A CGD blog. That said, there are reasons to doubt that a declining working age population would have a long-term effect on prices. They are based on an argument that economists have long made when it comes to migration into economies where the domestic labor force was still expanding, termed the “lump of labor …

A CGD blog with Kenneth Lay. At the Spring Meetings of the World Bank, a range of shareholders repeated their call for multilateral development banks (MDBs) to do more, particularly with regard to climate finance. At the same time, client countries are demanding these institutions preserve their core mandate to support developm…

A CGD blog with Charles Kenny. Last week, leaders from around the world gathered in Washington, DC to discuss the global economic situation, a looming debt crisis, and the future of the international financial institutions. Here are some of CGD experts’ takeaways on the highs and lows.

A CGD blog with Samuel Huckstep. The World Bank’s evolution roadmap calls for the institution to reform and grow in response to global challenges and in particular climate change. But if the World Bank wants to do more on climate, it will also need to do more on migration-a topic only mentioned in passing. Successive…

A CGD blog. The dialogue around World Bank reform proposals has been dominated by Northern voices. But in the last week, representatives of World Bank Group client countries both based in the city and visiting for the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings have helped to rebalance the discussion.

A CGD blog. The world has never been more educated, our populations more connected. Technological advance in areas from solar and fusion power through batteries to satellites and cancer vaccines will help deliver sustained development. Ending extreme ($2.15 a day) poverty, while long overdue, is on a trajectory…

A CGD blog. The World Bank shouldn’t become a dedicated climate bank: that’s not what its client countries want, and the global development agenda (the D in IBRD and IDA) is still urgent. But, with additional finance, the Bank could play an important part in the global response to the climate challenge. That sh…

A CGD blog with Ian Mitchell. In the next few weeks, the OECD will release its estimate of ODA-Official Development Assistance-provided by member countries, and will no doubt claim yet another record high. But this inflated measure has lost its credibility, in large part because its definition is governed solely by ODA-providing…

A CGD blog. I’m very grateful to Olivier de Schutter, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, for his discussion of Zack Gehan and my paper on future growth forecasts and poverty in 2050. There is much to agree with in his analysis, but I’d disagree with his statement “our focus should be…

A CGD blog. In a recent note, Zack Gehan and I used a database of World Bank projects to examine the association between World Bank project types and environmental review procedures and project preparation times. We found that policy lending projects are significantly faster to design, while projects that under…