Knowledgeable Bankers? The Demand for Research in World Bank Operations

Development impact calls for knowledgeable development practitioners. How then do the operational staff of the largest development agency value and use its own research? Is there an incentive to learn and does it translate into useful knowledge? A new survey reveals that the bulk of the World Bank&#...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ravallion, Martin
Format: Journal Article
Language:en_US
Published: Taylor and Francis 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13393
id okr-10986-13393
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-133932021-04-23T14:03:08Z Knowledgeable Bankers? The Demand for Research in World Bank Operations Ravallion, Martin incentive to learn absorptive capacity development aid World Bank research Development impact calls for knowledgeable development practitioners. How then do the operational staff of the largest development agency value and use its own research? Is there an incentive to learn and does it translate into useful knowledge? A new survey reveals that the bulk of the World Bank's senior staff value the Bank's research for their work, and most come to know it well, although a sizable minority have difficulty accessing research to serve their needs. Another group sees little value to research for their work and does not bother to find out about it. Higher perceived value is reflected in greater knowledge about research, though there are frictions in this process. Staff working on poverty, human development and economic policy tend to value and use Bank research more than staff in the more traditional sectors of Bank lending – agriculture and rural development, Energy and Mining (EM), transport and urban development; the latter sectors account for 45% of lending but only 15% of staff are highly familiar with Bank research. Without stronger incentives for learning and more relevant and accessible research products, it appears likely that this lag in demand for research by the traditional sectors will persist. 2013-05-13T18:19:27Z 2013-05-13T18:19:27Z 2013-03-08 Journal Article Journal of Development Effectiveness 1943-9342 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13393 en_US Journal of Development Effectiveness;5(1) CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ World Bank Taylor and Francis Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language en_US
topic incentive to learn
absorptive capacity
development aid
World Bank research
spellingShingle incentive to learn
absorptive capacity
development aid
World Bank research
Ravallion, Martin
Knowledgeable Bankers? The Demand for Research in World Bank Operations
relation Journal of Development Effectiveness;5(1)
description Development impact calls for knowledgeable development practitioners. How then do the operational staff of the largest development agency value and use its own research? Is there an incentive to learn and does it translate into useful knowledge? A new survey reveals that the bulk of the World Bank's senior staff value the Bank's research for their work, and most come to know it well, although a sizable minority have difficulty accessing research to serve their needs. Another group sees little value to research for their work and does not bother to find out about it. Higher perceived value is reflected in greater knowledge about research, though there are frictions in this process. Staff working on poverty, human development and economic policy tend to value and use Bank research more than staff in the more traditional sectors of Bank lending – agriculture and rural development, Energy and Mining (EM), transport and urban development; the latter sectors account for 45% of lending but only 15% of staff are highly familiar with Bank research. Without stronger incentives for learning and more relevant and accessible research products, it appears likely that this lag in demand for research by the traditional sectors will persist.
format Journal Article
author Ravallion, Martin
author_facet Ravallion, Martin
author_sort Ravallion, Martin
title Knowledgeable Bankers? The Demand for Research in World Bank Operations
title_short Knowledgeable Bankers? The Demand for Research in World Bank Operations
title_full Knowledgeable Bankers? The Demand for Research in World Bank Operations
title_fullStr Knowledgeable Bankers? The Demand for Research in World Bank Operations
title_full_unstemmed Knowledgeable Bankers? The Demand for Research in World Bank Operations
title_sort knowledgeable bankers? the demand for research in world bank operations
publisher Taylor and Francis
publishDate 2013
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13393
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