January -- March 1996
Volume 7, Number1
Drawing on experience in more than 140 countries and in virtually all sectors of national economies, the World Bank provides advice to its client countries on a variety of issues. The Bank's knowledge comes from many sources. Much emerges as a byproduct of operational experience and analytical work. And much is a direct product of research.
Within the Bank, research underpins policy studies and economic and sector work, and research by Bank staff and consultants contributes to solutions to both new development problems and long-term development challenges. But to realize its full potential, Bank research must also have an external impact. How does Bank research fare in the marketplace of ideas? How successful is the Bank in reaching and influencing its audience?
In disseminating research results, the Bank targets four main audiences: policymakers in developing countries, researchers and analysts interested in economic development, students (especially those likely to become members of the first two groups), and members of the development community, including journalists and nongovernmental organizations, with either a general interest in development or an interest in a particular development issue.
The Bank reaches these audiences through the 350 - 500 titles it publishes each year, 70 percent of which represent research output. Distribution varies widely, from a few hundred copies for some of the facsimile publications, such as discussion and technical papers, to more than 150,000 copies a year for the World Development Report, the Bank's most widely distributed publication. Almost all of the most widely distributed publications are research or statistical publications (table 1).
To investigate how its publications are used, the Bank surveyed readers in April 1995. The survey was sent to more than 20,000 subscribers, reviewers, libraries, bookstores, and recipients of complimentary copies. More than 3,400 completed questionnaires were returned, a third of them from developing countries. Survey respondents were mainly from research and consulting firms (32 percent), universities (31 percent), financial institutions (8 percent), and government agencies (6 percent). Two-fifths of respondents were researchers, a third were economists or managers, and a quarter were teachers.
Respondents' lists of the Bank publications they had read in the past 18 months were used to identify the 10 most frequently read publications. This list (table 2) corresponds well with the list of the most widely distributed titles (table 1) --- six titles appear in both --- suggesting that the distribution of Bank publications is a good indicator of their actual use by readers.
Research and best practice are also disseminated through newsletters --- the World Bank Policy and Research Bulletin, for example, is distributed to 18,000 subscribers outside the Bank, 16,000 of them in developing countries --- and publication in professional journals. Over the past 15 years the number of articles published in professional journals by Bank staff and consultants nearly tripled and is now approaching 300 a year. Almost half of Bank-authored journal articles deal with economic topics. The other half are devoted to a variety of social science and technical fields, including social policy (6 percent), agriculture (5 percent), political science (5 percent), education (4 percent), and the environment (3 percent).
A major goal of Bank research is to improve the base of knowledge that supports policymaking. How much influence has Bank research had on policy? The Bank's Policy Research Report Averting the Old Age Crisis: Policies to Protect the Old and Promote Growth received wide attention from policymakers, advocacy groups, and private sector pension management and investment advisory firms. The report shows that current systems of providing financial security to old people are ill equipped to cope with rapidly aging populations and that pensions will have to be cut or contribution rates raised. The report sets out a framework for reform by suggesting that the three objectives of old age security --- saving, redistribution to the poor, and insurance --- be met through a mix of public and private management, full funding, and pay-as-you-go finance.
Partly as a result of this report, the Bank has witnessed an upsurge in pension reform efforts among client countries, and its support to such efforts has increased dramatically (box 1). Conferences have been held in many developing countries at the request of governments, and in many OECD countries at the request of nongovernmental organizations, employer groups, institutional investors, and labor unions, as these groups try to educate themselves and others about what needs to be done to avert the looming old age crisis.
Bank research has affected policymaking in a range of other areas, including the environment, health, training, education, and transportation.
The 1995 reader survey indicated that research was the most frequent reason for consulting Bank publications and that 73 percent of respondents used Bank publications in their research. Both statistical publications and more general publications, such as the World Development Report, are widely used for research.
