Located within the Development Economics Vice Presidency, the Development Research Group is the World Bank's principal research department. With its cross-cutting expertise on a broad range of topics and countries, the department is one of the most influential centers of development research in the world.
The Development Research Group at a Glance
What's New
Call for Papers Jun 30, 2025
The African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), the University of Ghana-Legon, and the World Bank announce a competitive call for papers and participation in a two-day policy research workshop to be held on November 11-12, 2025. We invite you to submit empirical papers that delve into the critical barriers to, as well as the opportunities to promote, women's economic participation. Priority will be given to research that studies policy solutions tailored to the unique economic landscapes of Africa to spur economic growth.
📅 Submission deadline: June 30, 2025
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Jul 30, 2025
To foster academic dialogue relevant on industrial policy for Africa, the World Bank Institute for Economic Development, the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), the Structural Transformation and Economic Growth (STEG) Program, and the International Growth Center (IGC) are convening a research conference in Nairobi, Kenya on February 16-18, 2026.
The organizers invite abstract submissions for research paper presentations on any issue pertaining to industrial policy.
📅 Submission deadline: July 30, 2025
EVENT Jun 04, 2025
Wild animals, plants, and other living organisms make Earth habitable, and their existence holds intrinsic value. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most important region for biodiversity conservation because more wildlife populations and landscapes remain intact there than anywhere else.
In this Policy Research Talk, World Bank economist Gabriel Englander presented insights on current and emerging trends in African conservation policies.
CONFERENCE Jun 11, 2025
African countries are urbanizing at faster rates than any other region in history. This offers an important opportunity for growth and development.
The 9th Urbanization and Development Conference on "Urban Economics in Action: Addressing African Cities' Challenges" will bring together academics, policy makers, and development practitioners to discuss how economics research can help inform urban policy decisions and the allocation of scarce resources to build productive, livable, and sustainable cities in Africa.
Latest Working Papers
Research Newsletter
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April 2025
Infrastructure: Paving the Path to Progress
Infrastructure has the potential to accelerate development. Learn about the next-generation tools that are helping policy makers design better infrastructure policies and invest limited budgets strategically.
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July 2024
Charting a Course for Prosperity in Sub-Saharan Africa
Fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) and climate change represent formidable challenges for the continent, but the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa also have opportunities to build resilience and spur equitable growth.
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April 2024Accelerating Digital Development
Digital technologies offer the possibility of a new era in development. Investing in digital infrastructure and skills will be critical for countries that hope to realize the benefits.
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Capital Markets Portal
A new report, Financing Firm Growth: The Role of Capital Markets in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, explores the surge in capital market financing in low- and middle-income countries from 1990 to 2022. The accompanying Capital Markets Portal enables users to compare capital market financing at country, regional, or income levels against selected benchmarks through dynamic graphs and maps.
Multimedia
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Apr 07, 2025
Policy Research Talk: Domestic Revenue Mobilization at a Crossroads
Economist Dario Tortarolo discussed how new data-driven approaches are reshaping how governments design and evaluate tax systems in real time, enabling informed, evidence-based decisions.
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Jan 28, 2025
Purchasing Prosperity: The Economics of Government Procurement
Government procurement is big business, typically accounting for 10 to 20 percent of annual GDP depending on the country and year. Policymakers often view procurement systems as a powerful industrial policy tool to ...
