This paper provides an overview of the
history of development research at the World Bank and points
to new future directions in both what we research and how we
research. Six main messages emerge. First, research and data
have long been essential elements of the Bank's country
programs and its contributions to global public goods, and
this will remain the case. Second, development thinking is
in a state of flux and uncertainty; it is time to reconsider

Regional disparities present an ever
present development challenge in most countries, especially
those with large geographic areas under their jurisdiction.
A neglect of these inequities may create the potential for
disunity and, in extreme cases, for disintegration. In view
of this, most countries actively pursue policies with a view
to helping lagging regions catch up with faster growing
regions. These policies have at best a mixed record of

The authors use recent data from the
2006 National Family Health Survey of India to explore the
relationship between religion and demographic behavior. They
find that fertility and mortality vary not only between
religious groups, but also across caste groups. These groups
also differ with respect to socio-economic status. The
central finding of this paper is that despite their
socio-economic disadvantages, Muslims have higher fertility

This paper applies a growth diagnostics
approach to identify the most binding constraints to
private-sector growth in Malawi - a small, landlocked
country in Southern Africa with one of the lowest per capita
incomes in the world. The approach aims to identify the
constraints (in terms of public policy, implementation, and
investments) most binding on marginal investment, and
therefore whose relaxation would have the largest impact on

The transformation of work during
China s rapid economic development is associated with a
substantial but little noticed re-allocation of traditional
farm labor among women, with some doing much less and some
much more. This paper studies how the work, time allocation,
and health of non-migrant women are affected by the
out-migration of others in their household. The analysis
finds that the women left behind are doing more farm work

This book aims to help policy makers
take advantage of the opportunities presented by increased
cross-border trade in information technology (IT) services
and IT-enabled services (ITES). It begins by defining the
two industries and estimating the potential global market
opportunities for trade in each. Then it discusses economic
and other benefits for countries that succeed in these
areas, along with factors crucial to the competitiveness of

This paper revisits the institutional
determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) using a
comprehensive new data set on the regulations that govern
FDI in more than 80 countries. It exploits the presence of
confirmed zero investment flows between countries to
estimate productivity cut-offs of firms that invest abroad
profitably. This approach corrects likely biases arising
from firm heterogeneity and country selection in a

This paper explains how climate change
may increase future migration, and which risks are
associated with such migration. It also examines how some of
this migration may enhance the capacity of communities to
adapt to climate change. Climate change is likely to result
in some increase above baseline rates of migration in the
next 40 years. Most of this migration will occur within
developing countries. There is little reason to think that

This paper provides empirical estimates
of the impacts of natural disasters on different forms of
capital (with a focus on human and intangible capital and
natural capital), and on real gross domestic product per
capita. The types of disaster considered are droughts,
earthquakes, floods, and storms and their impacts are
measured in terms of the number of people affected or people
affected per capita. The authors find statistically

This paper develops a framework and some
hypotheses regarding the impact of local-level, informal
legal institutions on three economic outcomes: aggregate
growth, inequality, and human capabilities. It presents a
set of stylized differences between formal and informal
legal justice systems, identifies the pathways through which
formal systems promote economic outcomes, reflects on what
the stylized differences mean for the potential impact of

Son preference is known to be found in
certain types of cultures, that is patrilineal cultures. But
what explains the fact that China, South Korea, and
Northwest India manifest such extreme child sex ratios
compared with other patrilineal societies? This paper argues
that what makes these societies unique is that their
pre-modern political and administrative systems used
patrilineages to organize and administer their citizens. The

Seven years out of brutal conflict,
Sierra Leone is now a peaceful and stable country. Yet, its
strides toward economic recovery and competitiveness have
been modest even in sectors such as tourism, which used to
be a major generator of foreign exchange revenues prior to
the conflict. This paper presents a cluster-based analysis
of the tourism sector in Sierra Leone. The analysis shows
that tourism in Sierra Leone draws entirely on basic factor