One measure of the influence of research publications is the number of times they are cited in journal articles. To find out how often Bank-authored journal articles were cited in other journal articles, an analysis was done using a database maintained by the Institute for Scientific Information that contains citations from more than 1,400 professional journals published in 35 countries. For each successive five-year period since 1980, the total number of citations of Bank-authored articles published in the period was divided by the total number of such articles published to yield a moving average of citations. For comparison, a citation index was constructed for all published economics articles (figure 1).
The findings are impressive. Over the period shown, Bank-authored articles were cited 10 to 50 percent more often than the average economics article. The most frequently cited Bank articles cover such areas as AIDS, economic growth, agriculture, education, trade, and environmental issues --- indicating that the Bank's research program is producing well-recognized research across a wide range of topics.
Indexes of citations have also been used to assess the influence of professional journals. One recent analysis, published in the Journal of Economic Literature, estimated the average number of citations for 130 economics journals published between 1985 and 1989 (Laband and Piette 1994). The study did not include the World Bank Economic Review or the World Bank Research Observer, which began publication in 1986. But an exercise applying the same technique used by the study and ranking 1993 publications puts the Review and the Observer 33rd and 40th among the 130 economics journals. Among journals devoted exclusively to development economics, the Bank's two journals were the most often cited, and the citation index for the Proceedings of the World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics exceeded those for the Bank journals.
Bank research also influences the wider research community in other ways. Many researchers from outside the Bank participate in Bank-funded research. In fiscal 1995, 50 percent of time spent by consultants on research tasks in the Bank's central vice presidencies was provided by nationals of developing countries, and local research institutes and local consultants participated in one of three research projects --- typically the larger ones.
The Bank's efforts to build economic research capacity in developing countries are expanding. It continues to support the Africa Economic Research Consortium and the Middle East Economic Research Forum and recently extended support to the new China Center for Economic Research. New initiatives are being developed in Russia and Ukraine as well.
Research output is not just an input for further research; it also affects other knowledge-based activities, including education. Research reports, journal articles, and books are key inputs in graduate and undergraduate training in development economics and in seminars and workshops conducted by the Economic Development Institute (EDI) of the Bank.
Analysis of reading lists for courses in development economics (mostly graduate courses in the United States) revealed that the share of Bank-authored publications ranges from 3 percent to 46 percent (Tower 1995). Overall, a sixth of all reading list entries are World Bank publications or articles or papers written under the auspices of Bank research projects. Bank books and selections from Bank books appear on reading lists more frequently than do Bank-authored research outputs produced in any other format. Articles from Bank journals (World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Research Observer, and Proceedings of the World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics) appear nearly as frequently as Bank-authored articles published in all other journals combined --- even though these Bank journals are relative newcomers.
Within the Bank, EDI seminars and workshops draw heavily on Bank research, policy papers, and other publications, and EDI benefits enormously from its access to Bank expertise, experience, and research in the field of development. Bank authors sometimes present their findings at EDI workshops, and almost all EDI activities use Bank publications as required or recommended reading.
Information about the Bank's activities and findings from its research and analytical work are disseminated in many secondary sources. Newspapers and magazines, particularly the Financial Times and the Economist, provide a great deal of information about the Bank and its programs, and reviews of Bank research findings in newspapers, popular journals and magazines, and professional journals appeared an average of 13 times a month over the past two fiscal years. That figure is rising, with 30 reviews of Bank publications appearing in October 1995. Electronic dissemination is beginning, offering new opportunities for two-way communication on development issues.
Laband, D.N., and M.J. Piette. 1994. "The Relative Impact of Economics Journals: 1970 - 90." Journal of Economic Literature 32(June): 640 - 66.
Tower, Edward. 1995. Development I: Reading Lists. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Eno River Press.
World Bank. 1996. "Report on the World Bank Research Program Fiscal 1994 and 1995." Office of the Senior Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist. Washington, D.C.
Eighth Annual
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