Sustainability and Infrastructure

Lasting poverty reduction requires sustainable natural resource management as well as infrastructure development. This research program encompasses energy, environment, land, agriculture, water, climate change, biodiversity, and urbanization.

Featured Research

World Bank Land Conference 2024: Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action - Research Track
Conference, May 13-17, 2024, Washington, DC
For over two decades, the World Bank Land Conference catalyzed the global land community. The Conference is the premier forum for the land sector, bringing together participants from governments, development partners, civil society, academia, and the private sector to showcase research, discuss issues and good practice, and inform policy dialogue.
Event Sessions | Program Book | Land Policies for Resilient and Equitable Growth in Africa
Sea Level Rise
PBS Energy Switch Interview, April 2024
Sea level has been rising since the end of the last Ice Age, when continental ice sheets began to melt. In island nations and low-lying coastal areas sea level rise is contributing, among other things, to high tide flooding, and saltwater encroaching into farmland and freshwater aquifers. This television program discusses what the future could bring and ideas of how communities could adapt to sea level rise.
More research by Susmita Dasgupta
8th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference
Conference, March 7-8, 2024, Washington, DC
Cities in developing countries are growing at faster rates and at lower income levels than those in developed country alternatives. The 8th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference will bring together academics and development practitioners to present and discuss questions relating to urban expansion and the future spatial organization of cities.
Climate Change as a Major Threat to Sustainable Development: The case of sea-level rise in the Ganges Brahmaputra Delta in Asia
Presentation, December 2023
Families in coastal Bangladesh are already on the “front line” of climate change. Their experience gives a preview of the kinds of future decisions faced by hundreds of millions of families worldwide that will be confronted by similar threats well before 2100. In a presentation delivered at Harvard Graduate School in December 2023, Susmita Dasgupta discussed the multifaceted threats from sea-level rise in the Ganges Delta, as well as policy and adaptation measures to respond to these threats.
Presentation | More research by Susmita Dasgupta
GHG Tracking & Mitigation with Satellite Data
Datasets and Research, January 2024
Reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) is urgently required to mitigate climate change. Steep emissions reductions will be needed to keep global warming below 1.5°C. While countries around the world have pledged to curb both carbon and methane emissions—two of the most significant GHGs—many nations do not have the infrastructure to adequately track their emissions. To fill this gap, the World Bank has rolled out major new datasets, tools, and research using satellite data to make frequently updated GHG emission data easily accessible to the general public.
Story | Carbon Dioxide Dataset | Methane Dataset | Presentation to NASA (April 2023) | NASA Presentation Participants | World Bank-NASA-NOAA-EfSI Roundtable on Greenhouse Gas Emissions (November 2023) | Resources | Blog Post | More research by Susmita Dasgupta
Climate Change as a Major Threat to Sustainable Development: The case of sea-level rise in the Ganges Brahmaputra Delta in Asia
Presentation, December 2, 2023, Harvard Graduate School
Families in coastal Bangladesh are already on the “front line” of climate change. Their experience gives a preview of the kinds of future decisions faced by hundreds of millions of families worldwide that will be confronted by similar threats well before 2100. In this presentation delivered at Harvard Graduate School in December 2023, Susmita Dasgupta discussed the multifaceted threats from sea-level rise in the Ganges Delta, as well as policy and adaptation measures to respond to these threats.
Meeting the global climate challenge: The role of financial incentives at the G20 Global Financial Stability Conference
Presentation, September 20, 2023
Carolyn Fischer spoke at the G20 Global Financial Stability Conference in Seoul in the first session, “Challenges of the Global Economy and the International Financial Market in Turbulence”, featuring Jason Furman from Harvard Kennedy School, Fischer, and Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti from the Brookings Institution. Fischer’s talk was on the topic of “Climate Policies for a Global Transition.”
Presentation Link | More Research by Carolyn Fischer
Sustainable Cities Must Become Central to Climate Change Strategies
Feature Story, 2023
Approximately 56 percent of the world’s population—or 4.4 billion individuals—lives in a city. The growth of cities is expected to continue, with the urban population more than doubling its current size by 2050. Following a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference series returned earlier this year for its 7th iteration.
7th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference | More research by Harris Selod
Land Matters: Can Better Governance and Management of Scarcity Prevent a Looming Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa?
Report, 2023
Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, land is a scarce and valuable resource. The projected increase in land demand due to demographic trends, coupled with decreasing land supply due to climatic and governance factors, indicate a looming crisis happening at a time when the region is also facing dramatic social and political transformation. This report identifies and analyzes the economic, environmental, and social challenges associated with land in MENA countries, shedding light on policy options to address them.
More research by Harris Selod
Local and Global Economic Impacts of the War in Ukraine
Policy Research Talk, December 2022
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had far-reaching consequences for human wellbeing, first and foremost for the citizens of Ukraine, but also for the world at large. Quantifying the costs of war is a challenging undertaking, given the lack of reliable data as well as the difficulty of capturing the complex welfare effects of war with typical indicators like GDP. In this Policy Research Talk, three World Bank researchers - Erhan Artuc, Klaus Deininger, and Bob Rijkers - rely on inventive methods and sources of data to paint a more complete picture of the appalling costs of war.
Presentation | Working Paper | More research by Klaus Deininger

