The objective of the half-baked seminars is to foster the exchange of ideas within the group and to provide feedback to the presenter for further development of the initial work or idea.
Current Season - 2025/2026
Date | Speaker | Affiliation | Topic |
December 11, 2025 10 – 11am DC time | Alev Gurbuz Cuneo, Ana Maria Tribin Uribe | World Bank | Changing Laws, Changing Minds: The Interplay of Gendered Social Norms and Legal Reform |
October 23, 2025 2:30 – 3:30pm DC time | Solomiya Shpak (Co-authors: John S. Earle, George Mason University, and Scott Gehlbach, University of Chicago) | World Bank | Finance, Employment, and Survival: Evidence from Bank Liquidations in Ukraine |
Season - 2024/2025
Date | Speaker | Affiliation | Topic |
March 20, 2025 10 – 11am DC time | Mohammad Amin, Nesma Ali | World Bank | Understanding the gap in the productivity of women- and men-run hotels in India: A Meta frontier Analysis |
February 20, 2025 3 – 4pm DC time | Daniela Behr & Yue (Sophie) Xi | World Bank | Closing the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship: Overcoming Challenges in Law and Practice for Female Entrepreneurs |
January 16, 2025 10 – 11am DC time | Emilia Galiano, Alev Gurbuz Cuneo, Liang Shen, Ana Tribin, Tea Trumbic | World Bank | An empirical analysis on gendered laws and perception on women’s economic outcomes |
December 19, 2024 10-11am DC time | Emilia Galiano, Alev Gurbuz Cuneo, Liang Shen, Ana Tribin, Tea Trumbic | World Bank | An empirical analysis on gendered laws and perception on women’s economic outcomes |
December 5, 2024 10-11am DC time | Subika Farazi, Manuel Galilea | World Bank | What drives the adoption of Electronic Payments?: An empirical approach from the perspective of firms |
November 21, 2024 10-11am DC time | Valentina Saltane, Maksym Iavorskyi, and Predrag Sutanovac | World Bank, Georgetown University | Potential Impact of Subnational Studies on Local Economies and Businesses |
November 18, 2024 11am-12pm DC time | David Raitzer, Markus Taussig and Russell Toth | Asian Development Bank, Rutgers University and University of Sydney | Incentivizing Lending to Women Entrepreneurs: Evidence from Vietnam |
September 26, 2024 11am-12pm DC time | Attique Ur Rehman, Sarah Shaukat | World Bank, Tufts University | Effectiveness of Non-Governmental Organizations: Evidence from Pakistan |
Season 2023/2024
Date | Speaker | Affiliation | Topic |
June 4, 2024 | Chiara Bronchi, Laura Zoratto, and Rita Ramalho | World Bank, EGVPI | Country-Level Institutional Assessments |
May 23, 2024 | Christopher Hoy, Filip Jolevsk, and Anthony Obeyesekere | EPVGE, DECEA, EEAM2 | Revealing Tax Evasion: Experimental Evidence from a Representative Survey of Indonesian Firms |
April 25, 2024 | Daniela M. Behr, Liang Shen, Ana Tribin, and Tea Trumbic | World Bank, Women, Business and the Law | The Handmaid’s Tale: Climate Change as an Obstacle to Women’s Rights and Economic Empowerment? |
March 21, 2024 | Jayashree Srinivasan, Enrique Orellana Tamez, Victoria Chiseliov, Camille Guittonneau and Trang Doan | World Bank, B-Ready | Understanding building energy codes and standards - Leveraging data to understand adoption and compliance of energy efficiency standards |
February 29, 2024 | Davide S. Mare | World Bank, Enterprise Analysis | Distributional impact of the introduction of carbon taxes: the case of the Dominican Republic |
January 25, 2024 | Mohammad Amin | World Bank, Enterprise Analysis | Productivity in the Hotels industry: Conceptual issues, Estimation, and Analysis |
December 14, 2023 | Maksym Iavorskyi | World Bank, Subnational Business Ready/FCI (DAIS) | Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt: Global Regulatory Challenges of Crypto Insolvencies |
November 30, 2023 | Ana Tribin | World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law | Gender-Based Violence After Armed Conflict: The Case of the Colombian Peace Agreement |
September 28, 2023 | Raman Maroz | World Bank, Business Ready | The Cross-Regional Court Performance Assessment |
Season 2022/2023
Date | Speaker | Affiliation | Topic |
June 22,2023 | Nona Karalashvili and Jorge Rodriguez Meza | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Question Design and its Effect on Responses: the Case of Management Practices |
