The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

The World Bank is the largest single source of development knowledge. The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (OKR) is The World Bank’s official open access repository for its research outputs and knowledge products.

 

Search the OKR ...

Search tip: Use quotation marks around exact phrases

Total publications: 36,898

Recently Added

  • Publication
    Two Decades of Top Income Shares in Honduras
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-19) Del Carmen, Giselle; Garriga, Santiago; Nuñez, Wilman; Scot, Thiago
    This paper presents distributional national accounts for Honduras over 2003–2019, using survey microdata, administrative tax records, and national account aggregates. It assembles comprehensive data on formal income for high-income individuals, including information on corporate shareholders, which allows corporate profits to be assigned to their owners. The estimates suggest a high and persistent inequality in the country: the top 1 percent highest earners received approximately 30 percent of the total income over the period, placing Honduras among the most unequal countries in the world. Undistributed corporate profits are the overwhelming income source at the very top of the distribution, highlighting its importance in the measurement of income inequality. Finally, using a panel of tax records, the paper also documents that not only is inequality persistent, but the same individuals are often observed at the top, suggesting that the observed inequality has deep roots.
  • Publication
    New Evidence on Inequality of Opportunity in Sub-Saharan Africa: More Unequal Than We Thought
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-19) Atamanov, Aziz; Cuevas, P. Facundo; Lebow, Jeremy; Mahler, Daniel Gerszon
    Unequal access to economic opportunity for individuals with different innate characteristics, such as ethnicity or parents’ socioeconomic status, is often seen as both morally undesirable and bad for economic growth. This paper estimates inequality of opportunity, or the share of inequality explained by birth characteristics, across 18 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. For many countries, this is the first time inequality of opportunity is measured. The paper uses nationally representative household survey data harmonized to allow for cross-country comparisons. Using consumption per capita as the outcome, the findings show that inequality of opportunity in Sub-Saharan Africa is stark and more pronounced than previously estimated. On average, inherited circumstances explain more than half of inequality in the region. Estimates range from 40 to 60 percent in most countries and reach 74 percent in South Africa. The findings show that birthplace, parents’ education, and ethnicity tend to be the most significant contributors, but there is large variation in the importance of circumstances across countries. This represents the most comprehensive estimate of inequality of opportunity to date in the poorest and one of the most unequal regions in the world, and it underscores the pressing need for policy makers to intensify their efforts to address inequality of opportunity to foster societies that are more equitable and unlock the full potential for growth in the region.
  • Publication
    Empowering Adolescent Girls through Safe Spaces and Accompanying Measures in Côte d’Ivoire
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-13) Boulhane, Othmane; Boxho, Claire; Kanga, Désiré; Koussoube, Estelle; Rouanet, Léa
    This study uses a cluster-randomized controlled trial to investigate the effects of a large-scale women and girls empowerment program on sexual and reproductive health and empowerment outcomes in Côte d’Ivoire. The study assesses and compares the impact of diverse strategies aimed at equipping girls with life skills and sexual and reproductive health knowledge, provided through well-established safe spaces, in isolation or in combination with livelihood support interventions, or with initiatives designed to engage boys and men and community and religious leaders. The findings show that one year after the end of the interventions, safe spaces alone have a moderate impact on girls’ empowerment, while safe spaces combined with husbands’ and future husbands’ clubs are the most impactful. Combining safe spaces with livelihood support interventions leads to improvements in adolescent girls’ employment outcomes, as expected. Finally, the findings show that engaging leaders in the context of safe spaces interventions yields mixed results on girls’ empowerment.
  • Publication
    Sierra Leone Human Capital Review: Maximizing Human Potential for Resilience and Inclusive Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-13) World Bank
    This Human Capital Review (HCR) report presents an in-depth analysis of human capital indicators throughout a person’s lifetime, from in utero to productive aging. By examining the various stages of human capital accumulation, the report aims to provide accurate recommendations for specific groups in Sierra Leone. Thus, the report disaggregates data whenever possible. It relies on an extensive consultative process involving various stakeholders such as Government counterparts, development partners, teachers, adolescent girls, students, private sector representatives, and local representatives. The consultation process followed a Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) approach, which facilitates the identification and resolution of problems by local leadership. In addition, this report aims to inform the design and implementation of human capital reforms that will respond to specific challenges identified in the report.
  • Publication
    IFC and Spain, Partners in Private Sector Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-13) International Finance Corporation
    International Finance Corporation (IFC) partners with multinationals and mid-sized firms that are interested in investing in emerging markets. As of June 2023, IFC had a long-term committed investment portfolio of close to 2.9 billion dollars with Spanish partners spread across several sectors and regions. In FY19-23, Spain provided cumulative funding of over 7 million dollars to support IFC Advisory Services, including around 3.9 million dollars in FY23, for the replenishment of the Spain-IFC Technical Assistance Trust Fund (TATF). To date, the Spain TATF has funded a portfolio of 58 projects for 13 million dollars. The projects supported by the Trust Fund span all IFC regions with the largest allocations to Latin America and the Caribbean (24 percent), Middle East and North Africa (19 percent), and Europe and Central Asia (17 percent).