The World Bank’s Enterprise Analysis Unit invites submissions for the David Dollar Memorial Prize 2026, an award recognizing rigorous, policy-relevant research on private sector development. The prize honors David Dollar, a pioneering economist whose distinguished career spanned the World Bank,  UCLA, the U.S. Treasury, and the Brookings Institution, and who helped shape the Bank’s focus on the investment climate.

• Eligibility: Full working papers (produced within the last three years) or journal articles (published within the last year) using the World Bank Enterprise Surveys as their primary data source. Papers submitted to the 2025 prize edition are not eligible.
• Deadline: January 15, 2026 (11:59 PM EST)
• Submission: Please send papers to enterprisesurveys@worldbank.org with the subject line: “[Submission] 2026 David Dollar Memorial Prize”. Please detail the two main topics of the paper on the paper’s title page under the heading of “Topics”.

Winners will be chosen by an expert panel led by the Director of the World Bank’s Global Indicators Group and the Manager of the Enterprise Analysis Unit, based on methodological rigor and relevance to private sector development. The $3,000 prize will be awarded at the World Bank Enterprise Surveys Symposium in May 2026, with travel and accommodation covered for one author of the winning paper.

For information on the previous edition of the David Dollar Memorial Prize (2025), see here.