Future Development

People walk at a market place at the shopping Mongkok district in Hong Kong, China, September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip - RC12BCA04CB0

Is economic growth in middle-income countries different from low-income countries?

Barry Eichengreen, Donghyun Park, and Kwanho Shin · Monday, September 25, 2017

Ballot papers are seen in a ballot box during the Kenya election in Gatundu in Kiambu county, Kenya August 8, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner - RC18FD07A0B0

Measuring the ups and downs of governance

Daniel Kaufmann and Aart Kraay

Friday, September 22, 2017

A train launched to operate on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and financed by Chinese government arrives at the Nairobi Terminus on the outskirts of Kenya's capital Nairobi May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya - RC13EFC12310

Future Development Reads: China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Friday, September 22, 2017

African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi Adesina addresses the audience during the inauguration ceremony of the Annual General Meeting of AfDB bank in Gandhinagar, India May 23, 2017. REUTERS/Amit Dave - RC1BE6744E00

Will less concessional development assistance for Africa cause another debt crisis?

Luisa Teixeira Felino and Brian Pinto

Thursday, September 21, 2017

A boy receives polio vaccine drops by anti-polio vaccination workers along a street in Quetta, Pakistan January 2, 2017. REUTERS/ Naseer Ahmed - RC120DF331E0

Not your parents’ foreign aid: The shift from power to proximity and poverty

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Children at Mashimoni School in Kibera peer through a classroom window of a building that was marked with a red cross in preparation for demolition in Nairobi, Kenya, September 23, 2016. Picture taken September 23, 2016. THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION/Katy Migiro TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - D1AEUGJDWBAB

Schools don’t track their alumni very well. In Kenya, it matters

Eric M. Johnson

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Attendees take pictures of new IPhone models during an Apple launch event in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam - HP1ED9C1KSOEO

Future Development Reads: Apple’s new iPhone, drone delivery in Rwanda, and politics heating up in Europe

Wolfgang Fengler

Friday, September 15, 2017

Chests of drawers are pictured at the Income Tax office in New Delhi April 5, 2013. Indian tax officials have opened up a new front in their battle to increase revenue collected from companies, targeting manufacturing firms that slash prices below cost in order to sell slow-moving inventory. Picture taken April 5. To match INDIA-TAX/ REUTERS/Mansi Thapliyal (INDIA - Tags: BUSINESS POLITICS) - GM1E94F1U5L01

Finding the missing linkages in your tax base

Thursday, September 14, 2017

A displaced man complains about the lack of food supplies outside a processing centre as smoke from burning oil refinery blanketed Qayyara, south of Mosul, Iraq October 23,2016. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra - S1AEUIQBNYAB

Two reasons why rentier states would adopt universal basic income

Shanta Devarajan

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Financial Chief Executives wait to speak to the media at the White House after a meeting about the economy with U.S. President Barack Obama in the State Dining Room in Washington, March 27, 2009. Obama meets with top U.S. bankers on Friday to hash out plans to reform Wall Street, rid financial institutions of bad debts and jumpstart lending in an effort to pull the United States out of recession. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES POLITICS IMAGE OF THE DAY TOP PICTURE BUSINESS) - GM1E53S069C01

Future Development Reads: Misogyny in economics, short-term growth and long-term decline, and what makes bureaucrats productive

Shanta Devarajan

Friday, September 8, 2017

Syrian refugees walk towards Greece's border with Macedonia, moments before crossing near the Greek village of Idomeni, September 9, 2015. Most of the people flooding into Europe are refugees fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries who have a legal right to seek asylum, the United Nations said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - LR2EB990PK4Y3

Syrian refugees and the slow march to “acceptance”

Thursday, September 7, 2017

A woman looks out from her house at a flood affected area in Nepal

Building better defenses against rising floods and storms

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Employees work in front of a computer screen at the headquarters of Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in the capital of Cairo, Egypt February 5, 2017. Picture taken February 5, 2017. REUTERS/Shokry Hussien - RTX30NYX

Future Development Reads: Making markets work better

Friday, July 28, 2017

A Chinese tourist pays cash at a Lotte duty free shop in central Seoul, South Korea, February 2, 2016. Chinese visitors to South Korea are buying less from global luxury mainstays like Louis Vuitton and Chanel in favour of cheaper homegrown brands, as young, independent travellers make up a bigger share of tourists. Picture taken on February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji - RTX25IKA

A golden age for business? Every second five people are entering the global middle class

Wolfgang Fengler and Homi Kharas

Thursday, July 27, 2017

A general view shows the Gibe III hydroelectric dam during its inauguration in Shoma Yero village in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region in Ethiopia, December 17, 2016. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri - RTX2VFXL

Why developing countries get stuck with weak institutions and how foreign actors can help

Brad Parks, Mark Buntaine, and Benjamin Buch

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Contributors

Homi Kharas

Senior Fellow and Co-Director - Global Economy and Development

Shanta Devarajan

Senior Director, Development Economics - World Bank

Shanta_WB

Wolfgang Fengler

Lead Economist, Trade and Competitiveness - World Bank

Indermit Gill

Director, Duke Center for International Development, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University

About Future Development

This blog was first launched in September 2013 by the World Bank in an effort to hold governments more accountable to poor people and offer solutions to the most prominent development challenges. Continuing this goal, Future Development was re-launched in January 2015 at brookings.edu.

For archived content, visit worldbank.org »