LATEST WORKING PAPERS

This section highlights a few recent working papers. For a full list of working papers, please see: More Working Papers

High Temperature and Learning Outcomes: Evidence from Ethiopia
Bhavya Srivastava, Kibrom Tafere, A. Patrick Behrer
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10714, March 2024

In Most Low- and Middle-Income Countries Pollution Levels Are Higher in Wealthier Areas
A. Patrick Behrer, Sam Heft-Neal
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10689, January 2024

Firms and Climate Change in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Ana Goicoechea, Megan Lang
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10644, December 2023

Impacts and Sources of Air Pollution in Tbilisi, Georgia
Sandra Baquié, Patrick A. Behrer, Xinming Du, Alan Fuchs, Natsuko K. Nozaki
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10643, December 2023

A Fish Cartel for Africa
Gabriel Englander, Christopher Costello
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10594, November 2023

LATEST JOURNAL ARTICLES

Informal land markets and ethnic kinship in West African cities
Lucie Letrouit, Harris Selod
Regional Science and Urban Economics, vol. 106, May 2024

How Can a Carbon Tax Benefit Developing Economies with Informality? A CGE Analysis for Cote d'Ivoire
Govinda Timilsina, Yazid Dissou, Michael Toman, Dirk Heine
Climate Policy, vol. 24, 2024

Legacy of Tom Tietenberg in Research
Carolyn Fischer
International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, vol. 17, September 2023

Impacts of a Mandatory Shift to Decentralized Online Auctions on Revenue from Public Land Leases in Ukraine
Klaus W. Deininger, Daniel Ayalew Ali, Roman Neyter
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, vol. 213, September 2023

Measuring Total Carbon Pricing
Paolo Agnolucci, Carolyn Fischer, Dirk Heine, Mariza Montes de Oca Leon, Joseph Pryor, Kathleen Patroni, and Stéphane Hallegatte
World Bank Research Observer, September 2023

Subways and CO2 emissions: A global analysis with satellite data
Susmita Dasgupta, Somik Lall, David Wheeler
Science of The Total Environment, vol. 883, July 2023

Child Health Implications of Plastic Waste Reduction in West Africa
Susmita Dasgupta, Maria Sarraf, David Wheeler
Journal of Management and Sustainability, vol. 13 (1), July 2023

Intensity-Based Rebating of Emission Pricing Revenues
Christoph Böhringer, Carolyn Fischer, Nicholas Rivers
Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10, July 2023

Green Innovation and Economic Growth in a North–South Model
Jan Witajewski-Baltvilks, Carolyn Fischer
Environmental and Resource Economics, vol. 85, June 2023

