Economics: Research Guide

Electric mobility has garnered growing interest and significant momentum across several major global markets, often motivated by transport sector decarbonization. Together, Europe, China, and the United States account for more than 90 percent of the world’s electric vehicle fleet. For many OECD countries, electric mobility is seen primarily as a lever for transport sector decarbonization, given that many of the other relevant policy options have already been exhausted. This report finds that electric mobility is also increasingly relevant for low- and middle-income countries. As of today, el..

As the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to take its toll on human life, businesses in North Macedonia have continued to struggle despite a return to some normalcy. Th­is note examines the state of the private sector in North Macedonia by comparing the performance of businesses during the period of adjustment to the pandemic in April 2021 with the initial impact in September 2020 and the baseline before the crisis, drawing on a standard round of the Enterprise Survey in 2019 and two follow-up surveys in 2020 and 2021. While the second round of the follow-up survey revealed signs of some early-s..

Logistics clusters boost logistics efficiency. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic brought about a common global threat of historic proportions and yielded critical lessons as to the importance of supply chain resilience-from essential medical supplies to consumer goods in responding to such a challenge. Today the world increasingly recognizes the value of adaptive infrastructure and service delivery platforms, often collaborative in nature, to face the “certainty of uncertain situations” at all levels of the value chain. Logistics clusters are at the core of positioning trans..

As a green mode of transportation, railways have an important role to play in decarbonizing transport through shifting transport from more polluting modes of transport such as road and air. Railways can enable economic growth, which in turn generates increasing transport demand, while keeping greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions low. However, in many parts of the world, railways have lost traffic and market share to air and road transport modes. As countries seek to reduce their GHG emissions, while still delivering on economic growth, many are rethinking the role of rail. Many developing countries ..

Economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been weak since the global financial crisis of 2007-09 and the Arab Spring of the early 2010s. Achieving higher and sustainable growth is particularly important in view of other economic challenges facing the region: public debt in MENA countries has increased considerably over the last decade, accompanied by declining investment. This report seeks to understand what lies beneath that relatively slow growth, with a particular focus on the reasons for stagnating productivity and inadequate accumulation of human capital and physical&..

Across the developing world, countries are experiencing rapid growth in urbanization and motorization. While high motorization rates potentially meant hat more people will be able to claim the benefits of improved accessibility to goods and services as a consequence of enhanced mobility, there are questions about the sustainability of this future. Will countries be able to build and maintain infrastructure to accommodate increasing numbers of vehicles? Will the increasing number of vehicles and their characteristics support attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Will they put in jeopardy countries’ ability to meet their climate commitments under their Nationally Determined ..

The air transport sector is an integral part of economic growth and development. As the only available means of transporting passengers and goods across the globe within a single day, air transport provides critical connectivity between regions and better access to global markets. The creation of these benefits, however, leads to detrimental impacts on the environment and public health, including the emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases (GHGs). This report emphasizes SAF as the main mitigation option that can most readily realize substantial GHG emission savings for air transport in t..

Railways support green development. Governments in developing countries seek to provide transport infrastructure and services to enable inclusive economic development. Transport decarbonization is critical for mitigating climate change through near-term actions and long-term transitions. Railways have an important role in reducing transport emissions, while also supporting economic development and increased mobility. Structured around the avoid–shift–improve framework, this report provides a systematic review of potential contributions that railways can make to development and climate goals.

The World Bank’s partnership for market readiness (PMR), through grant support and technical assistance, supported 23 emerging economies and developing countries in building their institutional and human capacities to design, institute, and implement carbon pricing instruments, such as emission trading systems, carbon taxes, and or carbon crediting mechanisms along with underlying infrastructure such as monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) and registry systems. As the PMR winds down and its successor - the partnership for market implementation (PMI) - becomes operational in 2021, the..

Putting a price on carbon can be an indispensable part of a country’s strategy to reduce emissions in an efficient way. Furthermore, putting a price on carbon through international carbon markets can also offer significant cost benefits and enable flexibility in achieving emission reduction targets. Article 6 of the Paris Agreement provides a potential basis for bottom-up carbon market linkage. Under the Paris Agreement, carbon pricing policies and international carbon markets are increasingly developed bottom up and are diverse in nature to accommodate countries’ domestic priorities. Whil..

