Featured series 
The Growth Lab’s multidisciplinary research team works across the world, offering ideas, methods, and tools to help policymakers, scholars, investors, and others accelerate economic growth and expand opportunity. The lab’s research in 2025 spanned nine countries across five continents and investigated economic crises in Bolivia and Malawi, clean energy industrial transition strategies, oil diversification and new engines for growth, depopulation and workforce challenges, and much more. Below, are some of the most insightful visualizations from its research portfolio.
It’s not easy being green: Greenplexity reveals divide in readiness to capture green value chain opportunities
This map ranks countries based on their presence in industries in green value chains, using the Growth Lab’s Greenplexity Index. The Greenplexity Index balances a country’s breadth and complexity in green value chains. Countries improve their Greenplexity Index score by making more complex products within green value chains. Advanced manufacturing economies tend to rank highly on the Greenplexity Index, suggesting they have strong capabilities across green value chains. By contrast, many emerging economies rank lower on the Greenplexity Index, suggesting they remain concentrated in a narrow set of simpler activities.
Source: Greenplexity
Growing beyond oil and away from Russia: Azerbaijan finds new engines for export growth
Azerbaijan has diversified its exports across several non-oil sectors, with notable gains in chemicals, agriculture, vehicles, and metals. While Russia remains a major destination, broadly consistent with its historical weight in Azerbaijan’s trade portfolio, the pattern of export growth does not point to an outsized or exceptional shift toward the Russian market. In contrast to several regional economies where post-2022 export growth has been dominated by war-related re-export dynamics, Azerbaijan’s expansion appears more balanced across destinations. The evidence suggests that Azerbaijan’s recent export growth reflects a genuine diversification of its production and export structure, rather than a simple redirection of trade toward Russia. Alongside Russia, exports have grown meaningfully to Türkiye, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and the UAE, indicating that diversification is occurring across both products and markets.
