World Bank

Besides a considerable amount of information on itself and on topical issues (including news releases, speeches, and summaries of new projects), the World Bank offers a wealth of information on development and growth topics. Their "Country Data" (part of the "Data" area) offers "Country Briefs" (several thousand word descriptions of economic policies and events) and "Country-at-a-Glance" (summary statistical information, with many cross-country comparisons). They also offer "World Development Sources (WDS)" which has some 6,000 searchable World Bank reports (the search engine is quite sophisticated).

In "Development Topics," there are many items of interest for economists. They include "Economics & Trade:"

AIDS Economics

Central Capital Markets

Economic Growth Research

Economic Management and Policy Courses

Environmental Economics and Indicators

International Financial Architecture

IFC Loan Syndications

Prospects for Development

"Finance & Private Sector Development" offers

Investment Information (IPAnet) and Privatization

Opportunities (PrivatizationLink)

Microfinance - Sustainable Banking with the Poor

Private Sector Development

Resource Mobilization and Cofinancing

The "Research" area includes

Abstracts of Current Studies

Policy Research Working Papers

Topic-Specific Research Sites

Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE)

Evaluations of Research

Frequently Asked Questions

Speeches of the Chief Economist

Also available are various well-known publications (some portions or even all of some of them are on-line, and some back issues are available as well):

The World Development Report

Assessing Aid

Confronting Aids

Global Economic Prospects

World Development Indicators

World Bank Journals

Development Economics Newsletters

World Bank Policy and Research Bulletin

Various "Policy Research Reports"

At DevNews one can access the World Bank's daily webzine, which features articles on recent advances and challenges in world development. This site also provides free access to articles as far back as February 1999.

Other parts of the web site include "Partnerships," which lists those who do similar work (by regions and by subject areas), "Regional Focus," with resources by geographical region, and the "Development Forum" which uses electronic methods (mailing lists and such) to discuss development issues. It is described as "Where the development community meets to share knowledge and experiences." As education is clearly an important part of development, a significant effort has been made to find how best to educate the populace of developing countries. The Economics of Education section lists finding in this area. Finally, their "InfoShop" brings their on-line bookstore and public information center (PIC) together.

http://www.worldbank.org/