Blog

We calculated a lockdown readiness index for Mozambique and the results don’t look good. If lockdown policies are needed to halt the spread of the...

Working Paper

The Bangladesh economy has undergone significant structural changes over the last four decades. The share of agriculture in GDP has declined, while the significance of industry and service sectors has increased. These structural changes have been...

• Bangladesh
• Structural transformation
• Inclusive growth

Working Paper

This paper estimates the distribution of personal wealth in South Africa by combining tax microdata, household surveys, and macroeconomic balance sheet statistics. We systematically compare estimates of the wealth distribution obtained by direct...

• Administrative data
• Households balance sheets
• income capitalization

Blog

The novel Covid-19 is affecting the advanced countries in the Western Hemisphere disproportionately more than developing countries. In this post, Basu...

• COVID-19
• Population

Working Paper

Inaccurate expectations of future wages are found in many contexts. Yet, existing studies overwhelmingly refer to high-income countries, and there is little evidence regarding the sources of expectational errors.Based on a longitudinal survey of...

• Job mismatch
• Mozambique
• Tracer study

Working Paper

Between 1981 and 2017, real gross domestic product in Thailand grew at an average annual rate of 5.7 per cent. Agricultural output grew more slowly than industry or services, and its gross domestic product share consequently declined. Industry’s...

• Inclusive growth
• Inequality
• Poverty reduction

Background Note

Several countries have enacted lockdown measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to protect their health systems and reduce the number of mortalities. One of the most extreme national lockdown measures has been taken by the government of India...

• COVID-19
• Pandemic
• Lockdown

Working Paper

This paper provides an overview of the energy transition in Asia. It sets out the underlying drivers and how these set energy transition priorities in China, India, and South East Asia. It particularly describes the role of (liquefied) natural gas in...

• Renewable resources
• Energy
• Energy utilities

Working Paper

Despite South Africa’s need for inclusive economic growth, we find that the income trajectories of the rich continue to diverge from the rest of the income distribution. We combine household survey data and tax data (which, unlike household survey...

• Top incomes
• Income distribution
• Tax data

Working Paper

Nowadays, tax depreciation allowances are used less as instruments of macroeconomic stabilization and more as long-term measures to stimulate investment. This paper tabulates the types of accelerated depreciation allowances in South Africa and...

• Tax depreciation allowances
• Tax investment allowances
• Tax expenditures

Blog

People who live through extreme events are, often deeply, altered by the experiences they have. Even when those experiences take place predominantly...

• COVID-19

Working Paper

This paper evaluates structural change, inequality dynamics, and industrial policy in South Africa between 1960 and the present day. We find that South Africa experienced growth-enhancing structural transformation until the early 1970s, before...

• Structural transformation
• Inclusive growth
• South Africa

Background Note

What has the government of South Africa done with respect to COVID-19 measures of mitigation and suppression? The first COVID-19 positive case was confirmed on 5 March 2020. Just ten days later, South Africa had 61 positive cases and President...

• COVID-19
• South Africa
• Government action

Blog

by Arkebe Oqubay April 2020

The response to Africa’s COVID-19 plight must be swift and at scale rather than too little, too late. In a world short of progressive global...

• COVID-19
• Pandemic
• Economic Policy and Good Governance

Working Paper

This paper presents new evidence on the employment effects of a large increase in agricultural minimum wages in South Africa using anonymized tax data. We add to the minimum wage literature by differentiating employment effects resulting from the...

• Minimum wage
• Employment effects
• Non-compliance

Blog

Millions of migrant workers around the world provide valuable income for their families and contribute more broadly to the economies of both their...

• COVID-19
• Migration
• Global health