Early childhood development (ECD) has become a high priority for the government of Kosovo in the last decade. Kosovo has a relatively well-established legal framework supporting early childhood development (ECD). Systems Approach for Better Education Results - Early Childhood Development (SABER-ECD) collects, analyzes, and disseminates comprehensive information on ECD policies around the world. In each participating country, extensive multisectoral information is collected on ECD policies and programs through a desk review of available government documents, data and literature, and interviews ..

In Mashreq, climate change and fragility form a vicious cycle wherein current fragility hinders climate action and climate threats will exacerbate fragility. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought an acute disruption to the global economy, yet its most profound effects have been felt in weak and fragile states, including Mashreq countries. Reimagining a post-Covid-19 climate-responsive economic recovery presents a critical opportunity to break away from this cycle and align economic, development, and climate agendas. This report highlights some of the opportunities available for Mashr..

Significant research has been undertaken on how changes in speed limit—for example, the introduction of 30 kilometers per hour, or kph (20 miles per hour, or mph) speed limits—impact safety both when combined with, and without "traffic-calming

Carbon pricing can reduce emissions cost-effectively, and it can also generate a number of other benefits. This guide provides an overview of these benefits to help policy makers advance a variety of sustainable development objectives in their own countries and around the world. Carbon prices are broadly recognized as necessary for correcting market failures that arise from pollution externalities, because the prices paid for using fossil fuels do not come close to compensating society for the costs that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions impose on society. Where there is a divergence between (ext..

Currently, about 46 national jurisdictions and 35 cities, states, and regions, representing almost a quarter of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, are putting a price on carbon as a central component of their efforts to reduce emissions and place their growth trajectory on a more sustainable footing. An increasing number of these jurisdictions are approaching carbon pricing through the design and implementation of Emissions Trading Systems (ETS). As of 2021, ETSs were operating across four continents in 38 countries, 18 states or provinces, and six cities covering over 40 percent of &#..

The Paris Agreement, with its universal requirement on all countries to submit nationally determined contributions (NDCs), marks a significant change for the framework of international cooperation through carbon markets. With all countries committing themselves to climate action to reduce emissions and achieve their NDCs, the ability to exert exclusive claims over the emission impact from carbon market investments and count them towards emission targets is becoming increasingly complicated. This study seeks to understand perspectives of potential host countries on the role international volunt..

Mexico has made great strides recently in its fight against climate change. The enactment of the Climate Change Law in 2012 and its reform in 2018 led to the creation of a series of administrative and policy instruments to guide domestic action on climate mitigation and adaptation. The development and implementation of this agenda created new and different challenges involving the design and adoption of new fiscal, economic, and market-based instruments. Mexico opted for the development of an Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) as its main instrument to scale up climate change mitigation efforts. To..

Costa Rica ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1994 and has since developed and implemented national climate policies in accordance with its principles, primarily through the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) and its institutional structures. Early actions, together with the establishment of climate-specific policies, earned Costa Rica a place in the Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR), a multi-donor trust fund within the World Bank that supports participating countries to prepare and implement climate change mitigation policies including ..

While efforts are currently in place to collect data on the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, this note looks at the experience of the 2008 financial crisis to gain insights on possible differential effects of crises on female and male entrepreneurs. Specially, the note uses firm-level data collected immediately after the 2008 financial crisis in six countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Turkey) to look at two aspects of the differential effect of the crisis. First, whether there is a difference in the exit rate for firms..

Carbon pricing is an important instrument in addressing climate change. However, a well-functioning carbon pricing instrument needs a robust framework to quantify GHG emissions (including removals) underpinned by high quality data. This data can help policy makers set the level of a carbon tax (CT) and help regulators track how many emissions allowances companies need to surrender under an Emissions Trading System (ETS). A robust framework will facilitate implementation and enforcement of the rules and increase compliance levels. This report builds on the PMR Guide for Designing Mandatory ..

