Economics: Research Guide

The World Bank Group (WBG) has been financing digital governance (DG) solutions for decades. The construction of the GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) is based primarily on the WB’s GovTech dataset, which is publicly available through the WBG data catalog. As a part of the 2022 update, the database includes the mapping of investments already presented in seven categories into four GovTech focus areas together with the costs, durations, and outcomes ratings of completed activities to complement key project data extracted from the WBG operations portal. This brief presents an overview of the DG an..

While governments face significant obstacles in designing and delivering approaches for people living in extreme poverty, a substantial body of research shows that programs can achieve transformative impact by addressing the socioeconomic barriers that often exclude this population. An increasing number of governments are adopting and scaling economic inclusion programs, including Graduation programs, to address the multidimensional vulnerabilities of people living in extreme poverty. By integrating the Graduation approach into their poverty reduction initiatives, governments can increase the ..

On February 6, 2023, two very large earthquakes of magnitude (Mw) 7.8 and 7.5 occurred nine hours apart on different fault lines in the southern region of Türkiye and northern Syria. These are referred to as the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes. In Türkiye, which is the focus of this report, these earthquakes have resulted in widespread damage across 11 provinces, where around 14.01 million (16.5 percent) of Türkiye’s population live, including Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Şanlıurfa. As of February 19, 2023, more than..

Poverty mapping, the spatial representation and analysis of human wellbeing and poverty indicators is becoming an increasingly important instrument for investigating and discussing socioeconomic issues, informing targeting efforts, and guiding the geographic allocation of resources. One approach to addressing poverty is the geographic approach. In the geographic approach, poor people are identified and targeted through poverty maps. Indeed, the geographical approach is one of the methods used worldwide for targeting anti-poverty programs to reduce the gaps in social protection coverage of poor..

Global growth has slowed markedly, edging closer to falling into recession. Meanwhile, growth in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region, excluding China rebounded, diverging from the global trend, as mobility restrictions were removed. Malaysia’s growth during the quarter was also the highest relative to other regional countries. Like its regional peers, the Malaysian economy bucked the global trend and recorded a strong growth in Q3 2022. Malaysia’s strong performance in Q3 2022 - and for 2022 overall - was in part due likely to the withdrawals from the employee’s provident fund (EPF) w..

Honduras, already among the poorest countries in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, experienced weak poverty reduction in 2014–19 compared to other countries in the region. The COVID-19 pandemic and Hurricanes Eta and Iota led to a rise in poverty from 2019 to 2020; it is likely that poverty will remain above prepandemic levels in 2021. The economic rebound in 2021, as well as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, led to an increase in food prices; at the same time, Honduras’s population is vulnerable to rising food prices and food insecurity is high. In 2019, the extreme poor spent ..

The Rwandan economy continued to achieve strong growth in 2022 in the face of weakening external demand and restrictive monetary policies required to control inflation. Rising food prices particularly affected the poor, who devote a large share of their spending to food and appear to have faced higher food inflation than richer households did. Growth is expected to decline somewhat in 2023 and then to recover closer to historical rates over the medium term. Tourism is a major source of Rwanda’s foreign exchange earnings and tends to generate a higher proportion of formal sector jobs than ..

This report makes the case for a big investment push for EMDEs’ sustainable recovery and development, assesses the magnitude and composition of such investment, presents actions needed for an energy transition, looks at the role that innovations and state capacity can play in facilitating GRID, and proposes actions that governments, the private sector, MDBs, the IMF, and donors can undertake to mobilize financing at the large scale needed. The report summarizes the insights derived from the meetings of the High-Level Advisory Group (HLAG) on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth, jointly led by Mari Pangestu, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, and Nicholas Stern, and composed of experts from res..

This paper has outlined an ambitious agenda for the WBG to support PPR enhancement at country, regional, and global levels as part of a broader approach to strengthen health systems. It is an agenda that not only seeks to deliver on the Bank’s IDA commitments related to disease outbreaks and crisis response but also to respond to demands from all our shareholders, clients, and other stakeholders for the Bank to play a key role in strengthening PPR capacities at country and regional levels through a wider health system strengthening agenda. Policy commitments from IDA’s Human capital specia..

This thematic policy note is part of a series that provides an analytical foundation for the update to the World Bank Group Gender Strategy (FY24-30). This series seeks to give a broad overview of the latest research and findings on gender equality outcomes and summarize key thematic issues, evidence on promising solutions, operational good practices, and key areas for future engagement on promoting gender equality and empowerment. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work are entirely those of the author(s). They do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Ba..

