This paper examines the impact of foreign aid on gender equality in education outcomes in developing countries. Heterogeneity effects by type of aid received and by type of recipients are investigated using system GMM methods. The results indicate...
During the 2000s, El Salvador experienced slow economic growth for Latin American standards. The country underwent a recession during the international crisis of 2008, but returned to pre-recession output level in 2011. Changes in labour market...
During the 2000s Honduras grew less than the average Latin American country and labour market indicators moved, in general, in a worsening direction. The only exceptions were the reduction in the unemployment rate and the improvements in the mix of...
During the 2000s Mexico grew less than the average for Latin America. Labour market indicators exhibited mixed changes, with improvements over the period for some of them and deterioration for others. The country was severely hurt by the...
Between 2000 and 2012, Panama boasted the strongest economic growth in Latin America. The growth experience was not uniform: the 2000–02 period was marked by slow or negative growth rates, after which growth was exceptionally rapid. Although the...
During the 2000s Paraguay experienced slow economic growth but improved all labour market indicators. The growth process was erratic. Paraguay underwent a macroeconomic crisis at the beginning of the period, a recession as a consequence of the...
What type of business destroys proportionately more jobs during times of economic recessions and hires more in booms? This simple question motivates...
We develop the climate finance-gender equity framework in this paper and use the ‘contextual-procedural-distributive’ equity as a lens of analysis to examine how climate finance helps challenge, and reinforce, gender inequities in the mitigation...
The paper attempts to examine the extent to which the ILO-supported projects have contributed to women’s economic empowerment and well-being i.e., from a gender perspective. The paper provides the ILO’s perspectives on gender dimensions of employment...
Growth and poverty reduction in Africa are weakly linked. This paper argues that the reason is that Africa has failed to create enough good jobs. Structural transformation―the relative growth of employment in high productivity sectors―has not...
The Peruvian economy performed exceptionally well between 2000 and 2012, with a growth performance that placed the country well above the regional average and an improvement in all labour market indicators. The economy suffered a slowdown as a...
This paper presents the case of World Bank support to the mass titling component of the Cambodia Land Management and Administration Project. This was a project for which there was clear national demand, as evidenced by the fact that the Cambodian...
Since the end of the civil war, the Government of Sierra Leone has made substantial progress in strengthening public financial management. Improvements have been achieved across all aspects of the budget cycle and are particularly notable with regard...
Much of UNU-WIDER’s research in the last few years was initiated under the 2010-13 work programme on the triple crisis of finance, food, and climate...
So we have reached April. The year is starting to move fast. I’m writing this from New York, having just participated in an event on the sustainable...
China’s importance as a major donor outside the traditional Western donors has been increasing and this has helped to bridge the funding gaps in developing countries. At the same time, South-South financial assistance still comes with less...
The Uruguayan story was one of declines in the early years of the 2000s in most indicators, followed by improvements in all of them. Economic growth was negative in the early years due to a severe economic crisis, positive and rapid thereafter except...
Venezuela experienced slow economic growth during the 2000s. The economy suffered a recession in the early years of the period and during the international crisis of 2008, but most labour market indicators improved and moved along with the business...
Estimating regional income inequality in Africa has been challenging due to the lack of reliable and consistent sub-national income data. I employ night lights data to circumvent this limitation. I find significant and positive associations between...
Estimating the impact of HIV/AIDS epidemic on economic growth is challenging because of endogeneity concerns. In this paper, we use novel data on male circumcision and distance from the first HIV outbreak as instrumental variables for the HIV/AIDS...
The incredibly low levels of learning and the generally dysfunctional public sector schooling systems in many (though not all) developing countries are the result of a capability trap (Pritchett et al. 2010). Two phenomena reinforce persistent...
This paper exploits five waves of the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey (VARHS) to investigate issues of social and political capital in rural Vietnam. I analyse membership of the Communist Party, ‘mass organizations’ (Farmers’ Union...
This paper uses five waves of the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey (VARHS) to analyse land issues in Vietnam from a number of different angles. The VARHS provides panel data at plot as well as household level and I use this rich data set...
Notwithstanding the unprecedented attention devoted to reducing poverty and fostering human development via scaling up social sector spending, there is surprisingly little rigorous empirical work on the question of whether social spending is...
