The COVID-19 pandemic has wide implications for the socio-economic fabric worldwide. In addition to health fears, citizens are facing a host of financial uncertainties stemming from the temporary closure of businesses, schools, public facilities and quarantines, as well as instability in the...

New thinking on the nature of fragility and risk shows a shift from a one-dimensional understanding of fragility towards a more holistic approach in which degrees of fragility exist on a spectrum. This approach recognises the need for collaborative, regional and global solutions to tackle the...

The aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis has meant a significant number of countries have cut public spending on education. Despite GDP rising in most OECD countries between 2009 and 2010, public expenditure on educational institutions fell in one-third of them. Teachers’ salaries were...

The dramatic collapse in world trade in 2009 is, this report shows, mainly due to: the drop in demand for highly traded products; the drying up of trade finance; and the vertically integrated nature of global supply chains. Contrary to expectations, protectionist measures were relatively muted and...

This brief investigates the financial vulnerability of non-financial firms associated with confinement measures introduced in most world economies to tackle the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic. Based on empirical simulations, it evaluates the extent to which firms may run into a liquidity crisis...

COVID-19 has governments at all levels operating in a context of radical uncertainty. The regional and local impact of the COVID-19 crisis is highly heterogeneous, with significant implications for crisis management and policy responses. This paper takes an in-depth look at the territorial...

Fragile contexts are beginning to be hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of these countries are insufficiently prepared to cope with the spread of the disease and its consequences across the multiple dimensions of fragility. The most vulnerable have difficulty in accessing hospitals and rely on...

This report analyzes the labor migration trends in Asia and puts them in the context of economic and policy developments and the changes wrought by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. It examines the policy settings in the major origin and destination countries of labor migrants and the...