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Silent archival of World Development Indicators: data unavailability for retired WDI series through the World Bank API

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  • Poshatskii, Viacheslav

Abstract

The World Bank publishes over 1,000 time series in its World Development Indicators (WDI) catalogue, yet individual series are periodically retired. Using WDI's own archival metadata, we document that 1,338 currently unlisted series codes are absent from the public API and bulk-download catalogue, and that none of 40 retired series queried returned data through the World Bank's official API. We treat this as a silent-archival phenomenon: series disappear from the catalogue without public notice, release of a cessation report, or an archival dataset. We characterize the scale of the phenomenon, the metadata signals that identify retired series, and the resulting implications for reproducibility of economic research that relies on WDI time series.

Suggested Citation

  • Poshatskii, Viacheslav, 2026. "Silent archival of World Development Indicators: data unavailability for retired WDI series through the World Bank API," SocArXiv 4uwm3_v1, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:4uwm3_v1
    DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/4uwm3_v1
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