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Shared Prosperity: Paving the Way in Europe and Central Asia focuses on the second goal and proposes a framework that integrates both macroeconomic and microeconomic elements.The macro variables, particularly changes in relative prices, affect income growth differentially along the income distribution; at the same time, the microeconomic distribution of assets at the bottom of the distribution determines the capacity of the bottom 40 to take advantage of the macroeconomic environment and contribute to overall growth. Growth and the incidence of growth are thus understood as jointly determined processes. Besides this integration, the main input of the framework is the finding that the trade-off between growth and equity may be an issue only in the short run. Over the long run, redistribution policies that increase the productive capacity of the bottom 40 percent enhance the overall growth potential of the economy.This report considers shared prosperity in Europe and Central Asia and concludes that the performance in sharing prosperity during the period 2000-10 was good, on average, but heterogeneous across countries and that sustainability is unclear. It also describes examples of the application of the framework to selected countries in the region. 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Another 20 in the region have become more prosperous since the 1990s. However, their transition to high-income status has been delayed. These middle-income countries have found that the prospects for growth to high-income status have become even more difficult since the 2007-09 global financial crisis. This reflects partly a slowdown in structural reforms at home and partly the challenges associated with a deterioration in the global environment. The concern has emerged that many countries in the region may be caught in the middle-income trap, a phase in development characterized by a recurring deceleration in growth and by per capita incomes that are systematically below the high-income threshold. To ensure that these countries overcome the obstacles to growth and achieve progress toward high-income status, policy makers need to make the transition from a strategy driven largely by investment to a strategy that is supported by the importation and diffusion of global capital, knowledge, and technology and then to a strategy that complements these with innovation. The study Greater Heights: Growing to High Income in Europe and Central Asia relies on the 3i strategy described in World Development Report 2024-Investment, Infusion, and Innovation-to propose policy options to assist middle-income countries in Europe and Central Asia in the effort to reach high-income status. Drawing on comprehensive empirical analysis, the report offers actionable recommendations that will enable policy makers to advance stronger economic growth across the region. Such a transition will require continued and sustained foundational reform to maximize the drivers of economic growth while pivoting to new transformative reforms to promote the development of more complex economic structures and institutions. These involve the need to discipline incumbents, boost the role of the private sector, strengthen the competitive environment, and reward merit. 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After two waves of crises, in the late 1990s and after 2008, ECA's banking systems again face major stress. The crises and stresses have eroded trust in banks and job creation in credit-dependent firms. ECA's shallow and illiquid capital markets offer no additional support. Stagnating income growth, particularly of middle- to lower-income earners, has led to increasing dissatisfaction with low productivity growth and limited opportunities. This frustration provides the impetus for reshaping financial policies. A healthy and balanced financial sector could strengthen structural adjustment in ECA's eastern, oil-dependent economies and innovation in its western countries. Risks and Returns: Managing Financial Trade-Offs for Inclusive Growth in Europe and Central Asia argues for reaching beyond increasing access to credit. ECA countries must build integrated financial systems, enabling prudent financial inclusion in a region significantly lagging in the use of saving products. 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