Subjective well-being has in recent years been recognised as a goal of development that captures non-monetary or subjective dimensions of well-being. The body of evidence on the individual and societal determinants of subjective well-being is...

This paper studies the linkages between schools’ inputs and students’ performance in Latin America. We exploit the richness of PISA 2012 questionnaires at the student and school level to study the association between a different set of inputs and...

This paper estimates the potential income gains associated with greater gender parity in social institutions and the cost of the current level of discrimination. Using cross-country analysis, it investigates how gender-based discrimination in social...

Most emerging economies are characterised by lagging levels of productivity. While economic growth has been robust in much of the emerging world during the last two decades, it has generally been grounded on factor accumulation, with marginal...

This paper analyses income mobility in Viet Nam from 2004 to 2008. The concept of income mobility is important for developed and developing economies, especially for those, such as Viet Nam, witnessing a stable persistent economic growth and profound...

Most low-income countries export mainly unprocessed commodities. Yet, in their pursuit of structural transformation, they also seek a more diversified economic structure, including developing a strong manufacturing sector to create jobs and spur...

Using the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) from the OECD Development Centre, this paper provides evidence of the two-way relationship between gender inequality in social institutions and South-South migration. Discriminatory social...

A wide range of voices around the world have stressed the need to understand development as a multidimensional phenomenon that involves and affects many aspects of people’s lives. Increasingly, it is recognised that current well-being and its...

We analyse the effectiveness of exchange rate interventions for a panel of 18 emerging market economies during the period 2003-11. Using an error-correction model approach, we find that on average intervention is effective in moving the real exchange...

To what extent do budgetary processes and institutions hamper infrastructural development in Africa? To answer that question, this report analyses the answers of budget officials to questionnaires administered in 22 African countries: Benin,...

Tax incentives can be a useful tool to stimulate investment in developing countries. However, in these countries interest groups often are able to exert considerable influence in its management, if not its design. From a power-based approach to the...

Recent contributions to the growth literature have argued that the structure of an economy, as measured by its productive capabilities, is a key determinant for inter-country differences in development. Productive capabilities have been shown to be...

The Asia-Pacific region has long been prone to volatile capital flows that have posed a challenge for authorities to cope with and occasionally led to payment difficulties dragging down exchange rates and spilling over to the real economy. The recent...

A key higher education policy question is about the financing of this sector. Who, why and how higher education should be paid for are debated around the world by governments, the academic community, students, experts and civil society. This is true...

This paper looks at the incidence of fiscal policy on the income distribution for Chile and Mexico. Notably by broadening the income concept to account for in-kind benefits and taxes, this paper provides a full picture of the effect of fiscal policy...

This paper studies the renegotiations of road concessions in Chile, Colombia and Peru for the period 1993-2010. First, it analyses the legal framework, the institutional design and the types of concessions of these countries and second, it uses a...

This paper analyses the Policy-Making Process (PMP) of transport infrastructure projects in Colombia for the period 2002-10. It aims to identify the main bottlenecks to improve the implementation of public policies in the main phases of the transport...

This paper reviews the literature and contributes with some evidence based on the World Values Survey on the drivers of tax morale around the world, with an emphasis on developing countries. It shows that socio-economic factors such as age, religion,...

Poverty is typically measured in different ways in developing and advanced countries. The majority of developing countries measure poverty in absolute terms, using a poverty line determined by the monetary cost of a predetermined basket of goods. In...

This paper presents development accounting exercises in Latin America using novel databases and methods to investigate the robustness of its results. While total factor productivity initially appears to be the most important driver of output per...