David Dollar Memorial Prize 2025 Winner Announcement
World Bank's 2025 David Dollar Memorial Prize is designed to honor the memory and contribution of David Dollar, an eminent economist with a distinguished career at UCLA, the World Bank, the U.S. Department of Treasury, and the Brookings Institution, who was one of the pioneers in the World Bank’s focus on investment climate. The prize aims to encourage high quality and policy relevant research on private sector development.
WINNER: The winner is Maximilian Huppertz (University of Michigan, Bank of England) for the paper titled "Sacking the sales staff: Weather shocks to labor productivity, complementary input adjustments, and their climate policy implications".
This paper uses Enterprise Surveys combined with high-resolution weather data to show that weather shocks lower labor productivity in firms in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In response, firms cut complementary inputs, which worsens productivity losses. A structural model, combined with machine learning climate projections, shows these firm responses make trade policy more effective at offsetting climate impacts.
The paper’s emphasis on general equilibrium effects, as well as its demonstration of how the exercise contributes to improved policy effectiveness, represents a significant contribution to the literature. It showcases how the Enterprise Surveys data can be creatively combined with other sources to generate powerful insights. Maximilian’s paper truly exemplifies the spirit of David Dollar’s legacy with emphasis on policy-relevant insights supported by granular data and rigorous empirical analysis.
AWARD: The prize (which includes a monetary component, 3 000 USD) was awarded at the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys Symposium on the Global Business Environment and Firm Productivity on June 5, 2025.
SELECTION PROCESS: A total of 207 papers were submitted for the 2025 David Dollar Memorial Prize. After excluding 11 ineligible entries, the remaining papers underwent a three-round review. In round one, the selection committee assessed papers based on expertise, scoring them on rigor, originality, and relevance, producing a list of 19. A sub-committee then reviewed further and shortlisted four. The final winner was selected by Jorge Rodríguez Meza, Manager of the Enterprise Analysis Unit, and Norman Loayza, Director of the Global Indicators Group.
SELECTION COMMITTEE:
- Ana Margarida Fernandes, Lead Economist, Trade and International Integration, Development Economics, World Bank
- David C. Francis, Senior Economist, Enterprise Analysis Unit, Development Economics, World Bank
- Domenico Viganola, Economist, Enterprise Analysis Unit, Development Economics, World Bank
- Ekaterina Vostroknutova, Lead Economist, Prosperity, Jobs and Economic Growth, World Bank
- Gemechu Ayana Aga, Senior Economist, Enterprise Analysis Unit, Development Economics, World Bank
- Hibret Belete Maemir, Economist, Enterprise Analysis Unit, Development Economics, World Bank
- Jose Ernesto Lopez Cordova, Lead Economist, Country Diagnostics, International Finance Corporation
- Mariana Iootty, Senior Economist, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions, World Bank
- Mohammad Amin, Senior Economist, Enterprise Analysis Unit, Development Economics, World Bank (Selection Committee Chair)
- Nesma Ali, Economist, Enterprise Analysis Unit, Development Economics, World Bank
- Nona Karalashvili, Senior Economist, Enterprise Analysis Unit, Development Economics, World Bank
- Norma Gomez, Economist, Enterprise Analysis Unit, Development Economics, World Bank
- Phoebe W. Ishak, Economist, Enterprise Analysis Unit, Development Economics, World Bank
- Solomiya Shpak, Economist, Enterprise Analysis Unit, Development Economics, World Bank
- Trang Thu Tran, Senior Economist, Economic Research Unit, International Finance Corporation
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The Call for Papers Process for the 2025 Prize
The World Bank’s Enterprise Analysis Unit invited researchers to submit papers for the 2025 David Dollar Memorial Prize. Only the full working papers that use the Enterprise Surveys as their main data source, and that are produced in the last two years were be considered. We welcomed submissions that span a variety of topics related to all aspect of private sector development, including but not limited to:
- Productivity and firm dynamics
- Quality of the business environment and firms’ outcomes
- Job creation
- Women’s participation in the labor force
- Access to finance
- Informality and its impact on the formal sector
- Innovation, etc.
SUBMISSION: Papers were submitted to enterprisesurveys@worldbank.org, and included the following in the subject line: “[Submission] 2025 World Bank David Dollar Memorial Prize”. We accepted full working papers (including the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications) produced in the last two years. The papers that were already published in a journal or a book were not considered. The submitted papers should further our understanding of private sector development and have a high relevance for policy makers. Notification of acceptance were given by Friday, April 4, 2025.
CRITERIA: The criteria included the following:
- The paper must use the World Bank Enterprise Surveys as its main data source
- The paper should be methodologically rigorous
- The paper should have a high relevance for private sector development, and preferably provide clear policy implications
- The paper’s findings should ideally be of broader interest to the developing world even though the paper may focus on a particular country, region, or industry
