Despite the recent growth resurgence, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains the poorest region in the world. At the same time, it is a region that heavily relies on natural resources. In this paper we investigate the extent to which the second fact helps explain the first one. The distinctive feature...

We ask which economic policies can help a country create the most favourable conditions for development. We observe that the dynamics of several development indicators can be grouped into four clusters, each cluster corresponding to a different combination of growth and changes in inequality....

We study the nexus between natural resources and growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and find that SSA is indeed special: resources dependence retards growth in SSA, but not elsewhere. The natural resources curse is thus specific to SSA. We then show that this specificity does not depend on the...

A significant percentage of greenhouse gas emissions results from the need to heat and cool buildings and to provide power to household appliances. The potential for energy savings in this sector is considerable with estimates that energy use could be cut by almost a third simply by implementing...

The EU transfers provided to the New Member States and candidate countries are generally viewed as having been efficiently used in promoting development in these economies. This paper examines the conditionality and institutional arrangements used to manage these transfers, and asks if there are...

This study provides a broad overview of the private housing market in central and eastern Europe and some of the CIS – its history, current conditions and implications for the overall economy. It highlights regional differences, describes the different policy choices that have been made, and...