Subsidy removal, regional trade and CO2 mitigation in the electricity sector in the Middle East and North Africa region
Govinda Timilsina, Ilka Fabiana Deluque Curiel
Energy Policy, vol. 177, June 2023

Tax, kill or bill: An analysis of unilateral CO2 price floor options in multilateral emissions trading systems
Christoph Böhringer, Carolyn Fischer
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, vol. 119, May 2023

Efficient Irrigation and Water Conservation: Evidence from South India
Ram Fishman, Xavier Gine, Hanan G. Jacoby
Journal of Development Economics, vol. 162, May 2023

Revisiting Poverty Trends and the Role of Social Protection Systems in Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Kibrom A Abay, Nishant Yonzan, Sikandra Kurdi, Kibrom Tafere
Journal of African Economies, vol. 32, issue supplement 2, April 2023

Physical infrastructure and economic growth
Govinda Timilsina, David I. Stern, Debasish K. Das
Applied Economics, March 2023

Quantifying War-Induced Crop Losses in Ukraine in Near Real Time to Strengthen Local and Global Food Security
Klaus Deininger, Daniel Ayalew Ali, Nataliia Kussul, Andrii Shelestov, Guido Lemoine, Hanna Yailimova
Food Policy, vol. 115, February 2023

Factors driving aggregate service sector energy intensities in Asia and Eastern Europe: A LMDI analysis
Jianda Wang, Kangyin Dong, Gal Hochman, Govinda R. Timilsina
Energy Policy, vol. 172, January 2023

How Valuable is the Reliability of Residential Electricity Supply in Low-Income Countries? Evidence from Nepal
Anna Alberini, Jevgenijs Steinbuks, Govinda Timilsina
The Energy Journal, vol. 43, no. 4, 2023

Books and Reports

Carbon Pricing Around the World
Joseph Pryor, Paolo Agnolucci, Carolyn Fischer, Dirk Heine, Mariza Montes de Oca Leon, April 2023
This book chapter provides an overview of approaches for measuring carbon pricing. It summarizes World Bank indicators for tracking direct carbon pricing, including recent trends, as well as outlining the methodologies and limitations (https://carbonpricingdashboard.worldbank.org/). This chapter appears in the book Data for a Greener World: A Guide for Practitioners and Policymakers.
More research from Carolyn Fischer
Minimizing Ecological Damage from Road Improvement in Tropical Forests: Evidence from Bolivia, Cameroon and Myanmar
Susmita Dasgupta, David R. Wheeler, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the vulnerabilities of socio-economic systems globally and exposed the risks that natural capital degradation imposes on human health, economy, and society. This book studies the environmental challenges faced by developing economies in a post-COVID-19 world. This chapter appears in the book Environmental Economics in Developing Countries: Issues and Challenges.
More research from Susmita Dasgupta
Economics of Renewable Energy: A Comparison of Electricity Production Costs Across Technologies
Govinda R. Timilsina, Kalim Shah, May 2022
This chapter appears in the book Oxford Encyclopedia of Environmental Economics. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Environmental Economics focuses on the most important research topics in environmental and natural resource economics, with a treatment of close to 100 different research areas.
More research from Govinda R. Timilsina
Economic Approach to Intergenerational Mobility: Measures, Methods, And Challenges in Developing Countries
M. Shahe Emran, Forhad Shilpi, March 2022
Social mobility is the hope of economic development and the mantra of a good society. There are disagreements about what constitutes social mobility, but there is broad agreement that people should have roughly equal chances of success regardless of their economic status at birth. Concerns about rising inequality have engendered a renewed interest in social mobility—especially in the developing world. This book chapter provides a critical survey and synthesis of the recent economic literature on intergenerational mobility in developing countries, with a focus on data and methodological challenges.
More research from Forhad Shilpi
Energy Subsidies in Russia: Size Impact and Potential for Reform
Apurva Sanghi, Jevgenijs Steinbuks, December 1, 2021
This report seeks to understand the size, impacts, and potential for energy subsidy reform in the Russian Federation to inform policymakers as they explore approaches to reducing such subsidies.
Coping with Climate Change in the Sundarbans: Lessons from Multidisciplinary Studies
Susmita Dasgupta, David Wheeler, Md. Istiak Sobhan, Sunando Bandyopadhyay, Ainun Nishat, and Tapas Paul, November 2020
Climate change is a major threat to the Sundarbans — the world’s largest remaining contiguous mangrove forest — wetland of international importance, and the surrounding poor communities whose livelihoods depend on its natural resources. This book synthesizes multiyear, multidisciplinary studies that assess the vulnerability of this ecosystem and its neighboring coastal communities and recommend “resilient-smart” adaptation measures. The methods and findings will be of interest to development practitioners, policy makers, and researchers focused on island nations and countries worldwide that feature high density populations and economic activity in low-lying coastal regions vulnerable to sea-level rise.
Download the report | More research by Susmita Dasgupta

