What major insights have emerged from development economics in the past decade, and how do they matter for the World Bank? This challenging question was recently posed by World Bank Group President David Malpass to the staff of the Development Research Group. This paper assembles a set of 13...

Economists find it difficult to reach agreement about the effects on economic growth of depreciation of the money value. One reason is that they define certain terms in different ways, another one is that many other factors as well as inflation have an impact on economic growth. They may...

According to the Washington Consensus, developing countries’ growth would benefit from reductions in barriers to trade. However, the empirical basis for judging trade reforms is weak. Econometrics are mostly ad hoc; results are typically not judged against models; policies are poorly measured;...

Or Paradox Regained? The answer is Paradox Regained. New data confirm that for countries worldwide long-term trends in happiness and real GDP per capita are not significantly positively related. The principal reason that Paradox critics reach a different conclusion, aside from problems of data...

This special section aims to advance scholarship on well-being and happiness in Africa. The section covers theoretical, conceptual and empirical contributions which address relevant areas that enhance extant knowledge on linkages between poverty, happiness and well-being in Africa.