This blog is a biweekly feature highlighting recent working papers from around the World Bank Group. It introduces five papers published from March 16 to March 31 on various topics, including…

Marcelo Buitron, Policy Research Working Paper team |

Photo: shplendid | Flickr Creative Commons Talk of trade tariffs and heightened geopolitical tensions are dominating news headlines recently. As developed economies consider escalating…

Mark Moseley |

Since 2008, the share of manufacturing in GDP across Africa has stagnated at around 10%, calling into question if African economies have undergone structural transformation vital to sustained…

Francois Steenkamp, Christopher Rooney |

Natural resources management, particularly in the extractives industry, can make a meaningful contribution to a country’s economic growth when it leads to linkages to the broader economy. To…

Gözde Isik |

Also available in: Français | العربية   A boat trip from Port Elizabeth to Kingstown, in the Caribbean country of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, is a one-hour trip that locals take several…

Valerie Lorena |

Three quarters of a century since the opening of the first McDonald’s, the fast food chain operates around 34, 000 outfits in around 120 countries and territories across all continents. In Sub-…

Borko Handjiski |