This paper shows how growth regressions can be useful for analyzing a country’s growth performance. Growth regressions describe changes in key macroeconomic variables that countries typically experience...
This paper investigates the outstanding economic growth experience of Bangladesh. It shows that the country’s improvements in structural correlates of growth from 1990 to 2004 are in the global top 5 percent...
Exceptionally high rainfall in the Indian state of Kerala caused major flooding in 2018. This paper estimates the short-run causal impact of the disaster on the economy, using a difference-in-difference...
This paper investigates whether electricity consumption is a useful indicator for tracking economic fluctuations in Bangladesh. It presents monthly data on national electricity consumption since 1993 and...
This paper presents a novel framework to estimate the elasticity between nighttime lights and quarterly economic activity. The relationship is identified by accounting for varying degrees of measurement...
Amid the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Sri Lanka’s economy contracted by 3.6 percent in 2020, the worst growth performance on record, as is the case in many countries fighting the pandemic. Swift measures...
This report provides an assessment of the state of the economy in Bangladesh, discussing the outlook, risks, and key reform challenges. It covers: real sector developments, focusing on growth and its components;...
The COVID-19 pandemic, which is still impacting South Asia, has temporarily brought the region to a near standstill. Governments proactively stabilized activity through monetary easing, fiscal stimulus...
With the COVID-19 pandemic, the intense debate about secular stagnation will become even more important. Empirical estimates of equilibrium real interest rates are so far mostly limited to advanced economies...
This paper estimates the impact of a differential relaxation of COVID-19 containment policies on aggregate economic activity in India. Following a uniform national lockdown, the Government of India classified...
The COVID-19 pandemic is not yet under control in South Asia, despite early containment measures. In March, South Asian countries quickly imposed lockdowns and travel restrictions, but not all countries...
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted economic activity in India. Adjusting policies to contain trans- mission while mitigating the economic impact requires an assessment of the economic situation in near...
Global GDP growth is decelerating, while trade and industrial production are stagnating. The slowdown has been severe in South Asia, which in recent quarters was no longer the fastest growing region in...
This paper analyzes whether fiscal policy in South Asia amplifies or smooths business cycle fluctuations. The paper estimates several econometric models to explore the cyclicality of government spending...
This paper presents a new dataset of comparable employment indicators for South Asian countries, constructed from more than 60 primary data sources from 2001 to 2017. The main contribution of the paper...
Evening-hour luminosity observed using satellites is a good proxy for economic activity. The strengths of measuring economic activity using nightlight measurements include that the data capture informal...
South Asia is again the fastest growing region in the world, albeit not by a wide margin. The rebound was led by India, whose growth rate picked up in the second half of 2017 after five consecutive quarters...