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Murray, Sally

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Last updated: June 2, 2025
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Sally Murray is an Economist with the World Bank’s Global Unit for Urban, Resilience, and Land. She supported the World Bank as a consultant from 2018 and joined as a Young Professional in 2020. Her recent work has focused on economic geography, subnational finance, urban housing, and cities and climate change. Prior to joining the World Bank, she was Senior Country Economist for the International Growth Centre in Rwanda. She holds a master’s degree in international development (research) from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from the University of Oxford.

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    The Welfare and Productivity Effects of Transit Improvements in Amman
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-13) Kleineberg, Tatjana; Murray, Sally; Tang, Yulu; Kaw, Jon Kher
    This paper studies the long-run welfare and productivity effects of transit improvements in the Greater Amman Municipality. The paper builds a rich quantitative spatial model that includes many aspects of the economic geography of Amman. It studies the effects of new bus rapid transit lines that improve the connection of more peripheral areas to the city center, in two phases: phase 1 (approximately) connecting the north-eastern and north-western regions, and phase 2 adding the southern and south-westerns regions. It finds that the bus rapid transit increases output by 4.4 to 5 percent in phase 1 and 7.2 to 7.6 percent in phase 2. Workers in manufacturing benefit the most, and they also lived farthest from the city center before the bus rapid transit was established. Welfare in all neighborhoods increases, with the largest increases at the outer ends of the new bus rapid transit lines. Phase 1 generally promotes densification and welfare in already dense locations, while phase 2 encourages additional densification to the south. Our preliminary analysis of the interaction of zoning restrictions with the bus rapid transit suggests that legal zoning limits are binding in a few locations where excess demand for real estate after the expansion of bus rapid transit is expected to be large.
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    Vibrant Cities - On the Bedrock of Stability, Prosperity, and Sustainability
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-12-07) Lall, Somik V.; Kaw, Jon Kher; Shilpi, Forhad; Murray, Sally Beth
    How will the world’s developing cities become vibrant—capable of meeting the climate, social, and economic challenges of tomorrow? Vibrant cities offer firms and households high expectations for good returns on investments, for a sustainable and resilient future, and for dynamic and inclusive growth. Cities thrive not only by increasing incomes and wealth for a select few but by improving common welfare through the equitable provision of basic services and opportu¬nities. To do this, tomorrow’s vibrant cities will be: 1.Resilient and low carbon—Limiting greenhouse gas emissions, reducing vulnerability to climate related hazards, and rebounding from disasters and pandemics. 2.Inclusive—Meeting basic needs for all residents, while enabling all to aspire realistically to a bet¬ter life through investment in skills and through equitable access to job opportunities. 3.Productive—Driving economic growth, creating jobs, boosting incomes, and financing critical social and infrastructure investments. The report provides new evidence, analysis, and policy insights to advance green, resilient, and inclusive urban development—drawing on the latest thinking in spatial urban development and public economics. While spotlighting the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), it offers general insights for city and country leaders around the world. In doing so, it lays the foundations to shore up our technical assistance and policy engagements for urban development in MENA and elsewhere through a new policy framework—inform, support, and protect.
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    Banking on Cities: Investing in Resilient and Low-Carbon Urbanization
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-03) Deuskar, Chandan; Murray, Sally; Leiva Molano, Juan Sebastián; Khan, Ibrahim Ali; Maria, Augustin
    Cities around the world are responsible for ever-growing shares of people, assets, and economic activities vulnerable to climate disasters. They are also responsible for the majority of the world’s carbon emissions. Cities in low- and middle-income countries still have a window of opportunity to grow in resilient and low-carbon ways, to protect their populations and build strong and sustainable economic foundations. What are the resilient and low-carbon investments that these cities could make in the coming decades? How much will these investments cost, and where can cities look for resources to pay for these investments? These are the questions that Banking on Cities: Investing in Resilient and Low-Carbon Urbanization considers. The publication provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of key resilient and low-carbon investment costs in major urban sectors in all low- and middle-income countries to 2050. These include investments in urban transportation, energy-efficient buildings, solid waste management, water and wastewater, flood protection, and heat resilience. The estimated total cost of these investments revealed by this analysis is sobering: between US$256 and US$821 billion per year. However, “climate” investments are not a separate category of investments that cities need to make in addition to their regular investments. These are core urban investments that cities need to make for their local economic and social benefits in addition to their climate benefits. Banking on Cities advances the discussion on urban climate finance by exploring how cities can identify sources of funding and finance that are suited to different types of resilient and low-carbon urban investments. Just as climate investments are not a separate category of investments, climate finance is not necessarily a separate category of finance. While climate-specific sources, including carbon markets, green bonds, and others, are part of the picture, making these investments will require cities to address their financial fundamentals, including revenues, transfers, creditworthiness, and fiscal efficiency. This report will be a helpful guide for cities and national governments as they develop their urban investment strategies.