Policy Research Talk Standards

Standards make everyday life run smoothly. You rarely notice them: the credit card that works in any corner of the world, the Wi-Fi signal that connects a remote village to the cloud, or the vaccine vial that fits syringes from Dakar to Delhi. When standards work, they build trust. They free people and firms to focus on creating, trading, and innovating, confident that the systems around them will hold. When standards fail, the effects are immediate and draining. Payments are declined, signals drop, vaccines spoil—and instead of being productive, people spend their energy just meeting their basic needs.

Standards, in short, are the hidden infrastructure of modern economies—and they have never been more important. Developing countries today must contend with a thicket of increasingly stringent international standards, a product of globalization and rapid technological change. Using standards—and shaping them—is now a prerequisite for export growth, technology diffusion, and the efficient delivery of public services. Yet standards are too often overlooked by policy makers, especially in developing countries.

In this Policy Research Talk, World Development Report Director Xavier Giné will provide a deep dive into the World Development Report 2025: Standards for Development, which provides the most comprehensive assessment of the global landscape of standards today and how they can be used to accelerate economic development. It offers a practical framework for countries at all stages of development. Countries at the earliest stage should adapt international standards to suit local conditions when needed, whereas at more advanced stages, they should aim to align domestic markets with international standards. Meanwhile, all countries should author international standards in priority areas.

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Xavier Giné Speaker

WDR 2025 Director & Lead Economist, Development Research Group

Xavier Giné is Director of the World Development Report 2025 and Lead Economist in the Prosperity Research Team of the Development Research Group. His research focuses on access to financial services, financial consumer protection, and community driven development. Prior to joining the Bank he was a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the Economic Growth Center at Yale University. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain, an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.

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Denis Medvedev

Denis Medvedev Discussant

Global Director for Trade, Competition, and Business, Prosperity

Denis Medvedev is the Global Director for Trade, Competition, and Business in the Prosperity Vertical of the World Bank Group Knowledge Bank. He was previously Chief Economist for Global Industries at IFC, Director of IFC Economic Policy Research department, and Manager of World Bank's global unit on firms, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Prior to taking on these managerial roles, Denis was responsible for World Bank’s policy dialogue, lending operations, and analytical work in South Asia, Latin America & the Caribbean, and Africa, as well as developing forward-looking scenarios for the global economy in Development Economics. His own research has recently focused on firm growth and productivity, while his earlier work explored international trade, income distribution dynamics, and the Sustainable Development Goals. He is an author of more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters, and World Bank reports. Denis holds a Ph.D. in economics from the American University.

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Aaditya Mattoo Chair

Director, Development Research Group

Aaditya Mattoo is Director of the Development Research Group at the World Bank. He has previously served as Chief Economist of the East Asia and Pacific Region, and Research Manager, Trade and Integration, at the World Bank. He specializes in development, trade and international cooperation, and provides policy advice to governments.  He is also Co-Director of the World Development Report 2020 on Global Value Chains.  Before he joined the Bank, Mr. Mattoo was Economic Counsellor at the World Trade Organization and taught economics at the University of Sussex and Churchill College, Cambridge University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Cambridge, and an M.Phil in Economics from the University of Oxford. He has published on development, trade, trade in services, and international trade agreements in academic and other journals and his work has been cited in the Economist, Financial Times, New York Times, and Time Magazine.

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The Policy Research Talks showcase the latest findings of the World Bank’s Research Group, challenge and contribute to the institution’s intellectual climate, and re-examine conventional wisdom in current development theories and practice.

 

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