Recent studies have highlighted the unequal labour market effects of the COVID-19 crisis in advanced economies. We contribute to this literature by drawing on a new survey of almost 40,000 adults in 14 advanced as well as emerging economies conducted in August 2020. We show that while labour...

An effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is sometimes suggested, will be to reverse the secular trend toward questioning the value of scientific research and expertise. We analyze this hypothesis by examining how exposure to previous epidemics affected the confidence of individuals in science and...

This paper traces the relationship between quarterly estimates of economic activity and people's mobility during the Covid-19 crisis in a sample of 53 economies. Over time, the estimates of elasticity of value added with respect to mobility have been declining, to around 20 percent at the start...

Using newly available data, we re-evaluate the impact of transition from plan to market on objective and subjective well-being. We find clear evidence of the high social cost of early transition reforms: cohorts born around the start of transition are shorter than their older or younger peers....

The paper provides a cross-country empirical analysis of the impact of corruption on foreign direct investment flows. The gravity model estimates suggest that if control of corruption in the destination country improves, investment flows from cleaner countries rise more than they do from...

This paper compares the effects of management practices and innovation on productivity, using data from the fifth round of the EBRD-WB Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey, a unique firm-level survey covering 30 mostly developing countries in eastern Europe and Central Asia in...

Private growth and investment in most of central, eastern and south-eastern Europe (CESEE) is still hampered by persistent financial distress in the corporate sector, resulting from the excessive debt taken on before the 2008 crisis. This paper looks at how this excess leverage affects firm...

Non-performing loans (NPLs) are a burden for both lender and borrower; they contract credit supply, distort allocation of credit, worsen market confidence and slow economic growth. So what is the best way to deal with them? This paper compares three different scenarios: actively reducing NPLs,...

How does economic hardship affect social preferences? Do people feel more solidarity with one another, as often happens after natural disasters? Or does it reduce pro-sociality by making social divisions more salient? We address these questions by analysing the social effects of economic...

During the technological and military competition of the Cold War, the Soviet government created “science cities” – urban centres that hosted a high concentration of research and development facilities. But what has been the long-term effect of these cities? This paper finds that in...