This paper introduces a new index of financial inclusion for 153 advanced, emerging, and developing economies using a comprehensive set of new indicators, grouped into four different dimensions: financial access, usage, financial development, and fintech infrastructure. The fintech...

This paper provides a critical evaluation of an orthodox policy framework that came to be known as the “Washington consensus”. The paper traces its ideological and political genesis as it became embodied in World Bank and International Monetary Fund aid conditionalities. Despite following...

Typhoons, floods, and other weather-related shocks can inflict suffering on local populations and create life-threatening conditions for the poor. Yet, natural disasters also present a development opportunity to upgrade capital stock, adopt new technologies, enhance the risk-resiliency of...

This research aimed to examine the factors affecting the participation of female rural-urban migrants in online marketplaces, and the welfare gains and their distribution from their participation. Our analysis was based on a unique data set of rural households, villages, and rural-urban migrants...

Malaysia, a relatively small country, gained independence from Britain in 1957 and the government began an economic re-structuring process to become a developed country. The initial rural development push to rectify the colonial policy of benign neglect of the Malay, rural, peasant sector rested...