Lowering the cost of sending remittances has become a major goal of policy efforts in migration, and an area the World Bank has worked on across the globe. Two main channels for lowering these costs are regulatory reforms to promote competition and the introduction of new products; and efforts...

Lack of mobility of labor is likely the biggest distortion in global factor markets, resulting in large differences in the productivity and income a given worker can have in different places. As a result of this fact, facilitating emigration has the potential to be one of the most effective...

Firms in developing countries are widely known to face many constraints, from lack of access to finance and physical capital to poor infrastructure. The course seems to have been particularly effective at promoting business growth for those entrepreneurs who exhibited higher levels of financial...

The fifth in impact series presents results on a careful evaluation of a financial literacy program in Indonesia. Despite the recent hype of the benefits of financial literacy programs in both the media and policy-making circles, this research is the first systematic and scientific evaluation of...

Developing country governments seek to reduce pervasive informality of firms for multiple reasons: increasing the tax base, helping firms access formal markets and grow, increasing rule of law, and as a means of obtaining data that can be used for other government functions. The most common...

Innovative start-ups and SMEs in developing and transition countries often have good ideas, but may not have these ideas fine-tuned to the stage where they can attract outside funding. This is the case in the Western Balkans, where there is a perceived lack of investment readiness of innovative...

Between 2008 and 2010, the authors worked with a leading global consulting company to attempt to improve management in Indian textile firms. They conducted a randomized experiment involving 28 plants in 17 firms in the woven cotton fabric industry. These were large firms, with an average of 270...

Irregular migration from Africa to Europe attracts substantial policy attention. Although international migration can enable people from developing countries to dramatically increase their incomes, the absence of legal channels and the chance of higher incomes can induce people to take part in...

Despite the emphasis placed by microfinance organizations on lending to female business owners, evidence from three recent randomized controlled trials has cast doubt on the ability of capital alone to grow female-operated microenterprises: in my own previous experiment in Sri Lanka women given...