Understanding the various shades of the grey economy is a complex but necessary endeavor for researchers and policymakers alike.

Filip Jolevski, Yew Chong Soh |

NDCs are not legally binding and depend on the political will and public support in each country. There is a risk that governments may backtrack on their commitments or face resistance from some…

Christian Schoder, Remzi Baris Tercioglu |

Providing high-quality storybooks along with a network of reading supports effectively improved reading outcomes, including proficiency, frequency, and attitudes. Both caregivers and children…

Michael Crawford, David Rutkowski, Leslie Rutkowski |

Research and surveys consistently show that firms do not rank tax incentives as the primary reason for choosing where to invest. Instead, political and macroeconomic stability, the legal…

Viet Anh Nguyen, Hassan Zaman |

This blog is a biweekly feature highlighting recent working papers from around the World Bank Group. It introduces 4 papers published from February 16 to February 28 on various topics, including…

Marcelo Buitron, Policy Research Working Paper team |

About 35 percent of the world’s population live in 60 upper-middle income countries. Chasing economic growth, many of these countries invest heavily in transport infrastructure. Here's an…

Kerem Cosar, Banu Demir, Devaki Ghose, Nathaniel Young |

This entry highlights 13 papers that were published in the weeks of November 2nd and 9th. In these weeks’ publications, a number of papers were published related to the impact assessment of the…

Policy Research Working Paper team |

Labels matter. Girls who are reminded of stereotypes about how girls perform in math do worse on math exams (in some circumstances). Publicly revealing the caste of students in India led to worse…

David Evans |

Ceilings on lending rates remain a widely-used instrument in many EMDEs as well as developed economies. The economic and political rationale for putting ceilings on lending rates is to protect…

Aurora Ferrari, Oliver Masetti |

Global economic growth is accelerating. After registering the slowest pace since the 2007-2009 financial crisis in 2016, global growth is expected to rise to a 2.7 percent pace this year and 2.9…

M. Ayhan Kose, Raju Huidrom, Franziska Ohnsorge, Naotaka Sugawara |