Which World Bank Reports Are Widely Read?

International Resources, Funding Society Responses

Date posted: 02/03/16

The World Bank invests about one-quarter of its budget for country services in knowledge products. Knowledge is central to development. Still, there is little research about the demand for these knowledge products and how internal knowledge flows affect their demand. About 49% of the World Bank policy reports, which are published Economic and Sector Work or Technical Assistance reports, have the stated objective of informing the public debate or influencing the development community. This study uses information on downloads and citations to assesses whether policy reports meet this objective. About 13% of policy reports were downloaded at least 250 times while more than 31% of policy reports are never downloaded. Almost 87% of policy reports were never cited. More expensive, complex, multi-sector, core diagnostics reports on middle-income countries with larger populations tend to be downloaded more frequently. Multi-sector reports also tend to be cited more frequently. Internal knowledge sharing matters as cross support provided by the World Bank Research Department consistently increases downloads and citations. This paper is a product of the Operations and Strategy Unit, Development Economics Vice Presidency. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://econ.worldbank.org. If the objective of a World Bank policy report is to inform the public debate, well-funded, multi-sector policy reports are likely to do better. More expensive, complex, multi-sector, core diagnostics reports, such as CEMs or PFRs, on middle-income countries with larger populations tend to be downloaded more frequently. Those that receive a significant number of downloads tend to have a long shelf-life.