June 15, 2023 | Hannelore Maria L. Niesten | World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law | Taxation of Digital Financial Services vis-à-vis Traditional Financial Services in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comprehensive Assessment of the Costs on Providers and Consumers based on Nine Country Studies |
April 20, 2023 | Daniela Behr and Caroline Perrin | World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law | Drivers of Gender Legal Reforms |
March 16, 2023 | Dorina Georgieva, Varun Eknath, Michael Woolcock | World Bank Group | Examining Business Reform Committees: Findings from a New Global Dataset |
January 26, 2023 | Serena Cocciolo, Ruggero Doino, and Domenico Viganola | World Bank Group | Firms and SMEs participation in Public Procurement: Global Statistics from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys |
December 15, 2022 | Nona Karalashvili | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Toward Understanding Reasons behind Informality: Text Analysis of an Open-Ended Survey Question |
December 1, 2022 | Lelys Dinarte, Alena Sakhonchik, Maria Montoya Aguirre, S. Anukriti, Marina Elefante | World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law | Filling the Gaps: Childcare Laws for Women’s Economic Empowerment |
November 17, 2022 | Filip Jolevski, Gaurav Nayyar, Regina Pleninger, Shu Yu | World Bank Group | Digitalization Spillovers from Formal to Informal Firms: Adoption of ITC in Zambia |
November 3, 2022 | Christopher Hoy, Laban Simbeye, Muhammad Abdullah Ali Malik, Aliisa Koivisto, Mashekwa Maboshe | World Bank Group, Zambia Revenue Authority, United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), University of Zambia | How Have Formal Firms Recovered from the Pandemic? Insights from Survey and Tax Administrative Data in Zambia |
October 20, 2022 | Mohammad Amin and Domenico Viganola | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Impact of Financial Constraints on the Decision to Export |
October 6, 2022 | Domenico Viganola and Silvia Muzi | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Comparing Face-to-Face Versus Virtual Interviews in Firm-Level Surveys |
September 22, 2022 | Marie Caitriona Hyland and Caroline Perrin | World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law | Gendered laws and women’s financial inclusion |
Season 2021/2022
Date | Speaker | Affiliation | Topic |
June 9, 2022 | Luca Bettarelli and Tommaso Rooms | World Bank Group, Global Indicators Group | Regional Heterogeneity in the Business Environment: the Case of Italy |
May 26, 2022 | Natalia Mazoni and Nisha Arekapudi, Isabel Santagostino and Emilia Galiano, Julia Braunmiller and Marie Dry | World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law | Three Lightning Talks on Women, Business and the Law (WBL) Reform Case Studies |
May 12, 2022 | Antoni Albert Nogui, Nunon Mendes Dos Santos, Lama Mohammed L. Al Jarallah | World Bank Group, Global Indicators Group | Did digitization in public services have an impact in the COVID-19 response? The case of eProcurement. |
May 5, 2022 | Tiziana Londero, Raman Maroz, and Oleksandra Popova | World Bank Group, Global Indicators Group | Digitizing court proceedings and corporate governance. What have we learned from the pandemic? |
April 28, 2022 | Parvina Rakhimova | World Bank Group, Global Indicators Group | Gender-based Property Tax Incentives: Role in Encouraging Female Ownership and Improving Compliance |
April 14, 2022 | Gemechu Aga, Hibret Maemir, Jorge Rodriguez Meza and Taneem Ahad | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Measuring Regulatory Uncertainty using Firm-Level Surveys: Evidence from three African countries |
March 24, 2022 | Marie Hyland and Liang Chen | World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law | A Global Analysis of Paid Family Leave and Women's Economic Labor Market Outcomes |
March 10, 2022 | David Francis and Robert Kubinec | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis and New York University Abu Dhabi | Beyond Political Connections: A Measurement Model Approach to Estimating Firm-level Political Influence in 41 Economies |
February 24, 2022 | Filip Joleski, Asif Islam and Mohammad Amin | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Decomposing the SME-Large firm Performance Gap during the COVID-19 pandemic: Productivity, Innovation, and Gender Inequality |
