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BRIEF

Poverty, Inequality, and Human Development

The Poverty, Inequality and Human Development team conducts research across a wide range of topics that broadly covers issues related to improving the wellbeing of people, particularly less well-off individuals, with the aim of enhancing sustainable, upward economic and social mobility. Some examples of topics covered by this team include early childhood development, education/skills, health, poverty, inequality, labor, and aging. The research agenda also focuses on related cross-cutting aspects such as gender, service delivery design, social protection, and public finance. The program includes methodological research on survey design and methods, and adaptive sampling techniques; as well as the use of improved data and existing data sources to better inform and assess the effectiveness of specific policies in enhancing human development and reducing poverty and inequality.

FEATURED

The World Bank
3rd Call for Papers: Humans Lacea Network
Call for Papers, Submit by December 15, 2024 

Humans was created to improve the dissemination of high-quality research in the specific area of Migration in Latin America. Although the predominant focus of the conference is on work related to migration (internal and international) for the Latin American region, papers for any country are also welcome. Both theoretical and empirical contributions are welcome too. The deadline for submitting complete papers is December 15, 2024. The conference will be held at ITAM, Mexico City from April 10-11, 2025.

The World Bank
Reflexivism: Reducing the Distance between Citizens & Policy

Keynote Presentation, January 19, 2024

In this keynote presentation, Vijayendra Rao talks about "reflexive policymaking", which argues that local control should be given to local issues. Additionally, Rao shares that this paradigm of policymaking emphasizes that people who are impacted by policy decisions should be centrally involved in forming the policies that affect their rights. This presentation focuses on four central themes: 1) deliberation, 2) democratizing data, 3) incentivizing politicians, and 4) the added value of local democracy. 

Cover slide of the Strengthening Health Systems Policy Research Talk
Strengthening Health Systems for Pandemic Preparedness and Other Emerging Challenges

Policy Research Talk, February 6, 2024

While the world appears to have transitioned out of the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on society and health systems has been profound. In this talk, World Bank Lead Economist Damien de Walque highlights and discusses some of the lessons learned through this crisis and the response to it. Stressing how beneficial the investments in health—including vaccination—have been during the pandemic, he also places the disruption brought by COVID-19 in perspective with the current evolving burden of diseases in low- and middle-income countries.

2021 SPF Annual Report
Longitudinal Survey of Forced Migrant Children from Venezuela - VenRePs-Kids
Brief, 2024

It is estimated that by early 2021, there were more than 110 million displaced people, of whom 41% are children under the age of 18. One of the main obstacles to progress in this field is the lack of longitudinal data and information on the human development status of children. The Longitudinal Survey of Forced Migrant Children (VenRePs-Kids) was developed to contribute in this direction.

Spanish Version |  Discrimination Toward Migrants During Crises |  Life out of the Shadows (Feature Story)

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Development Research Group Expert Wins Best Paper Award
Award Announcement, January 2024

Oyebola Okunogbe recently won the Best Paper Award from the American Economic Association for her paper “Technology, Taxation, and Corruption” alongside co-author Victor Pouliquen. They use experimental variation to examine the impact of electronic tax filing (to replace in-person submission to tax officials) using data from Tajikistan firms. The pair of researchers find that e-filing reduces the time firms spend on taxes by 40 percent. Further, among firms previously more likely to evade, e-filing doubles taxes paid.

Technology, Taxation, and Corruption: Evidence from the Introduction of Electronic Tax Filing |  Twitter Post |  Feature Story |  Policy Research Talk |  More Research from Oyebola Okunogbe

 

LATEST WORKING PAPERS

Women at Work: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Urban Djibouti
Florencia Devoto, Emanuela Galasso, Kathleen Beegle, Stefanie Brodmann
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10906, September 2024

Refugees and Humanitarian Aid: The Rohingya Impact on Bangladesh’s Development
Alvin Etang Ndip, Sandra V. Rozo, María José Urbina, Christina Wieser
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10884, August 2024

Therapy, Mental Health, and Human Capital Accumulation among Adolescents in Uganda
Sarah Baird, Berk Ozler, Chiara Dell’Aira, Luca Parisotto, Danish Us-Salam
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10849, July 2024

The Socioeconomic Outcomes of Native Groups in Argentina
Pedro Dal Bó, Carolina Lopez
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10834, June 2024