This paper follows a quasi-experimental research design to assess the impact of the electronic payment system of Mexico’s Oportunidades programme. The switch from cash payments to electronic payments delivered via a bank account is found to have...
May is always a hopeful month. With 18 hours of daylight we are all perky—especially the seagulls who swarm around Helsinki harbour. Here at UNU-WIDER...
In this interview, Per Pinstrup-Andersen talks about the international project which has culminated in the book Food Price Policy in an Era of Market...
This paper provides an assessment of what aid has actually been doing in the area of environment in Tanzania through a critical review of the flows, modalities and management of aid. Focusing on the funding for environmental degradation projects, the...
Just over a year ago, in March 2014, UNU-WIDER published a report entitled: What do we know about aid as we approach 2015? It notes the many successes...
Identifying the poorest for selection into social transfer programmes is a major challenge facing programme implementers. An innovative cash transfer programme in northern Kenya trialed three targeting mechanisms to learn lessons about which approach...
And so we come to the summer Angle. We have just passed the longest day (midsummer) in Helsinki, with 19 or so hours of daylight. The seagulls nesting...
Aid’s future, its history, and its impact were the topics of a policy workshop held by UNU-WIDER in co-operation with the Embassy of Denmark in Dar es...
In the more than two decades since democratic elections signalled a new era in Mozambique, a great deal has been accomplished. Nearly all development...
The city of Medellín, Colombia was a cauldron of violence with 185 homicides per 100,000 people in 2002. By 2006, this rate had declined to 32.5. Such successful transformation was termed the ‘Medellín miracle’ and credited to policies of the city’s...
Does foreign aid promote aggregate economic growth? In contrast to widespread perceptions, academic studies of this question have been rapidly converging towards a positive answer. We employ a simulation approach to (i) validate the coherence of...
The coherence and effectiveness of engagement with the world’s ‘fragile and conflict-affected states’—beyond ethical imperatives and geo-strategic considerations—turns on answers to two vexing questions. First, on what defensible basis is any given...
School-feeding is an important intervention to attract children to school and augment their learning. The benefits of school-feeding cover several domains. Key to the overall assessment of these benefits is understanding how different implementation...
There has been a significant increase in funding for health programmes in development over the last two decades, partly due to the formation of public-private partnerships. This paper examines the impact of public-private partnerships from the...
A new methodology, Tracking Under-Reported Financial Flows (TUFF), allows us to systematically gather open-source information—e.g. news reports, case studies, project inventories from embassy websites, and grant and loan data published by recipient...
This study seeks to understand what aid flows have been doing to the environment in eight countries in Eastern, Western and Southern Africa. Total aid to these countries’ environmental sectors for the 2000s decade is about US$10.17 billion and...
This paper investigates the impact of foreign aid on economic growth in member countries of the Economic Community of West African States using panel data for 1990-2009 and a three equation simultaneous-equations model. The effect of foreign aid on...
The reduction in deaths from diarrheal diseases is one of the significant public health successes of the twentieth century. That said, the disease still accounts for a significant burden of childhood morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income...
This study combines household survey data from the Beninese Demographic and Health Survey with school supply statistics in order to investigate regional and gender disparities in primary school attendance rates in Benin. Despite almost unparalleled...
We study the exporting and subcontracting decisions, mark-ups, market concentration, and growth of a panel of Vietnamese private micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Our main findings are as follows. First, we find that among subcontractors...
This paper applies recent developments in collective model estimation to elicit the household resource sharing rule, i.e. the amount of household resources accruing to fathers, mothers, and their children among African families in South Africa. We...
This paper investigates progress in reducing the high level of racial stratification of occupations after apartheid in South Africa. Empirical analysis, using census microdata and Labour Force Surveys, does not provide strong evidence of sustained or...
We study the impact of electoral gender quotas in post-war Burundi and Rwanda on women’s political representation. First, we look at descriptive representation by studying the number of female representatives and the prestige of their positions in...
The taxation of the mining industry varies considerably from nation to nation. This paper reflects on the evolving use of various taxation approaches applied by governments to the mining sector. It includes a description of the principal tax types...
Governments can play great roles in their countries, regions, and cities; facilitating or leading the resolution of festering problems and opening new pathways for progress. Examples are more numerous than one might imagine and raise an important...
