This new report presents the results of a systematic assessment of the World Bank's 15-year experience with the productive alliance approach adopted by 21 projects in 10 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. With funding of over United States (U.S.) 1 billion dollar since the early...

Policy makers across the Middle East and North Africa have for many years articulated plans to integrate their people spatially and economically. Wishing to bring communities together and narrow economic gaps, governments have made large capital investments in transport corridors and "new...

Addressing regional disparities is key to unlocking Russia's potential to achieve stronger gains in growth and equity outcomes as well as to improve its institutional environment. While spatial disparities have been an important policy concern in Russia for a long time, inequalities across its...

Russia's spatial disparities stem largely from its economic geography, which is unique and has no parallels even when compared to seemingly similar countries such as Australia and Canada. While Australia and Canada also have large land masses and even lower population densities than Russia, a...

On average, Vietnam has achieved remarkable improvements in nutritional status in recent decades, but improvements in national aggregates mask wide disparities and a persistent 'very high' burden among disadvantaged ethnic minority groups. Between 2000 and 2010, national stunting rates dropped...

Against the backdrop of increasing income inequality, this report uses spatial analysis to assesses whether disparities in access to basic infrastructure between Mozambique's lagging and leading regions are growing or declining and whether the public expenditure program is effective in...

The City of Yokohama offers useful lessons for other cities seeking to achieve sustainable urban development. It simultaneously managed rapid economic growth and a sharp rise in population through a series of thoughtfully conceived and well" integrated development projects and regulative...

Access to finance is an essential component of economic development and job creation. A host of studies have shown a positive correlation between financial development and economic growth. Access to finance is also critical for larger corporations and conglomerates, which, given their size,...

This document presents an incentive framework aiming to improve knowledge sharing (KS) and reusing behaviors at the World Bank. Given the nature of the Bank's work, evidence suggests that effective and efficient knowledge sharing might be the biggest predictor of success. To approach KS in a...

A growing body of empirical work suggests that personalized, just-in-time consultation about financial decision-making, with an emphasis on goal-setting, may be more effective to bring about improvements in financial consumer behavior than generalized, classroom-style education. With this in...