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Front Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- About the Authors -- Abbreviations -- Executive Summary -- 1. Place, Productivity, and Prosperity: An Introduction -- Introduction -- The Attraction of Place-Based Policies -- Three Forces Shaping the Economic Landscape -- Lagging Places, Left-Behind People-and Perhaps, Missed Opportunities -- Notes -- References -- 2. Agglomeration Economies, Productivity, and the Persistence of Place -- Introduction -- A Virtuous Cycle of Economic Concentration, Higher Productivity, and More Prosperity -- The Developing Country Urban Productivity Puzzle -- Changing Drivers of Spatial Activity: The Future Isn't What It Used to Be -- Unpacking the Association of Density with Productivity -- Measuring the Benefits of Spatial Concentration -- Measuring the Full Costs of Agglomeration: Accounting for the Extra Expense of Working in Developing Country Cities -- Conclusion -- Annex 2A. Estimating Productivity, Marginal Cost, and Markups -- Notes -- References -- 3. The Promise of Labor Mobility Introduction -- Introduction -- The Evidence on Internal Migration -- The Barriers to Internal Migration -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 4. Globalization and Digital Development: Bridging Distances within Countries -- Introduction -- Globalization and Regional Growth within Countries -- How Trade Costs, Infrastructure, and Institutions Affect Growth within Countries -- The Role of Digital Connectivity in Narrowing Disparities between Regions -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 5. Lagging Places: Missed Opportunities, Left-Behind People -- Introduction -- Two Tales of Cities: Not Every Place Has Potential for Growth -- Why Is a Region Not Thriving Already? -- Three Arguments Often Used to Support Place-Based Policies for Nonviable Regions -- Complementarities, Silver Bullets, and Big Pushes.

Place matters for productivity and prosperity. Myriad factors support a successful place, including not only the hard infrastructure such as roads, but also the softer elements such as worker skills, entrepreneurial ability, and well-functioning institutions. History suggests that prosperous places tend to persist, while "left-behind" regions—or those hurt by climatic, technological, or commercial shocks—struggle to catch up. This division gives rise to demands to "do something" about the subsequent spatial inequality. Such pressures often result in costly spatially targeted policies with disappointing outcomes because of a lack of analysis of the underlying barriers to growth and structural transformation and a fair appraisal of the possibility of overcoming them. The latest volume of the World Bank Productivity Project series, Place, Productivity, and Prosperity: Revisiting Spatially Targeted Policies for Regional Development makes three broad contributions. First, it provides new analytical and empirical insights into the three drivers of economic geography—agglomeration economies, migration, and distance—and the way in which these drivers interact. Second, it argues that these forces are playing out differently in developing countries than they have in advanced economies: urbanization is not accompanied by structural transformation, leaving cities crowded and accruing all the negative aspects of urbanization without being concentrated productively. Long-term amelioration of poverty in lagging regions requires advancing the overall national agenda of structural change and productivity growth. Third, it provides a heuristic framework with which to inform policy makers' assessments of place-based policy proposals, helping them identify the regions where policy is likely to have an impact and those that would remain nonviable. The framework enables governments to clarify the implications of various policy options; to think critically about design priorities, including necessary complementary policies; and to navigate the implementation challenges.

Relying on a novel dataset covering more than 120,000 firms in 60 countries, this paper con-tributes to the debate about D policies to support businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic. While governments around the world have implemented a wide range of policy support measures, evidence on the reach of these policies, the alignment of measures with firm needs, and their targeting and effectiveness remains scarce. This paper provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of these issues, focusing primarily on the developing economies. It shows that policy reach has been limited, especially for the more vulnerable firms and countries, and identifies mismatches between policies provided and policies most sought. It also provides some indicative evidence regarding mistargeting of policies and their effectiveness in addressing liquidity constraints and preventing layoffs. This assessment provides some early guidance to policymakers on tailoring their COVID-19 business support packages and points to new directions in data and research efforts needed to guide policy responses to the current pandemic and future crises.