Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced low economic growth per capita, a very slow decline in poverty incidence, and the number of people living in extreme poverty has been rising steadily. As a…

Johannes Hoogeveen, Johan A. Mistiaen, Haoyu Wu |

Firms play an important role in the impact of payroll taxes on their workers and different firms respond differently to payroll tax cuts. Findings suggest that governments need to consider the…

Anikó Bíró, Réka Branyiczki, Attila Lindner, Lili Márk, Daniel Prinz |

New research brings to light the importance of household dynamics in shaping people’s acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines and provides insights that can be used to increase vaccine uptake in low-…

Christopher Hoy, Rajalakshmi Kanagavel, Corey Morales Cameron |

This blog is a biweekly feature highlighting recent working papers from around the World Bank Group. It introduces five papers published in August 2022 on various topics, including COVID-19…

Marcelo Buitron, Policy Research Working Paper team |

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has undoubtedly exposed the need to address critical issues that have been ignored for too long in Zambia.

Jade Nshimbi |

Today, on the occasion of the World Youth Skills Day , we are pleased to announce the winners of the Blog4Dev 2021 competition.

Hafez Ghanem, Ousmane Diagana |

Public procurement can be used as a public administration tool not only to purchase the needed goods and services, but also, and in a more broader angle, as a vehicle for poverty alleviation and…

Nazaneen Ismail Ali |

Caribbean nations offer valuable lessons on how to mitigate the effects of shocks, like natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic, through more resilient public financial management (PFM)…

Tracey Marie Lane, Ruxandra Burdescu, Leah April |

Effective management of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) can offer countries a layer of defense for fiscal resilience and sustainability when resources become scarce due to natural disasters.

Ruxandra Burdescu, Jana Kunicova, Joy ten Berge |

Recommendations from this MAPS Assessment, supported by the World Bank, can help the Zambian government make more informed decisions on their next steps to reforming their procurement system.

Nazaneen Ismail Ali, Kristina Aquino, Sarah Reso |