An Overview of Research at the World Bank

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• An Overview of Research at the World Bank
• Jean-Jacques Dethier
• DEC, The World Bank
• Presentation at Researchers Alliance for
  Development Annual Meeting,
• The Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam,
• Sunday, May 22, 2005

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OUTLINE

• 1. What kind of research does the World Bank do?
• How much research does the World Bank do?
• Evidence on research output in 2003
• 3. What is the impact of World Bank research?
  Evidence
• Complementarity between DEC and non-DEC
• research within the World Bank
• 5. Synergies between Bank and non-Bank research

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DEC Research
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Research Website
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Examples of Research done at the Bank

• Number of people living below US1 a day
• 1-2-3 General equilibrium model
• Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys
• Investment Climate Surveys
• Gender Policy Research Report
• Conflict and Development
• Evaluation of Progresa, Bolsa Escola other
  conditional cash transfers
• Culture (book edited by Rao and Walton)
• Political Economy (Keefer, Knack et al.)

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World Bank Research Output, 1998-2003
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Impact of Research

• Impact on Bank operational activities Data and
  analytic tools developed for poverty analysis
• Research sometimes leads to new lines of Bank
  business
• Research sometimes instrumental in moving the
  Bank away from some forms of intervention
• Advocacy role on global issues Trade, Doha Round
  
• DEC research has influenced world opinion and
  shaped policy priorities.
• Evidence of impact
• Quality effectiveness of Bank operations
  increased by high-quality analytical work
• Research has often contributed directly to
  shaping lending strategies and operations.
• Bank staff outside research rely heavily on DECs
  outputs.
• Impact on policy makers in developing countries.
• Impact of Bank research on academic community

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Citations Per Article.Economics, Business and
Social Sciences Journals
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Distribution of Bank staff engaged in research,
papers and citations
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Main themes of DEC research program

• Growth and Equity
• Global Issues
• Evaluation

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Theme 1 Growth and Equity

• Investment Climate
• Public Services for the Poor
• Provider Behavior
• Political Economy
• Progress toward the MDGs
• Equity and Development

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Theme 2 Global Issues

• International Trade
• Trade Policy Reform
• Trade, Technical Change and Growth
• Trade, Development and Poverty Reduction
• Migration
• Measuring the flows
• Remittances
• Brain Drain
• Security and Development
• Development, terrorism and drug trafficking
• Conflict and Post-conflict development

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Theme 3 Policy Evaluation

• New evaluation tools, based directly or
  indirectly on randomized trials, becoming
  available for evaluating the development impact
  of projects in education, health, infrastructure,
  or cash transfers
• Tools to be developed for ex ante evaluation of
  policies with economy-wide impact (e.g. trade,
  financial reforms)exploring links between
  macroeconomic conditions and households and
  firms.
• Impact evaluation establishing causal links
  between interventions and outcomes in critical
  development areasby comparing results of an
  intervention with those of a counterfactual (what
  the situation would have been without the
  intervention).
• The methodological and operational challenge is
  to identify the most appropriate counterfactual.
• Bank-wide effort led by Chief Economist to
  improve effectiveness of our projects and
  programs (Development Impact Evaluation -- DIME)

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Useful sourcesJ. Wolfensohn and F.
Bourguignon, Development and Poverty Reduction.
Looking Back, Looking Ahead, Washington, DC The
World Bank, 2004N. Stern, J.J. Dethier and F.H.
Rogers, Growth and Empowerment. Making
Development Happen, Cambridge The MIT Press,
2005.The World Bank, Report on the World Bank
Group Research Program Fiscal 2002 and 2003 and
Future Directions, Washington, DC, The World
Bank, 2004.I am grateful to Francois
Bourguignon, Chief Economist and Senior Vice
President, and Alan Winters, Director of
Research, DEC, for sharing with me their views on
research and giving me access to useful
materials.
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