Quality regulation has become the dominant instrument of trade policy. Panel evidence shows that regulations classified as sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade both increase...
Interference across competing firms in RCTs can be informative about market structure. An experiment that subsidizes a random sub-set of traders who buy cocoa from farmers in Sierra Leone illustrates this...
Data on global trade as well as capital and labor flows indicate a slowdown, but not reversal, of globalization post the 2008–09 financial crisis. Yet profound changes in the policy environment and public...
Forty percent of economic activities in Mexico weighed by sales have been investigated for illegal monopolistic practices since the Federal Competition Commission was established in 1993. By exploiting...
A lack of timely financing for purchases of vaccines and other health products impeded the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on analysis of contract signature and delivery dates in COVID-19...
Vaccination rates in developing countries lag those in developed countries by a huge margin. This Research & Policy Brief identifies and quantifies the impact of six policy and regulatory actions that...
Prices for several intermediate inputs, including cement, are higher in developing economies—particularly in Africa. Combining data from the International Comparison Program with a global directory of...
How can the world reach herd immunity against COVID-19 before the second anniversary of the pandemic, or March 2022? A study of vaccine demand and supply answers this question. A target of vaccinating...
Supplies of diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus), are still limited in many countries, and there is uncertainty about how to allocate the scarce supply across alternative...
This paper provides the first evidence on the long-run returns to private equity in emerging and frontier markets using the cash flows from every equity investment made by the International Finance Corporation...
What is the pathway to development in a world marked by rising economic nationalism and less international integration? This paper answers this question within a framework that emphasizes the role of demand-side...
Large firms pay higher wages. In developing economies, the large-firm wage premium is comparable to the average gap between male and female wages, or two-thirds of the gap between urban and rural wages...
The present value of market access from the Belt and Road Initiative in Eurasia does not exceed its costs. Many transportation projects are of little value because they fail to create new least-cost paths...
The purpose of this report is to help policymakers improve economic development and job creation in Cameroon’s cities. The report is part of the World Bank’s Technical Assistance project on Enhancing Economic...