Growth is the essential ingredient for sustained poverty reduction. The Macroeconomics and Growth Research Program focuses on identifying the contribution of policies and institutional changes to the diversity in growth and aggregate economic performance around the world. Studies are organized around three themes: foundations of growth, macroeconomic stability and international finance, and governance and political economy.
This report updates the Human Capital Index launched in 2018 using health and education data available as of March 2020. It documents new evidence on trends, examples of successes, and analytical work on the utilization of human capital using new data collected before the global onset of COVID-19.
In this online seminar, Marcela Eslava, Roberto Fattal Jaef, Federico Huneeus provided examples of how firm data can shed light on macroeconomic issues such as growth, inequality, market structure, misallocation of capital, production networks, and productivity.Jose de Gregorio led the discussion. This event was held in Spanish with a focus on Latin America.
In this talk, World Bank economist Roberto Fattal Jaef discussed the role of distortions in firms’ business environment that reduce competition, innovation, and allocative efficiency.
LATEST WORKING PAPERS
The Economic Ripple Effects of COVID-19
Francisco J. Buera, Roberto N. Fattal Jaef, P. Andrés Neumeyer, Hugo Hopenhayn, Yongseok Shin
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9631, April 2021
Links between Growth, Inequality, and Poverty: A Survey
Valerie Cerra, Ruy Lama, Norman V. Loayza
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9603, March 2021
Saving the American Dream? Education Policies in Spatial General Equilibrium
Fabian Eckert, Tatjana Kleineberg
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9574, March 2021
LATEST JOURNAL ARTICLES
Global corporate debt during crises: Implications of switching borrowing across markets
Juan J. Cortina, Tatiana Didier, Sergio L. Schmukler
Journal of International Economics 131: 103487, July 2021 | Working Paper
Cross-Region Transfer Multipliers in a Monetary Union: Evidence from Social Security and Stimulus Payments
Steven Pennings
American Economic Review 111 (5): 1689-1719, May 2021 | Working Paper
How Debit Cards Enable the Poor to Save More
Pierre Bachas, Paul Gertler, Sean Higgins, Enrique Seira
The Journal of Finance, March 29, 2021
NBER Working Paper No 23252, VoxDev Summary
BOOKS AND REPORTS
Going Viral: COVID-19 and the Accelerated Transformation of Jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean
Guillermo Beylis, Roberto Fattal Jaef, Michael Morris, Ashwini Rekha Sebastian, and Rishabh Sinha, Washington, DC: World Bank, September 2020
This book focuses on three important pre-pandemic trends observed in the labor market in the region—premature deindustrialization, servicification of the economy, and task automation—that have been accelerated by the crisis.
The Rise of Domestic Capital Markets for Corporate Financing
Facundo Abraham, Juan J. Cortina, and Sergio L. Schmukler, Washington, DC: World Bank, June 2019
The case of East Asia shows that domestic markets have been a key driver of the observed trends in capital market financing since the early 2000s.
Making Politics Work for Development: Harnessing Transparency and Citizen Engagement
Stuti Khemani, Ernesto Dal Bó, Claudio Ferraz, Frederico Finan, Corinne Stephenson, Adesinaola Odugbemi, Dikshya Thapa, and Scott Abrahams, Policy Research Report, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016
The forces of transparency and citizen political engagement are on the rise, and together hold the potential to make politics work for rather than against economic development.
Research Manager, Macroeconomics and Growth
