestic demand conditions stabilize while foreign direct investment (FDI) in new industries begins to materialize. Thailand’s 2025 downturn has brought long-standing structural...

This Country Program Evaluation assesses the World Bank Group’s support to Indonesia between FY 2013 and FY23. The evaluation period included three country strategies: the FY13–15 Country Partnership Strategy (CPS), the FY16–20 Country Partnership Framework (CPF), and the ongoing FY21–25...

Institutions play a central role in shaping entrepreneurial behavior, yet much of the existing literature, even with the foundational insights of institutional economists such as Veblen, Mitchell, Commons, Coase, Ostrom, Williamson, and North, continues to view institutions as monolithic...

Amidst the polycrisis of 2018-2024, Asia-Pacific trade flows exhibited a structural resilience that contrasts with traditional theoretical predictions of severe trade contraction under high uncertainty. This study investigates these resilience dynamics using a structural gravity model estimated...

This paper examines the asymmetric impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on exchange rate volatility across a sample of developed and emerging economies. Using an asymmetric GARCH-MIDAS model, volatility is decomposed into short-term and long-term components, with the latter associated...

This article analyses the rise of economic security as a new organising principle of European Union economic governance and examines the extent to which this concept is transforming the traditional model of European industrial and market policy. In the context of escalating geopolitical rivalry,...

Transition to renewable energy leads to assumed economic diversification; however, the institutional risks for hydrocarbon-dependent economies remain high. This paper identifies the conditions under which transitioning economies enter a novel dependency during the renewable transition. Our...

Recent studies have focused on the detrimental effects of global economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on firm profitability. Nevertheless, none of these studies has focused on a developing economy like Nigeria. To understand this, the study conducted a host of regression analyses using the Driscoll...

Der wissenschaftliche Beraterkreis der Bundesministerin für Wirtschaft und Energie hat ein Kurzgutachten zu den Auswirkungen der Lage im Nahen Osten vorgelegt. Ausgehend von ersten Analysen zu den kurzfristigen Effekten auf Lieferketten und Energiepreise, bezieht der Beraterkreis dabei auch...

This paper offers a historically grounded reinterpretation of Keynesianism within the context of U.S. economic development and global capitalist transformation. It traces the evolution of Keynes's core insights into a form of structural Keynesianism, shaped by institutionalism, post-Keynesian...

Economic expertise in German policymaking has long been shaped by technocratic, market-liberal advisory bodies closely connected to mainstream economics. Over the past decade, however, an alternative knowledge ecosystem - the New Economy Space (NES) - has emerged, promoting heterodox, pluralist,...

Inwieweit lassen sich die wachsenden Zustimmungswerte für populistische Parteien durch ökonomische Ursachen erklären? Wichtige Faktoren sind die wahrgenommene Ungleichheit und empfundene Abstiegsängste. Die allgemeine und individuelle wirtschaftliche Lage werden subjektiv oft als schlechter...

Purpose and scope: This analysis assesses the cumulative impact of the Autumn Budget Statement 2025 on UK residents over the period 2026-2030. The Budget has been passed by Parliament and will be implemented beginning in April 2026. This report models policy impact on the UK population using...

This Policy Brief evaluates the trade policy of Donald Trump during the first year of his second presidential term. The administration pursued a strongly protectionist agenda, implementing new tariffs on a wide range of products and trading partners, including long‑standing allies such as the...

Wir untersuchen anhand von qualitativen Experteninterviews die Relevanz der Gewerbesteuer im Verhältnis zu anderen Standortfaktoren am Beispiel von Düsseldorf, Oberhausen und Magdeburg. Besonders relevante Faktoren sind die Verkehrsinfrastruktur, die Verfügbarkeit von Flächen sowie von Fach-...

The next German government faces unprecedented challenges, with economic stagnation and shifting geopolitical landscapes threatening the country's growth model and sovereignty. The German economy, traditionally reliant on exports to China and the United States, faces mounting pressures from...