Average adult height is a physical measure of the biological standard of living of a population. While the biological and economic standards of living of a population are very different concepts, they are linked and may empirically move together. If...
Sharing similar colonial and post-independence civil war experiences, Mozambique and Angola’s development paths are often contrasted, with foreign aid-dependent Mozambique hailed a success compared to oil rentier Angola. This paper questions the so...
The rights-based approach to development targets progress towards the realization of 30 articles set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Progress is frequently measured using the multidimensional poverty index. While elegant and...
Since 2001 international attention has focused on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and specifically on the question of whether external intervention can assist weak or fragile states in successfully making the transition to stable democracies...
‘Leadership’ is not a common topic for research in international development. In recent years, however, prominent studies like the 2008 Growth Commission Report noted the importance of leadership in development. This and other studies focused on...
This study addresses the macroeconomic effect of foreign aid on the factors of growth. Specifically, we examine the effects of foreign aid on capital investment (human capital, physical capital) in sub-Saharan Africa. Our methodological approach...
Botswana’s welfare state is both a parsimonious laggard in comparison with some other middle-income countries in Africa (such as Mauritius and South Africa) and extensive (in comparison with its low-income neighbours to the north and east). Coverage...
Since civil war and genocide left the country in ruins, Rwanda has undergone a remarkable transformation. Growth rates since 1995 have averaged 8 per cent annually, poverty rates have fallen, maternal and child health have improved, and...
Commodity price shocks are an important type of external shock and are often cited as a problem for economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper quantifies the impact of agricultural commodity price shocks using a near vector autoregressive...
This paper introduces a concept of inequality comparisons with ordinal bivariate categorical data. In our model, one population is more unequal than another when they have common arithmetic median outcomes and the first can be obtained from the...
This paper evaluates the impact of Chinese import penetration on the innovation of Vietnamese manufacturing firms from 2011 to 2015, exploiting variations in import exposure by industry specialization and instrumenting for Chinese import penetration...
Pursuit of the triple bottom line of economic, community and ecological sustainability has increased the complexity of fishery management; fisheries assessments require new types of data and analysis to guide science-based policy in addition to...
This paper discusses the channels of impact of an extractives activity on an economy by presenting a brief description supported by graphics of the different routes through which the direct economic and social impacts of these activities might be...
by
Channing Arndt, Karl Pauw, James Thurlow
September 2015
Malawi’s farm input subsidy benefits the poor and can be part of a viable national development strategy. Agriculture is Malawi’s main economic sector...
Efforts to tackle discrimination in access to basic services have shown mixed results in different country settings. This study examines the positive and negative outcomes attributed to anti-discrimination measures adopted in different country...
The Southern African region, from a purely biophysical perspective, has huge potential for biofuel production, especially in Mozambique and Zambia. Although many of the soils are sandy and acidic, with careful management and correct fertilization...
This paper analyses the differentials of productive values in Vietnamese micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and how market constraints have hindered their performance. Quantitative analyses suggest substantial differences in value addition...
This article is part of UNU’s “17 Days, 17 Goals” series, featuring research and commentary in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development...
The celebration of the 30th Anniversary of UNU-WIDER presented the ideal opportunity to look back, take stock, and plan ahead. Where else can a group...
The article explores the various co-ordination mechanisms between the state and the business community in Ghana, and the implications for economic growth in the country. We focus on three periods in the economic history of state–business relations...
This paper investigates the expenditure patterns of South African households using detailed cross-sectional expenditure and price data. Linear expenditure system (LES) parameter estimates are used to calculate income and price elasticities for a...
UNU-WIDER had a busy September. We celebrated our 30th birthday with some 600 people at our three-day conference on ‘Mapping the Future of Development...
Foreign aid can contribute to sustainable forestry in many ways. The goal is to secure forest benefits of the future, without compromising the needs of the present generations. This paper elaborates on forestry aid as it has evolved in the past...
This paper uses normalized constant elasticity of substitution production functions to estimate the elasticity of substitution and labour-augmenting technical change in South Africa over the period 1994-2012. We find elasticities of 0.6-0.9 and...
National oil companies tend to elicit unequivocal views. To political leaders within petroleum-producing countries, they often represent a sine qua non of a strategy capable of delivering long-term benefits to citizens. To many international analysts...