Despite a challenging global environment, Jordan’s growth exceeded expectations during the first half of 2022. Propelled by a strong rebound in international tourism, the full reopening of the economy, and improving exports, real GDP accelerated to 2.7 percent. However, the rebound in economic activity was only modestly reflected on labor market indicators with unemployment rates declining only gradually. Inflation has reached its highest level since 2018 but remains contained compared to regional peers, due to temporary fuel subsidies and a number of other price control measures introduced ..

As import tariffs have been declining over the past decades, non-tariff measures (NTMs) have become the most frequently used measures in trade policy. The increasing use of NTMs in global trade has highlighted the need for timely, high frequency and accurate data in order to better understand the implications that NTMs have on products, firms and the economy. This manual describes the first high-frequency panel dataset built by the World Bank on the universe of NTMs applied by a country, i.e. Indonesia. The manual includes a comprehensive overview of the purpose, building procedures and usage ..

Mobile phones have become the main communication tool and helped countless people to improve their lives in many countries. The use of mobile phones has grown exponentially over the past 30 years from 11 million subscriptions in 1990 to 8.6 billion in 2021.1 Ninety-five percent of the world’s population now has access to a mobile network. Acknowledging the ubiquitous presence of mobile phones in our lives, European Union governments have embraced the paradigm shift from electronic government (eGov) to mobile phone-based access to government services (mGov) through the Berlin Declaration 2020..

While recovering from Coronavirus (COVID-19),Cambodia’s economy is now facing global economic headwinds. The current account improved in the first half of 2022 as the trade deficit narrowed. Rising global energy, fertilizer and food prices prompted a surge in inflation. Rising inflation is particularly harmful to poor households. To mitigate impacts of the food and oil price shock, the authorities are planning to introduce additional social assistance measures, while extending the existing COVID19 cash transfer program until end-2022. Promoting the domestic economic sectors, focusing on the ..

Financial products and services play a significant role in enabling consumers to build their resilience, seize opportunities, and meet essential needs but consumers also face risks when engaging with such products and services. This is due to a range of factors, including information and power asymmetries and abusive or overly aggressive market practices. Although an ongoing effort, over the past decade significant progress has been made around the world to strengthen FCP regulatory frameworks. Policy makers have been incorporating a broader range of regulatory approaches to protect consumers ..

Amidst repercussions from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, lingering supply chain disruptions, and tightening global financial conditions, Egypt is experiencing a spike in inflation and has suffered abrupt large-scale portfolio outflows; adding pressures to the country’s already stretched public finances and external accounts. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has undertaken exchange rate and monetary policy adjustments since March 2022 by allowing the exchange rate to depreciate and by raising key policy rates, in order to contain the widening trade deficit, capital reversal and the ensuing drop ..

The Russia-Ukraine war has disrupted global trade and supply chains, exacerbating the rise in global commodity and food prices. Persistently high global inflation accompanied by tepid growth brings fears of stagflation that could endure for several years. Amidst this environment, the US Federal Reserve and other advanced economy central banks sharply tightened monetary policy to curb inflation. This has translated into tighter external financing conditions and financial stress for some emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) as capital outflows have intensified. Despite global slowdown, Indonesia has experienced strong growth in 2022 thanks to commodity windfalls and a reopening of..

The 2021 GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) report and underlying dataset provide opportunities to replicate the study, identify gaps in digital transformation by comparing the differences among economies and groups of economies, and track changes over time in a transparent way. The dataset will be updated every two years to reflect developments in the GovTech domain. This 2022 GTMI update report and the accompanying dataset and new data dashboard present the progress within the last two years, highlight some of the good practices, and identify existing gaps for possible improvements in countries a..

This package of Public Policy Notes is directed to Brazilian policy makers and society to present the World Bank Group’s overview of key challenges facing the country at this juncture, and possible ways forward to address them. We present an agenda prioritized around four issues of core relevance to Brazil’s recovery and its future resilience. First is the goal of financing development sustainably given the immediate challenge of situating the country’s enormous growth, inclusion and climate action needs within a credible macroeconomic framework and efficient and effective fiscal policie..

Bulgaria has followed sound macroeconomic policy in recent years and has weathered the Covid-19 economic crisis relatively well. The country embarked on a thorough transformation to a functioning market economy in the run-up to European Union (EU) membership in 2007 which, since 2018, has been followed by a firm course towards eurozone entry. But income convergence to average EU levels has been held back by low pre-crisis economic growth averaging only 2.1 percent in 2010-2019. At pre-Covid-19 crises growth rates, Bulgaria is not expected to converge to average EU income levels in the foreseea..

