World Bank Group: Can Resource-Financed Infrastructure Fix the Natural Resource Curse?

By Håvard Halland, John Beardsworth, Bryan Land, and James Schmidt How can resource-rich countries ensure that a sufficiently large share of oil, gas, and mining revenues are used for productive investment rather than excessive or wasteful consumption? “Resource-financed infrastructure” (RFI)

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The Underrated Modesty of Executive Pay at the World Bank

There are moments in time when the proverbial storm in a teacup serves to underscore a point. The World Bank Group is living one such moment. The bank is in the midst of a possibly painful restructuring process that is

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Deutsche Börse and Thai Exchange Join Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative

The Deutsche Börse is the latest of a growing number of stock exchanges that have joined the United Nations-supported Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative aimed at encouraging listed companies to adhere to specific environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) guidelines.

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Angela Merkel: Managing Europe’s Manifest Destiny

The job of German chancellor is not one for the faint of heart. It all boils down to leading one of the world’s greatest powers, and safeguarding its many interests, without ever giving in to the temptation to actually flex

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Europe’s Original Sin and the Dangers of Doing Good

Carlos Rangel, the Venezuelan diplomat and essayist, once pointedly remarked that western nations often send their failed politicians – the dreamers, utopians, and other ineffectual romantics – to far-off places where they can do no harm other than to their

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New UN Report Calls for Major Changes in Global Economic Governance, Management

Six years after the start of the global economic and financial crisis, the world economy has still not found a sustainable growth path, argues a new United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report released on September 10, 2014. 

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World Bank Group, FAO Aim to Boost Women’s Land Ownership in Central Europe

Women’s land ownership in the Western Balkans often involves a complex web of statutory, customary, and religious laws. World Bank and FAO teams worked with national partners to devise 11-month pilot work plans for their countries to boost female land

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What Does Carbon Pricing Success Look Like? Ask These Leaders

British Columbia, Sweden, California and China have been pioneering carbon pricing systems to lower emissions and help shift their economies onto cleaner, greener trajectories. Currently, nearly 40 countries and more than 20 cities, states, and provinces use a form of

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Otaviano Canuto, World Bank Group: Liquidity Glut, Infrastructure Finance Drought and Development Banks

The world economy faces huge infrastructure financing needs that are not being matched on the supply side. Emerging market economies, in particular, have had to deal with international long-term private debt financing options that are less supportive of infrastructure finance.

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Strategy&: Meeting the Big Data Challenge

Recent research on Big Data should sound an alarm bell for companies. On the one hand, there is a link between usage of Big Data and the quality of corporate performance. On the other hand, very few companies are actually

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