Purchasing Prosperity: The Economics of Government Procurement

Manuel García-Santana is a Senior Economist in the Macroeconomics and Growth Unit of the Development Research Group. His research focuses on the macroeconomic aspects of development and trade. Before joining the World Bank, Manuel was an Associate Professor at Pompeu Fabra University and a Kenen Fellow at Princeton University, International Economics Section. 

Majed ElBayya is the Regional Procurement Manager for the Middle East and North Africa region at the World Bank. He obtained his PhD and Master’s degrees in civil engineering—Hydraulics from the University of Missouri-Columbia, MO, USA and his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Birzeit University, Palestine. Dr. ElBayya has worked extensively on country public procurement reviews, country public procurement reforms, fiduciary review and led/participated in several studies and research on public procurement. He has provided many capacity building trainings on World Bank procurement procedures and contract management.

Deon Filmer is Director of the Development Research Group at the World Bank. He has previously served as Acting Research Manager in the Research Group, Co-Director of the World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise, and Lead Economist in the Human Development department of the Africa Region of the World Bank. He works on issues of human capital and skills, service delivery, and the impact of policies and programs to improve human development outcomes—with research spanning the areas of education, health, social protection, and poverty and inequality. He has published widely in refereed journals, including studies of the impact of demand-side programs on schooling and learning; the roles of poverty, gender, orphanhood, and disability in explaining education inequalities; and the determinants of effective service delivery.