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Local and Global Economic Impacts of the War in Ukraine

Latest Blogs & Articles

Joking about land? A serious matter!
Lucie Letrouit, Harris Selod | Let's Talk Development, April 30, 2024
Spillovers, three ways
Gabriel Englander | Development Impact, April 15, 2024
Writing your paper for a scientific journal: Why, when, and how?
Gabriel Englander | Development Impact, March 21, 2024
Sweltering scores: How heat impacts student learning in Ethiopia
Patrick Behrer, Kibrom Tafere, Bhavya Srivastava | Let's Talk Development, March 20, 2024
Riding into a greener future: How widespread use of subways could slash CO₂ emissions
Brian Blankespoor, Susmita Dasgupta, David Wheeler | Data Blog, February 14, 2024
A Surprising truth: Wealthy areas in low- and middle-income countries face higher ambient air pollution levels
Patrick Behrer, Sam Heft-Neal | Let's Talk Development, February 7, 2024
How is satellite data revolutionizing the way we track greenhouse gas emissions around the world?
Susmita Dasgupta, Brian Blankespoor, Karolina Ordon | Data Blog, January 25, 2024
Subways connect people with opportunity, and they slash carbon emissions in half
Somik Lall, Susmita Dasgupta, David Wheeler | Let's Talk Development, January 11, 2024
The Economic benefits of weather forecasting
Patrick Behrer | Development Impact, September 12, 2023
The heat is on: How high temperatures are impacting workers and the global economy
Patrick Behrer | Let's Talk Development, July 17, 2023
The air pollution burden in Tbilisi, Georgia, is unequally distributed
Sebastian Molineus, Alan Fuchs, Tarlovsky, Sandra Baquie, Patrick Behrer, Natsuko Kiso Nozaki | Eurasian Perspectives, June 26, 2023

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Sustainability and Infrastructure

Featured Research

World Bank Land Conference 2024: Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action - Research Track

Sea Level Rise

8th Urbanization and Poverty Reduction Research Conference

Climate Change as a Major Threat to Sustainable Development: The case of sea-level rise in the Ganges Brahmaputra Delta in Asia

GHG Tracking & Mitigation with Satellite Data

Climate Change as a Major Threat to Sustainable Development: The case of sea-level rise in the Ganges Brahmaputra Delta in Asia

Meeting the global climate challenge: The role of financial incentives at the G20 Global Financial Stability Conference

Sustainable Cities Must Become Central to Climate Change Strategies

Land Matters: Can Better Governance and Management of Scarcity Prevent a Looming Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa?

Local and Global Economic Impacts of the War in Ukraine

Books and Reports

Carbon Pricing Around the World

Minimizing Ecological Damage from Road Improvement in Tropical Forests: Evidence from Bolivia, Cameroon and Myanmar

Economics of Renewable Energy: A Comparison of Electricity Production Costs Across Technologies

Economic Approach to Intergenerational Mobility: Measures, Methods, And Challenges in Developing Countries

Energy Subsidies in Russia: Size Impact and Potential for Reform

Coping with Climate Change in the Sundarbans: Lessons from Multidisciplinary Studies

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Local and Global Economic Impacts of the War in Ukraine

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