To protect vulnerable populations and promote economic growth, policymakers in the Western Balkans should take into account the heterogeneity of inflation rates experienced by different households…

Anna Fruttero, Leonardo Lucchetti, Carlos Ospino, Zurab Sajaia |

Blog about how the global crises and uncertainty are testing the economic resilience of the Western Balkans. And what the governments across the region should consider in order to build greater…

Sanja Madzarevic-Sujster, Richard Record, Natasha Rovo |

The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) is the largest and most effective platform for fighting extreme poverty in the world’s lowest-income countries. As new IDA donors,…

Antonella Bassani, Akihiko Nishio |

Why are fertilizer prices so high, and what can countries in Central America do about this?

Luis Flores, Viviana Perego, Diego Arias |

Costa Rica lost the momentum for poverty reduction towards the end of the twentieth century. This makes Costa Rica an outlier in a region that conti…

Jacobus de Hoop, Agustin Arakaki |

Central America and the Dominican Republic have a good track record of economic growth. Between 1991 and 2019, Central America grew by an average of 4.5% per year, and the Dominican Republic by an…

Michel Kerf |

Numbers don’t lie. That’s why, in our day-to-day lives, we rely heavily on numbers from household surveys, from national accounts, and from other traditional sources to describe the world around…

Giorgia DeMarchi |

Eight years on from the start of the global economic crisis, close to one quarter of the European Union’s population remains at risk of poverty or social exclusion. But one group in particular…

Mariam Sherman |

When economists think about price shocks, they consider how a change in price will affect the supply and demand of a product. But when that product is human – i.e., a worker – interpreting the…

Elizabeth Ruppert Bulmer, Claire H. Hollweg |

It is July 2012 and cattle farmers in Nicaragua are worried because Guatemala has enacted a series of laws that restrict beef trade. These so-called “non-tariff measures, ” or NTMs, require that…

Jose Daniel Reyes, Maria Jose Gonzalez Rivas |