The global economic crisis that broke out in 2008 has reawakened interest in fiscal policy. In the early stages of the crisis, there was a widespread turn to countercyclical fiscal stimulus. Furthermore, the recent euro area crisis has underlined the importance of long-term fiscal sustainability...

Can service be a growth escalator? The world is experiencing its third industrial revolution, and services are at the forefront of this revolution. Services have already surpassed industry as a source of economic growth and job creation, in both developed and developing economies. In the...

While South Asia’s average gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the past decade was only slightly lower than in East Asia and the Pacific, the region significantly lags behind in terms of infrastructure access. In some cases, South Asia’s access levels are more similar to sub-Saharan...

Over the last century, the world has seen a sustained decline in the proportion of people living in poverty. However, there is an increasing concern that climate change could slow or possibly even reverse poverty reduction progress. Given the complexities involved in analyzing climate change...

In the past two decades, there has been a growing engagement between development and human rights practitioners and thinkers. But are participants in this dialogue still mainly talking past each other? Or has there been valuable cross-fertilization and learning—the Millennium Development Goals...

Over the recent year, humanity has faced natural disasters of unprecedented magnitude and impact. However, governments and international aid organizations do not systematically plan for preventing and mitigating the effects of natural disasters, and macroeconomic scenarios seldom take into...

South Asia has one of the fastest growing economies in the world, yet it is also home to the largest concentration of people living in debilitating poverty. How do the two coexist? The paradox of South Asia is that growth has been instrumental in reducing poverty rates, but poverty rates have...

Understanding how to rebuild resilient states in postconflict countries is an urgent priority for the international community. A new cross-country study of public financial management reforms in postconflict situations shows that substantial progress is possible even in difficult circumstances,...

The global financial crisis has led to a range of reform proposals concerning the regulatory framework governing the banking sector—collectively referred to as “Basel III.” Although the proposed reforms are expected to generate substantial benefits by reducing the frequency and intensity...

Services can now be stored and traded digitally, and they are not subject to many of the trade barriers that physical exports have to overcome. Services are no longer exclusively an input for trade in goods, but have become a “final export” for direct consumption. It is important to note...