A hidden cost of the COVID-19 pandemic is the stigma associated with the disease for those infected and groups that are considered as more likely to be infected. This paper examines whether the provision of accurate and focused information about COVID-19 from a reliable source can reduce...

The Covid-19 pandemic caused prolonged school closures worldwide. Children in resource- poor settings were particularly affected given their limited access to remedial distance learning opportunities through the internet, television, and radio. To address the poor access to formal education, we...

Using the panel data vector autoregression (PVAR) model, this study examines the correlation between the stock market, gold price and USD exchange rate in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in 55 Asian and 32 European countries from 11 March 2021 to 29 October 2021. The results of Granger...

Part I of this report discusses the short- and medium-term growth prospects for countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The region is expected to grow at a subdued rate of 0.6 percent in 2019, rising to 2.6 percent in 2020 and 2.9 percent in 2021. The growth forecast for 2019 is...

This paper provides new evidence on the impacts of the COVID-19 economic crisis on a labor market with a high prevalence of informality. The analysis uses a rich longitudinal household survey for Peru that contains a host of individual and job outcomes before and during the first months of the...

It is clear that in the transition out of the COVID-19 crisis in Colombia there will be great need for formal job creation. One source that has been widely discussed in policy circles is strengthening linkages of Colombian firms with Global Value Chains (GVCs). Another source that has received...