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Blog Post
May 28, 2024
Over the last 10 years, the international Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) has supported countries across Africa and Asia to develop national priority-setting processes. This month, in partnership with 15 iDSI authors, we have published a review of the successes, challenges, and lessons learned du...
Blog Post
May 08, 2024
Managing pandemics is not just about halting the spread of disease—it's about striking a careful balance between preserving public health and minimizing disruptions to daily life and well-being. Crafting effective policies in such situations requires a deep understanding of factors including how the...
WORKING PAPERS
April 04, 2024
Star firms, defined as the top 10 percentile of firms in the world in terms of return on invested capital, are more likely to occur in high-income countries and manufacturing industry, but there is an increasing share of star firms from middle-income countries and the services sector. Star firms hav...
Blog Post
April 04, 2024
A large academic and policy debate has focused on the increase in market concentration over the past few decades which has given rise to “star firms,” a small set of firms that generate abnormal returns for their investors. A common concern is that these firms exert excess market power and behave as...
Blog Post
December 06, 2023
Men are the majority customers in bank lending portfolios throughout the world. The gender gap in access to credit is larger in developing countries and especially onerous for women entrepreneurs who suffered disproportionate employment and income losses during the recent COVID pandemic. What drives...
Blog Post
November 09, 2023
There are so many studies regarding so many aspects of development economics that it can be difficult to keep up. Last week was the North East Universities Development Consortium annual conference, often called NEUDC. Researchers presented more than 130 papers across a wide range of topics, from agr...
Blog Post
October 25, 2023
A couple of years ago I joked that many development economics papers could be summarized by simply saying “schools: they’re good!”—or as an economist might put it, “the returns to education are positive.” Papers documenting the benefits of education have been at the core of development economics for...
Blog Post
October 23, 2023
In times of mounting debt, the quest for universal health coverage (UHC) faces critical challenges. Rising debt has far-reaching effects, including reduced access to financing, political instability, and decreased spending on international aid. The burden of debt, coupled with high inflation, is thr...
Blog Post
October 12, 2023
The vast majority of out-of-school children around the world live in rural areas. For children who live in rural areas and who are enrolled in school, they are less likely to finish primary school or to transition to secondary school. They score worse on tests. Less educational attainment and lower ...