'The World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey measures entrepreneurial activity around the world. The database includes cross-country, time-series data on the number of total and newly registered businesses for 84 countries. This paper finds significant relationships between entrepreneurial activity and indicators of economic and financial development and growth, the quality of the legal and regulatory environment, and governance. The analysis shows the importance of electronic registration proc more...

'UNDP Country Programme aims to contribute to ‘’strengthened domestic economic opportunities through area-based/community led initiative, private sector partnership, trans-boundary interaction and accession to relevant trade platforms’’. In this area, UNDP works to improve human security and the quality of life for poor people through mainstreaming gender, broadening economic opportunities, and promoting sustainable livelihoods including sound natural resource management and disaster ris more...

How can we unleash the potential of sustainable development and integrate it into trade? This book explores how procurement by Western companies can be carried out in such a way that all parties benefit, including the poor.

If responsibly applied, sustainable procurement has the potential to help reduce poverty while offering added value to suppliers in developing countries and buyers in Europe. In many sectors, sustainability is still in its infancy, and only minor progress has been made in more...

'The IEG report finds that the development results of IFC-supported private sector operations in developing countries improved in the last three years, driven by better performance in two regions with a large share of IFC operations: Latin America and Europe and Central Asia. However, project performance stagnated in Africa, Asia and the Middle East – where IFC is growing fastest, and where sound IFC work quality and portfolio risk management will be crucial for better results going forward.'
more...

'This independent evaluation of the DB indica-
tors assesses the methods and processes
underlying the construction of the indicators;
the relevance of the indicators to desired
intermediate outcomes; and their use by World
Bank Group staff, policy makers, and other
stakeholders. It finds that the indicators have
been highly effective in drawing attention to the burdens of business regulation, but cannot by themselves capture other key dimensions of a country’s business climate, the bene more...

Video by Jean-Michel Severino, CEO of the French Development Agency:
> What is the impact of private sector activity in development?
> What should the public and private sectors’ respective roles be?

A stylized fact of economic development is the structural transformation of countries from traditional, mainly agricultural societies to modern economies dominated by manufacturing and services. In this paper we provide an endogenous growth model to illuminate the role of entrepreneurial start-up firms in structural economic transformation. We follow the Lewis-model’s distinction between a traditional and modern sector, and underpin this with micro-foundations. We specify mature and start-up e more...