Like many other countries, Kazakhstan's economic growth has slowed since the 2007-09 global financial crisis. Although the slowdown reflected weaknesses in expanding labor and capital, the most striking reduction has been in productivity growth. In more recent years, total factor productivity...

There is a growing literature exploring the increasing fragmentation of production processes and the evolution of internationally-dispersed but functionally-integrated economic activities. However, most of this literature appears to neglect an important part of the story, that is the form and...

Total factor productivity (TFP) is a crucial measure of efficiency and thus an important tool for policymakers. However, research on comparison of TFP performances using micro-level data across developing countries has been limited due to the unavailability of homogenous data sources. This study...

This Jobs Solutions Note identifies approaches for practitioners and policymakers to proactively adapt policies and development programs to accelerated technological change. Based on curated knowledge and emerging evidence for a specific topic and relevant to jobs, the Jobs Solutions Notes are...

The quality of the public procurement system of an economy can have far-reaching effects on the private sector. This paper empirically explores several of these effects using two rich data sets. An overall indicator of public procurement quality is created from the World Bank’s Benchmarking...

Public procurement regulation is an important instrument for using public resources efficiently and ensuring quality services to citizens. On average, the public procurement sector accounts for 14.5 percent of the gross domestic product globally. Using new data, this study documents public...

The economic thinking around the role of agriculture for development has evolved since the 1950s. Over the past decades, the agriculture sector has been rediscovered as a sector with great potential for triggering growth, reducing poverty and inequality, providing food security, and delivering...