The global economy continues to face steep challenges, but Timor-Leste’s economy is slowly recovering. Nevertheless, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Consumer price inflation reached 7.9 percent yoy in August 2022, one of the highest in the East Asia Pacific region. The real effective exchange rate (REER) has appreciated by about 10 percent since the first quarter of 2021. Enhancing productive capabilities through structural reforms and improving quality of public spending hold the key for accelerating and sustaining economic development. Exten..

The Digital Transformation of Philippine Higher Education recommends a medium-term strategy for the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). Chapter 1 presents an overview of the Philippine higher education sector and analyzes the sectoral and country context for digital transformation of higher education. Chapter 2 discusses the foundations and pillars that support digital transformation as well as the building blocks of common and shared platforms and services for students and academic, research, and administrative stakeholders in higher education. Based on the findings in Chapter 1 and &#..

Economic inclusion programs have become a key feature of national social protection systems globally and a large and growing body of evidence suggests that economic inclusion programming can increase the incomes and resilience of people living in extreme poverty. As a result, there is strong operational demand to better understand the cost drivers, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of EI programs, including how these interventions interact with other services targeting the poor. The unique design and institutional characteristics of EI programs makes costing them both more challenging and more important than it is for traditional safety net programs. Cost analysis of these programs can ..

Climate change will exacerbate Egypt’s current vulnerabilities, with the potential to deepen persistent human development and spatial disparities. Climate change increases the uncertainty in availability of water resources in the country, increases heatwaves and desertification affecting biodiversity, and threatens food security and availability. Egypt’s economic and emissions growth are still tightly linked to each other, as reflected in total GHG emissions from 1990 to 2019, which grew 163% in absolute terms and 47% per capita. Just between 2005 and 2015, emissions increased by about 31%, from 248 Mt CO2eq in 2005 to 325 Mt CO2eq in 2015. In 2019, Energy, Transport and Industry account..

Sustainable debt is loan or bond financing that helps mitigate or address a specific environmental or social concern or achieve positive environmental or social outcomes. The term environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, often used interchangeably with sustainable investing, denotes an investment approach wherein investors apply nonfinancial factors related to ESG issues in their investment analysis to identify risks and opportunities. The practice of ESG investing began in the 1960s as socially responsible investing, with investors excluding stocks or entire industries..

In Jordan, natural resource scarcity and import dependence mean pronounced climate change impacts are inevitable and adapting to climate change is a pressing development priority. A new World Bank diagnostic tool, The Country Climate and Development Report explores the linkages between climate and development and identifies priority actions to build resilience and reduce carbon emissions, while supporting economic growth and reducing poverty. The report indicates that Jordan’s trajectory in meeting its climate and development goals will be largely determined by policy and investment choices in five strategic sectors - water, energy, agriculture, transport and urban development. The transfo..

Climate change poses major risks for development in the Philippines. Climate shocks, whether in the form of extreme weather events or slow-onset trends, will hamper economic activities, damage infrastructure, and induce deep social disruptions. Adaptation to the risks of climate change, including both extreme events and slow-onset problems, is thus critical for the Philippines. Policy inaction would impose substantial economic and human costs, especially for the poor. Adaptation cannot eliminate the costs of climate change, but it can substantially reduce them. Many adaptation responses also contribute to mitigation; conversely, many mitigation measures generate local co-benefits, such as re..

Integrating climate and development is a pillar of the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Climate Change Action Plan 2021-25. To advance its implementation, the WBG has launched a new, core diagnostic tool: the Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR), a new, core diagnostic tool that analyzes how a country’s development goals can be achieved in the context of adapting to and mitigating against climate change. The Pakistan CCDR provides analysis and policy recommendations on integrating the country’s efforts to achieve further economic growth, lower poverty rate with the pursuit of a climate-resilient, low-carbon and equitable development path. In light of the devastating 2020 heatwaves and..

Humanity is embedded in nature and depends profoundly on the goods and services it generates. Future economic development and well-being hinge on healthy and resilient ecosystems that provide our food and raw materials, drinking water, clean air, and the stability of the climate system. More than half of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) is generated in sectors such as construction and agriculture that depend on ecosystem services (WEF 2020), making nature relevant not only to policymakers, but also business and financial leaders. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is an initiativ..

Iraq’s economy is rebounding thanks to rising oil output and a recovery in domestic economic activity after the pandemic. Higher government oil revenues, driven by increased export prices and quantities, have significantly strengthened the fiscal position and international reserves. Without deeper structural reforms and economic diversification, Iraq’s extreme oil dependence leaves it vulnerable to commodity price volatility. Persistent high oil prices bode well for the economic outlook, but global demand is expected to gradually weaken. Downside risks to the economic outlook relate to fur..