Since 2006, the World Bank has been ranking almost 200 countries in terms of their business environment and the “ease of doing business” in these economies. The rationale behind this is the importance of a thriving private sector in promoting high and inclusive growth and development. It is...

Decentralization had been a common public finance reform among developing countries in the past few decades. Some advocates pushed for decentralization reform as an answer to the growing problem of income inequality. The primary argument for decentralization was that sub-national governments had...

Countries that have most successfully used trade as part of a high growth strategy tend to exhibit a distinct trading pattern that maximises learning. The evidence points to three main strategies: first, trading itself matters, as firms learn from a larger market; second, with whom you trade...

Bribes can either put "grease" or "sand" in the wheels of commerce, affecting firm performance (at the micro-level) and, ultimately, economic growth (at the macro-level). These two opposing hypotheses on the role corruption plays in countries with weak institutions raise an important empirical...

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in extractive industries (mining and quarrying) is expected to increase dramatically in many developing countries, due to the rising global demand for commodities. One key question for policymakers is whether this form of FDI could help spur investments in other...

Is a dramatic slowdown in global economic growth going to erase much of the progress in the last decade in terms of human development in the developing world‘ How might the crisis affect progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals‘ To address these questions, this paper...