The mobile money transfer industry has been the most successful information and communications technology-enabled service in Kenya, having recorded an exponential growth relative to its neighbours within the East Africa region. This could be...
This paper assesses biofuels technology readiness and provides foresight to biofuels development in Southern Africa. Efficient conversion pathways, coupled with biomass from waste or high-yielding energy crops, reduces both the costs of biofuels...
Since 2000, Zimbabwe has been under some pressure to provide more fully for its children. It is not clear whether child poverty has worsened, although AIDS, drought, and economic mismanagement have all compromised poverty reduction. In any case...
We extend the conventional framework for measuring segregation to consider stratification of occupations by gender, i.e. when women or men are predominantly segregated into low-paying jobs. For this, we propose to use concentration curves and indices...
Energy is linked to most of the major global challenges of the twenty-first century. Poverty eradication, climate change, ecosystem management, world health and security are all influenced by energy, its availability, cost, emissions and other...
This Special Issue brings together five articles that tackle the questions of how and where foreign aid donors might usefully support a more inclusive or job-friendly pattern of economic growth in the African region. Arguably, support to growth...
After receiving at least US$20 billion in aid for reconstruction and development over the past 60 years, Haiti has been and remains a fragile state, one of the worse globally. The reasons for aid failure are legion but mostly relate to highly...
This paper primarily focuses on how global funding has supported interventions that have proven to be successful in reducing maternal, newborn, and child mortality around the world. The growth rate of development assistance targeted towards these...
The sub-Saharan Africa region recorded the fastest conversion of forest land to agriculture in the past 20 years. The region also has the widest yield gap and together with Latin America and Caribbean has the largest unused arable land. However...
This paper employs a cointegrated vector autoregressive model to assess the growth effect of aid in Uganda over the period 1972-2008. Results show that aid in Uganda has had both direct and indirect beneficial association with growth; that it is the...
We design an experiment to examine whether egalitarian preferences, and in particular, behindness aversion as well as preference for favourable inequality affect competitive choices differently among males and females. We find that selection into...
With the second largest indigenous population by percentage in Latin America, Guatemala is an important case for understanding horizontal inequality and indigenous politics. This paper presents new analysis of survey data, allowing for consideration...
This is a pioneer study investigating the relationship between environmental compliance and TFP convergence for SMEs. It examines the impacts of environmental compliance, and its combination with innovation, on TFP convergence of manufacturing SMEs...
This paper looks at the spillover effects of grants under the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP) on human capital investments in conflict-affected Northern Uganda. The YOP grant was primarily aimed at providing start-up money to groups of...
We exploit the variation in the admissions process across colleges of a leading Indian university to estimate the causal effects of enrolling in a selective college on: cognitive attainment using scores on standardized university exams; behavioural...
Recent developments in policy initiatives as well as some current practical events have combined to put the spotlight on the issue of industrial embeddedness in sub-Saharan Africa. Though extant research documents some stylized facts, as determinants...
This paper reviews the innovative capabilities and absorptive capacities of African countries, and investigates whether they have played significant roles in the region’s slow and episodic economic growth. Results from cross-country regressions...
This chapter revisits the link between exchange rate regimes and trade in the context of Africa’s exchange rate arrangements. Applying an augmented gravity model that includes measures of currency unions and pegged regimes, the paper compares Africa...
Preventable and treatable childhood diseases, notably acute respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases are the first and second leading causes of death and morbidity among young children in developing countries. The fact that a large proportion...
This chapter examines the link between health indicators, environmental variables, and economic development, and the consequences of this relationship on economic convergence. In the early stage of economic development, the gain from income growth...
Purposeful, well-targeted and successful transformation policies will be elusive for a country or region that does not understand the relative importance of its sectoral sources of growth. This study aims at eliciting our understanding in this...
Using a panel vector autoregressive model this paper investigates the dynamic and endogeneous contribution of tourism to output based on a sample of 40 African countries for the period 1990–2006. Results from the study confirm tourism to be an...
This chapter examines the country-level dynamics of long-run growth in Africa between 1975 and 2005. We are primarily interested in examining how growth has affected mobility and the distribution of income among countries. We analyse changes in the...