Carbon pricing policies that are aligned with the Paris Agreement objectives will have positive and negative socio-economic impacts on society. Impacts of unabated climate change are expected to disrupt economic development and disproportionally affect the poorest parts of the population, especially in lower-income countries. In response, through the Paris Agreement, the international community pledged to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Carbon pricing has been highlighted as a crucial prerequisite for effective climate change mitigation. Carbon..

With an increasing share of populations dwelling in cities, urban emission reduction is gaining priority at the national level. A high share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the global footprint is ultimately attributable to urban areas; as such, the effect of carbon lockin further increases the need for immediate action at the urban level. City and regional policy makers are well placed to affect urban emission pathways through city-wide actions. The credits generated from an urban carbon crediting approach may be used for a range of purposes. The two key options are: (1) for use toward t..

Carbon market simulations are programs, models, virtual environments, and/or games that allow stakeholders to participate in a simulated process of designing or participating in an ETS. They are a low-cost and low-risk option of building capacity for both policymakers and regulated companies. The experiential learning processes these tools enable serves to increase ETS literacy, helps build support for ETS as a policy option, and illustrates how policy outcomes are a function of design. Importantly, ETS simulations can provide an opportunity for different stakeholdersto build relatio..

The focus of the Report Reconciling Carbon pricing and Energy Policies in Developing Countries is how the objective of reducing emissions can be pursued alongside the priorities reflected in the energy policies of developing countries. The Report for Practitioners summarizes the Report’s main findings 4 and is split into three parts: part one examines interactions between climate and energy policies and related challenges and opportunities; some interactions are positive, some are negative. Part two focuses on the potential conflicts between carbon pricing on existing energy policy ..

The Enterprise Surveys (ES) focus on many aspects of the business environment. These factors can be accommodating or constraining for firms and play an important role in whether an economy’s private sector will thrive or not. An accommodating business environment is one that encourages firms to operate efficiently. Such conditions strengthen incentives for firms to innovate and to increase productivity, key factors for sustainable development. A more productive private sector, in turn, expands employment and contributes taxes necessary for public investment in health, education, and other se..

Incentive-based conservation is a promising approach to tropical forest conservation, including within multiple-use protected areas. Here we analyze the environmental impacts of Bolsa Floresta, a longstanding forest conservation program combining conditional household payments with livelihood-focused investments in 15 multiple-use reserves of Amazonas State, Brazil. We use grid-based data, nearest-neighbor matching, and panel data econometrics to compare forest-related program outcomes (deforestation, degradation, fires) with non-participating reserves. While post-treatment deforesta..

This report aims to help the government of Armenia and its stakeholders develop a strategy for the tertiary education sector. It uses the methodology of SABER – Tertiary Education (SABER-TE), which is a diagnostic tool to assess how education systems perform and to identify priorities for reforms at the national level. The methodology and this report are part of the World Bank’s systems approach for better education results (SABER), which benchmarks education systems at the country level. SABER uses an extensive questionnaire to collect data on the policy environment for tertiary education..

This technical paper investigates the potential economic and environmental outcomesassociated with the use of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement by participating countries.The extent to which countries use Article 6, and how they use it, will be informed by design choices agreed upon by negotiators in forthcoming Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings, particularly the next one to be held at COP 25 in Chile and by the agreements made between participating parties. We use the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), an integrated assessment model, to quantify the economic potential of Article 6. ..

This report provides the papers and proceedings of the first International Research Conference on Carbon Pricing held from February 14-15, 2019 in New Delhi, India. With the goal of strengthening the carbon pricing knowledge base and fostering an improved understanding of the evolving challenges to its successful application, the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition convened researchers, practitioners, and interested stakeholders for the CPLC Research Conference.

Romania has clear separate legal frameworks for the health sector, requiring provision of services for pregnant women and young children; for the social and child protection and education sectors, including a mandatory pre-primary year of attendance. In recent years, early childhood development (ECD) has received broader attention from the Romanian Government as the early ages become a priority at the European Union and global levels. Systems approach for better education results (SABER) - ECD collects, analyzes, and disseminates comprehensive information on ECD policies around the world. The ..