This paper, based on the introductory remarks made at the two-day conference on "The State of the Economy, the State of the World," is an idiosyncratic stocktaking of the trajectory of economics from Adam Smith to contemporary times, with special attention to the rise of development economics....

Changing population age structures are shaping the trajectories of development in many countries, bringing opportunities and challenges. While aging has been a matter of concern for upper-middle and high-income economies, rapid population growth is set to continue in the poorest countries over...

This paper shows new empirical regularities indicating that the structure of trade connections affects the trade-growth nexus. System generalized method of moments estimations indicate that key structural features associated with the composition of traded products and partners matter for growth....

Regardless of the field, forecasts are widely used and yet assessments of the embedded uncertainty-the magnitude of the downside and upside risks of the prediction itself-are often missing. Particularly in policy-making and investment, accounting for these risks around baseline predictions is of...

This paper presents evidence suggesting that the relationship between income and economic structure is shifting over time, with countries across the income distribution uniformly increasing the share of labor in service sectors and an increasingly less stark relationship between manufacturing...

This paper examines the role of changes in sectoral productivity gaps over time in accounting for growth realized by countries over the past few decades. To quantify the productivity impact of the sectoral gaps, a simple model of resource allocation is developed in which the gaps arise due to...

Urbanization and growth : setting the context / Patricia Clarke Annez and Robert M. Buckley -- Rethinking economic growth in a globalizing world : an economic geography lens / Anthony J. Venables -- Are cities engines of growth and prosperity for developing countries? / Gilles Duranton --...