The telecommunications sector in Africa presents many exciting prospects to international investors—indeed many billion dollar projects are already underway across the continent. Many of the continent’s current problems can be traced to the...
This study revisits the effect of aid on the quality of institutions and examines the effects of a major source of instability, namely terms-of-trade instability, on the quality of democracy. We take advantage of previous empirical findings which...
In May 2008, South Africa became the theatre of widespread violent attacks against undesirable ‘outsiders’. Over 60 were killed, hundreds wounded, and tens of thousands displaced. This analysis aims at identifying the characteristics of the victims...
This paper investigates some of the existing hypotheses regarding the transmission of different colonial legacies to modern day economic growth. The fact that different colonial strategies were pursued by different colonizers in various territories...
The aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of institutional reforms on the revival of African economies. We study the impact of positive changes in business environment indicators of the Doing Business project and the Economic Freedom Index of...
While developing countries have made some progress in achieving human development since the turn of the century, many are still lagging behind in important human development goals such as education, health, nutrition and access to clean drinking...
This paper investigates whether cyclical variation in women’s labour supply in Africa contributes to smoothing household consumption. We find little support for this hypothesis. Using comparable individual data on about 0.5 million women in 30 Sub...
The Herzer et al. (2014) comment on our article (Lof et al., 2014) addresses two issues. First, they propose various ways to circumvent our concerns regarding data handling in a paper by Nowak-Lehmann et al. (2012). We point out that under these new...
The fundamental problem of external validity is not to generalize from one experiment, so much as to experimentally test generalizable theories. That is, theories that explain the systematic variation of causal effects across contexts. Here we show...
In recent years, randomized controlled trials have become increasingly popular in the social sciences. In development economics in particular, their use has attracted considerable debate in relation to the identification of ‘what works’ in...
This paper confirms recent evidence of a positive impact of aid on growth and widens the scope of evaluation to a range of outcomes including proximate sources of growth (e.g., physical and human capital), indicators of social welfare (e.g., poverty...
Financing and the role of aid within the water sector are poorly understood. We estimate the levels of spending achieved in developing countries during the Millennium Development Goals period to be US$80 billion per year. Aid represented a...
Forty billion dollars of official development assistance during 1991-2012 reduced Ethiopian absolute poverty while underwriting more efficient but exclusionary public institutions. This aid-institutions paradox reflects a strong interest-alignment...
There has long been an emphasis on the importance of decentralization in providing better quality public services in the developing world. In order to assess the effectiveness of decentralization I examine here the case study of Uganda, which has...
Aid co-ordination is a constant theme of discussion among national and international aid agencies in their search for more effectiveness and efficiency in delivering development assistance. This paper seeks to clarify some of the arguments currently...
This paper examines Bosnia with some comparative insights from Northern Ireland. Both places were extremely fragile in the immediate aftermath of their brokered peace negotiations and consociational institutions, in Bosnia in 1995 and Northern...
Recent years have seen a proliferation of ‘composite indicators’ or ‘indexes’ of governance. Such measures can be useful tools for analysing governance, making public policy, building scientific knowledge, and even influencing ruling elites, but some...
The paper examines the role of foreign aid in building capacity to address climate change. While the experience with this topic is relatively recent and not yet extensive, analogous questions have arisen in many other areas of foreign aid. It is...
We develop a poverty decomposition method that is based on a consumption regression model. Because this method uses an integral of the partial derivatives of a poverty measure with respect to time, the resulting poverty decomposition satisfies time...
South Korea has gained economic development despite the obstacles it faced as a war-torn country with little natural resources and capital. Poverty, lack of democracy, as well as war and conflict were challenges the country faced in the early 1960s...
Donors of foreign aid increasingly claim to consider gender inequality in the recipient countries to be a serious concern. While aid specifically to promote gender equality receives only a tiny share of aid budgets, allocations to education, health...
‘Ancillary experiments’ are a new technique whereby researchers use a completed experiment conducted by others to recover causal estimates of a randomized intervention on new outcomes. The method requires pairing new outcome data with randomized...
This paper attempts, first, to assess foreign aid effectiveness in fostering green city procedures in developing countries. For this purpose, we rely on the following aid effectiveness criteria: national ownership; harmonization; alignment and mutual...
The objective of this paper is to estimate transformation and Armington substitution elasticities for South African trade. We use linear methods to estimate elasticities without growth factors. We then employ a non-linear system of equations to...
