Realizing the Potential of Public Development Banks and Development Finance Institutions for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals Research Program

Public Development banks (PDBs) and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) are government-sponsored financial institutions with explicit official missions to promote public policy objectives. PDBs and DFIs are potentially potent policy instruments for fixing market failures, incubating markets, coordinating public policies with stakeholders, and promoting economic structural transformation in an equitable and sustainable manner. PDBs and DFIs are experiencing a renaissance worldwide, as their usefulness is increasingly recognized by both academics and policymakers. Comparatively, academic research examining their roles, operations, and effectiveness remains limited.

To fill this gap, the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University (INSE), sponsored by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Ford Foundation, and the International Development Finance Club (IDFC), has launched a network of thematically-focused open working groups on PDBs and DFIs, and initiated a pilot research program on the theme. 

The OBJECTIVE of the International Research Initiative on PDBs and DFIs is to create a global community of academia and practitioners in this field, by bringing leading scholars, experts, policy makers and practitioners together to foster academically rigorous research. Their concrete policy recommendations will merge in an effort to unleash the full potential of PDBs and DFIs for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and supporting international structural transformation.

The main ACTIONS of the International Research Initiative on PDBs and DFIs include:

① Database Building: the New Structural Economics Development Financing Research Report Series, initiated by the INSE, in partnership with the AFD, aims to build the first comprehensive database on DFIs worldwide. Codebook, template, and technical notes are carefully designed and strict quality control undertaken, to ensure that all data is accurate, comprehensive, and comparable across institutions and over time.

② Academic Research: five working groups on PDBs and DFIs are organized and coordinated by renowned co-chairs, who play a leading role in setting the research agenda. They incorporate the feedback from PDB and DFI practitioners and mobilize supports and resources to make the working groups feasible.

③ Policy Dialogue: the academic research is policy-oriented, aiming to draw policy implications for PDBs and DFIs to be more effective in achieving their official mandates. The research results will be shared with all the stakeholders through policy dialogues or policy forums.