Working Paper
Quid pro quo: how the wartime economy shapes the violent contestation of the state after warWhy do some conflict-affected areas remain an arena of violent contestation of the state, while others transition to peace? I suggest that economic networks developed during intrastate conflict—i.e. wartime economies—give rise to continued pockets of...
Working Paper
Surviving in the dark: the mortality effects of reducing rolling blackoutsSouth Africa frequently experiences rolling blackouts (‘load shedding’) due to shortfalls in electricity generation. This is a common problem across the developing world, and yet the developmental impacts of insufficient and unstable electricity...
Journal Article
The Lifespan Disparity DatasetMonitoring health is key for identifying priorities in public health planning and improving healthcare services. Life expectancy has conventionally been regarded as a valuable indicator to compare the health status of different populations. However...
Working Paper
The determinants of domestic savings in Cameroon: what role for institutions?Domestic resource mobilization has rightly been placed at the centre of the ‘financing for development’ agenda across developing countries. While much is known about the importance of domestic taxes in contributing to this agenda, little is known...
Working Paper
The experimented society: interventions, social science, and the failure of post-conflict reconstruction in AfghanistanThis paper critically examines the shortcomings of post-conflict reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021, arguing that an overemphasis on measurable results and causal inference led to overly narrow, community-driven development...
Blog
From UNU-WIDER to the world: Journeys in development economics![Placeholder](https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/styles/expert_45x45/public/Author%20photo/Anna-Toppari-2021.png?itok=4Qu36kAc)
‘What makes UNU-WIDER a unique place for researchers is the sense of community and the combination of academic rigor, policy relevance, and position...
Working Paper
Dancing on the grid: electricity crises, manufacturing energy vulnerability, and jobs in South AfricaSouth Africa’s current electricity crises have worsened, placing the country on an uncertain and turbulent economic trajectory.To identify the manufacturing sub-sectors that are most vulnerable to this crises, we use the input–output matrices for the...
Blog
Watts happening to work? The labour market effects of South Africa’s electricity crisisIn South Africa, the power grid undergoes rotational, scheduled outages—or rolling blackouts—most commonly referred to as load shedding. Load shedding...
Working Paper
Institutional change and persistenceThere is a broad agreement that political and economic institutions matter for long-term development. Yet relatively little is known as to how to adopt good quality institutions and reform weak or poor institutions, for which one needs to know how...
Blog
Mapping economic stability for countries in the Global South![Placeholder](https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/styles/expert_45x45/public/Richard%20Kima_image.png?itok=6e9hyVGS)
In 2024, central banks worldwide are confronted with the challenges of juggling inflation control, economic growth, and the preservation of financial...
Working Paper
Inequality and institutional outcomes in Viet NamBetter understanding of inequality, including its relationship to governance and other key outcomes, is relevant both to academic researchers and to policy-makers. Nevertheless, efforts to establish causal relationships empirically remain hampered by...
Blog
How to get back on track to ending poverty – the imperative for a livable planet![Placeholder](https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/styles/expert_45x45/public/Author%20photo/Luis%20Felipe%20Lopez%20Calva.jpg?itok=vpXqTK-K)
We are off track to end poverty. Despite remarkable progress over the past few decades, the goal of eradicating poverty remains elusive, and SDG1: End...
Working Paper
Addis deals: reckoning with the informal governance of urban structural transformationAfrican cities are increasingly seen as key to unlocking national structural transformation and inclusive growth, as they tend to host the majority of the non-productive and informal labour force; attract the lion’s share of domestic investment in...
Working Paper
Taxing top incomes in the emerging worldRising levels of income inequality and tight government budgets have spurred discussions in many developing nations about how to appropriately tax high-income earners. In this paper, we study taxpayer responses to an increase in the top marginal tax...
Working Paper
Emerging public debt challenges in sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa (SSA)’s public debt burden remains a challenge to development. Key drivers of public debt include large-scale financing of infrastructure development, adverse impact of multiple shocks including COVID-19 pandemic, maturity...
Working Paper
Microsimulation of tax-benefit systems in the Global South: a comparative assessmentThis paper analyses the effectiveness of tax-benefit systems in reducing poverty and inequality across 13 countries in the Global South. Using national survey data and tax-benefit microsimulation models from the SOUTHMOD project, we provide a cross...
Journal Article
Revisiting the trends in global inequalityThe study analyses trends in global income distribution since 1950 using a new companion WIID dataset with standardized country income percentiles. It investigate the robustness of these trends with respect to key data choices, as well as the degree...
Working Paper
Extractive industries: addressing transparency, corruption, and theftThis paper analyses the roles that states, civil society, and international actors can play in tackling the weak governance that sometimes leads to resources being used for private rather than public benefit. It discusses the corruption that bedevils...
Blog
Securing a future for the next generations – navigating today’s global challenges![Placeholder](https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/styles/expert_45x45/public/Author%20photo/Frederik%20Matthys.jpg?itok=glP6a_fc)
In an era frequently described as ‘unprecedented’, the global landscape often seems daunting. Countries classified as democracies are increasingly...
Blog
Uganda’s tax system isn’t bringing in enough revenue, but is targeting small business the answer?![Placeholder](https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/styles/expert_45x45/public/Maria_ID_website_2024_c4f32faf008295ea35d292b1e5325e4b.png?itok=LsPE3zMu)
Uganda, with a fiscal deficit of 5.6% in 2023, has increasingly turned to local resources to make up for its revenue shortfall since the World Bank...