This blog is a biweekly feature highlighting recent working papers from around the World Bank Group. It introduces four papers published from November 1 to November 15 on various topics, including…

Marcelo Buitron, Policy Research Working Paper team |

Food-import bills are surging fastest for poor countries that are already in debt distress. The danger of an overlapping food and debt crisis is greatest those at high risk of debt distress or…

Marcello Estevão |

Three measures to ensure no one is left behind by this pandemic.

Michal Rutkowski |

New Zealand’s success story is often told in terms of its lamb, wool, kiwifruit and agricultural exports. But our country’s greatest asset has always been our people who have been equipped to do…

Annette Dixon |

The 2018 World Development Report (WDR), Learning to Realize Education’s Promise, launched this week.  While it draws on research and collective experience—both from within and outside the World…

Deon Filmer, Halsey Rogers |

Entering data. Photo: World Bank In the fiscal transparency arena, people often hear two conflicting claims. First, governments complain that few people take advantage of fiscal information that…

Paolo de Renzio, Massimo Mastruzzi |

Kazakhstan. Photo: Kubat Sydykov / World Bank How large is the share of public procurement to GDP in middle-income and low-income countries and how it is evolving? If sizable, can public…

Simeon Djankov, Federica Saliola, Asif Islam |

Photo credit: Graham Crouch/World Bank In my blog “The Governance Gap – can we bridge it?”, I stressed that strengthened institutions and improved governance are especially critical for the world’…

Deborah Wetzel |

Translations available in Chinese and Spanish. Many of you are already familiar with the PPP (Public-Private Partnerships) Group’s Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI) Database. As a…

Clive Harris, Jenny Chao |