The regional allocation of aid within recipient countries has been largely ignored in the aid allocation literature. We use geocoded data on the location of aid projects financed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank within a sample of 27 recipient countries to assess the claim of...

Jacqueline Best argues that the changes in International Monetary Fund, World Bank and donor policies in the 1990s, towards what some have called the "Post-Washington Consensus", were driven by an erosion of expert authority and an increasing preoccupation with policy failure. Failures such as...

The catching-up of countries in the Global South to productivity levels and living standards of the Global North is the exception. There are two main economic explanations for this. First, developing countries are pushed to low-tech-labor-intensive productions and tasks in global value chains....

Private investment and a robust private sector are fundamental drivers of economic growth and job creation, which are key ingredients to help tackle poverty. Development finance institutions (DFIs), with their core mandates to promote economic growth through their financing, risk sharing and...

In this article we discuss the need for industrial policy and role of development banks for economic development. The catching-up of countries in the Global South to productivity levels and living standards of the Global North is the exception. There are two main economic explanations for this...

Development banks are facing changing market conditions with low interest rates, rapid technological change, and an increased interest in impact investment. This combination of factors challenges traditional processes and business models, but also provides a chance to develop new and sustained...

This paper distinguishes how the source of lending affects gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Brazilian municipalities between 2007 and 2016. A unique data set allows us to discriminate between the effects of lending operated by either private or public commercial banks, and loans...

The paper considers the experience of the European Investment Bank and addresses policy lessons for developing countries as they seek finance for development. The paper argues that the key lesson for developing countries is that the traditional role of a development bank in closing market gaps...