Social Protection and Youth
Caridad Araujo, Sarah Baird, Saini Das, Berk Özler, Luca Parisotto, Tassew Woldehanna
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10832, June 2024

More Working Papers

LATEST JOURNAL ARTICLES

Fair Inheritance Taxation
Benoit Marie A Decerf, François Maniquet, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, October 2024 | Working Paper Version

In someone else’s shoes: Reducing prejudice through perspective taking
Marisol Rodriguez Chatruc, Sandra RozoJournal of Development Economics, vol. 140, September 2024 | Working Paper Version

How Can Lower-Income Countries Collect More Taxes? The Role of Technology, Tax Agents, and Politics
Oyebola Okunogbe, Gabriel Tourek, Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 38, Winter 2024 | Working Paper Version

Preventing Violence in the Most Violent Contexts: Behavioral and Neurophysiological Evidence
Lelys Dinarte-Diaz, Pablo Egana, Journal of the European Economic Association, vol. 22, June 2024 | Working Paper Version

Optimal Pricing of a New Utility Service: The Case of Piped Water in Vietnam
Quy-Toan Do, Hanan G. Jacoby, Review of Economic Studies, June 2024 | Working Paper Version

The Influence of COVID-19 on Young Women's Labor Market Aspirations and Expectations in India
S Anukriti, Catalina Herrera-Almanza, Sophie Ochmann, AEA: Papers and Proceedings, vo. 114, May 2024 | Working Paper Version

 

BOOKS AND REPORTS

The Goverment Analytics Handbook. A Blueprint to Improve Government Through Data. The World Bank.University College of London
Measuring what Matters: Principles for a Balanced Data Suite That Prioritizes Problem Solving and Learning
Book Chapter, 2023

Governments across the world make thousands of personnel management decisions, procure millions of goods and services, and execute billions of processes each day. Responding effectively and with professional integrity to public administration’s many challenges requires recognizing that access to more and better quantitative data is necessary, but insufficient. This chapter, from The Government Analytics Handbook, focuses on four risks which can come from an overreliance on quantitative data.

GWP Social Research for Conservation Insight and Impact Evaluation
Process and Implementation Evaluation Methods
Book Chapter, September 2023

This chapter, co-authored by Michael Woolcock, appears in the book Oxford Handbook of Social Program Design and Implementation Evaluation. The book creates a comprehensive and actionable toolbox of evaluation methodologies that can be used to examine social programs throughout their life cycle.

Collage of images related to the World Development Report 2023

World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies
Report, 2023

Mobility is an integral part of the development process. It is a mechanism for reallocating labor across economic sectors and geographical areas. It enables adaptation to shocks, stresses, and imbalances. Cross-border mobility inevitably comes with economic and social consequences for those who move, their communities of origin, and their destinations. The World Development Report (WDR) is taking a fresh look at these issues. It aims to shift from a narrow focus on labor markets for migrants and legal protection for refugees to a more holistic perspective — one that recognizes the humanity of migrants and the complexity of the societies of origin and destination.

Main Messages |  Download the Full Report |  Concept Note |  WDR 2023 Learning Events

Why Social Sustainability is Critical for the Climate Agenda
Social Sustainability in Development: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century
Book, March 2023

All development is about people: the transformative process to equip, link, and enable groups of people to drive change and create something new to benefit society. Social Sustainability in Development: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century seeks to advance the concept of social sustainability and sharpen its analytical foundations. By identifying interventions that work to promote the components of social sustainability and highlighting the evidence of their links to key development outcomes, this book provides a foundation for using social sustainability to help address the many challenges of our time.

The World Bank
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women-Led Businesses

Report, March 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has struck businesses across the globe with unprecedented impacts. The world economy has been hit hard and firms have experienced a myriad of challenges, but these challenges have been heterogeneous across firms. This paper examines one important dimension of this heterogeneity: the differential effect of the pandemic on women-led and men-led businesses.

Cover of the Improving Effective Coverage in Health: Do Financial Incentives Work? report
Improving Effective Coverage in Health: Do Financial Incentives Work?

Policy Research Report, May 2022

Improving Effective Coverage in Health: Do Financial Incentives Work? examines one specific policy approach to improving effective coverage: financial incentives in the form of performance-based financing (PBF), a package reform that typically includes performance pay to frontline health workers as well as facility autonomy, transparency, and community engagement.

Feature Story |  Policy Research Talk Video | Launch Event

Last Updated: Oct 22, 2024