February 10, 2022 | Jayashree Srinivasan, Enrique Orellana Tamez, Kamal Chakaroun, Lodovico Onofri, Farrukh Umarov | World Bank Group, Global Indicators | Leveraging Building Energy Codes and Standards for Climate Change Mitigation |
January 27, 2022 | Viktoriya Ereshchenko, Varun Eknath and Inés Zabalbeitia Múgica | World Bank Group, Global Indicators | The importance of facilitating imports: evidence from the auto industry |
January 13, 2022 | Julia Constanze Braunmiller and Marie Dry | World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law | Measuring Intersectional Discrimination –The Rights of Women with Disabilities |
December 16, 2021 | Nazim Tamkoc | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Production Complexity, Talent Misallocation and Development |
December 2, 2021 | Women, Business and the Law Team | World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law | Women, Business and the Law Childcare indicators and research |
November 18, 2021 | Markus Goldstein, Paula Gonzalez, Sreelakshmi Papineni and Joshua Wimpey | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Childcare, COVID-19 and Female Firm Exit: Impact of COVID-19 School Closure Policies on Global Gender Gaps in Business |
November 4, 2021 | Adam Aberra, Gemechu Aga, Filip Jolevski and Nona Karalashvili | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Understanding Informality: Comprehensive Firm-level Data and Descriptive Results |
October 21, 2021 | Silvia Muzi, Marie Hyland and Domenico Viganola | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis & Women, Business and the Law | Female-managed businesses in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) during the COVID-19 crisis |
October 7, 2021 | Nisha Arekapudi | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis & Women, Business and the Law | Measuring implementation of Women, Business and the Law indicators |
September 8, 2021 | Joshua Wimpery, David C. Francis, Gemechu Aga, Filip Jolevski and Jorge Rodriguez Meza | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Surveying Informal Businesses: Methodology and Applications |
July 29, 2021 | Nazim Tamkoc | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Bribery, Plant Size and Size Dependent Distortions |
Season 2020/2021
Date | Speaker | Affiliation | Topic |
June 10, 2021 | Marie Catriona Hyland and Asif Mohammed Islam | World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law & MENA | Gendered Law, Informality and the Performance of Female-Owned Firms |
May 27, 2021 | Antoni Albert Nogues Comas and Nuno Filipe Mendes Dos Santos | World Bank Group, Doing Business | Building an Indicator to Compare Public Procurement Regulations and Practices |
May 13, 2021 | David Francis and Robert Kubinec | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Measuring Political Influence as a Latent Characteristic: Evidence from Micro-Data from 36 Countries in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa |
April 29, 2021 | Tea Trumbic and Marie Catriona Hyland | World Bank Group, Women, Business and the Law | Women, Business and the Law: Ideas for Future Research |
March 11, 2021 | David Francis | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | The effect of inflationary shocks on household business operation in Uganda |
February 24, 2021 | Filip Jolevski and Gemechu Aga | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Measuring the Informal Employment on the Intensive and Extensive Margins: the case of Zambia |
February 11, 2021 | David C. Francis and Joshua Seth Wimpey | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Do informal and formal businesses operate in the same places? Evidence from micro data in Laos’ food service sector. |
January 28, 2021 | Nona Karalashvili and Nazim Tamkoc | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | Effectiveness of Government Support for the Private Sector during COVID19 |
January 14, 2021 | Silvia Muzi and Domenico Viganola | World Bank Group, Enterprise Analysis | The determinant of firm survival Firm Exit during the Covid-19 Crisis: Evidence from the Enterprise Surveys |
TBD: To be determined
Note: Information on upcoming events is subject to change.