Every year on United Nations World Bicycle Day (June 3), we celebrate the transformative benefits of the bicycle. At the World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, DC, staff from across the institution gathered in the main atrium—as per a growing tradition—to recognize the tremendous contribution the bicycle can make to the World Bank’s mission of ending extreme […]
Imagine your favorite open-air market. Stalls hustle for customers, prices fall, and shoppers win—until one fragile roof gives way and everyone scrambles. Banking is similar. Lean rivalry makes credit cheaper; cut-throat rivalry slashes margins so deeply that lenders may gamble to survive. Finding the sweet spot is not guess-work. A new World Bank working paper – Navigating […]
Low-income households in US cities tend to be segregated in low-opportunity neighbourhoods with worse access to good schools and desirable urban amenities. Public transportation is often expected to bridge inequalities, but sparsely distributed public transit networks may end up concentrating poverty further if high- and low-income households sort differently between driving-accessible and transit-accessible residential neighbourhoods. […]
Africa is not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty. While many countries were successful in reducing poverty during the years before the pandemic, its economic disruptions coupled with climate disasters and food and fuel inflation caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have put spanners in the wheels. Growing vulnerabilities to […]
