Factors like borrowing costs and access to alternative sources of finance will likely limit country demand for World Bank climate mitigation finance absent financial incentives, which could prove costly and difficult to resource at the scale needed to have meaningful impact. There's a risk that thes...

In the wake of a challenging year, the Bank of England (BoE) has found itself navigating a tumultuous economic landscape marked by significant upheavals. Following the release of the mini-budget in September 2022, the BoE was compelled to take proactive measures to stabilize the financial system. Th...

In this note we assess the potential short-term fiscal impact of these instruments. We look at three major natural disasters over the past two years and assess how much relief each country would have received if DSCs had been included in the totality of their external debt instruments.

Many public policies create (perceived) winners and losers, but there is little evidence on whether redistribution can support new political economy equilibria that raise aggregate welfare. We study a Ugandan policy that redistributes 30 percent of foreign aid for refugees to Ugandans while allowing...

The climate financial intermediary funds (FIFs) are one of the largest sources of grant and concessional finance for climate, especially for middle-income countries, but there are significant challenges at the systemic level and differing performance across FIFs. We recommend consolidating funds in ...

The assignment is clear. During this year’s Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, shareholders instructed the World Bank to develop a work program for its own evolution (“to identify gaps in the Bank’s current institutional and operational framework…”) by the end of the year. Secretary Yellen l...

We are living in a time when many countries face heightened debt vulnerabilities. There is no international bankruptcy mechanism for countries that default on their external obligations. The objective of the international financial architecture—historically overseen by the IMF and its shareholders— ...