Can democracy be taught? Are individuals more likely to embrace democratic values, to learn basic knowledge about political processes, and to engage the political process more effectively as a result of their exposure to donor-sponsored civic...
This paper compares the use of Challenge Funds by the UK’s Department for International Development and Sweden’s International Development Agency to address gender challenges in development. Challenges Funds are meant to bring the interests of...
This paper investigates the determinants of inclusive growth with a focus on foreign aid. Based on the Solow growth model, a theoretical model has been developed which shows that foreign aid can stimulate inclusive growth if it is effectively used...
Water and sanitation sectors have been the ‘natural’ subjects of aid for several decades. However, these sectors also were among those most affected by changes in aid approaches and tools. The aim of this paper is to capture some of the complexity in...
An important part of ReCom–Research and Communication on Foreign Aid (2011-13) is to get ‘the message’ from the research programme across so that the...
The world is a complex place where risk and uncertainty are an everyday challenge. Decision makers at all levels say they are drowning in information...
Forest loss and degradation remains a leading environmental problem. The long history of sustainable forest management has often failed to meet expectations—constrained by funding, governance, capacity and competing interests. Initiatives from the...
The ReCom team had some busy weeks before the meeting on aid and the social sectors in Stockholm on 13 March 2013. More than 150 people gathered for...
Civil service reform is one of the most persistent subjects of public debate no matter where in the world one turns. In Nigeria British aid money is...
There is a growing interest in the debate on aid effectiveness for assessing the impact of aid not only on economic growth and poverty reduction, but also on intermediate outcomes such as health and education. This paper reviews evidence from recent...
With Africa’s increasing urbanization, governments and local authorities - supported by donors - are under pressure to provide better urban services...
How to rebuild and reconcile countries torn by war has been a dominant theme in the global debate for half a century or more. The number of conflicts...
Exciting research about the impact of aid on different sectors continues steadily from the ReCom project. This newsletter is an effort to present the...
Raising schooling quality in low-income countries is a pressing challenge. Substantial research has considered the impact of cutting class sizes on skills acquisition. Considerably less attention has been given to the extent to which peer effects...
Rwanda and Burundi have both emerged from civil wars over the past 20 years and foreign donors have provided significant contributions to post-conflict reconstruction and development in the two countries. Yet although Rwanda and Burundi share several...
Despite impressive economic growth rates over the last decade, foreign aid still plays a significant role in Africa's political economies.This book asks when, why, and how foreign aid has facilitated, or hindered, democratization in sub-Saharan...
We conduct an incentive-theoretical analysis of political economy considerations in the design of social protection programmes in developing countries to accompany economic reforms. We focus on two aspects of social protection—the provision of...
The prescription of optimally managing natural resource revenue windfalls by smoothing consumption across generations using an intergenerational sovereign wealth fund that only invests in foreign assets is not appropriate for resource-rich developing...
Efficient transport links are critical to enhancing the integration of markets in Southern Africa. This paper assesses the structure of markets, competition, and prices and costs of road transportation between urban hubs in Malawi, Mozambique, South...
Controversy over the aggregate impact of foreign aid has focused on reduced form estimates of the aid-growth link. The causal chain, through which aid affects developmental outcomes including growth, has received much less attention. We address this...
For more than two decades, addressing constraints to better governance in developing countries has been a priority issue for the international donor community. Recent changes to aid modalities have further prioritized the need for improving...
The micro-macro paradox has been revived. Despite broadly positive evaluations at the micro- and meso-levels, recent literature doubts the ability of foreign aid to foster economic growth and development. This paper assesses the aid-growth literature...
This special issue comprises UNU-WIDER research focusing on key governance challenges related to addressing gaps in urban service delivery in sub-Saharan Africa. First, due to decentralisation policies in much of Africa, the provision of services is...
Many public sector reforms in developing countries fail to make governments more functional. This is typically because reforms introduce new solutions that do not fit the contexts in which they are being placed. This situation reflects what has...
The micro-macro paradox has been revived. Despite broadly positive evaluations at the micro and meso-levels, recent literature doubts the ability of foreign aid to foster economic growth and development. This paper assesses the aid-growth literature...
Argentina experienced a decline in the early years of the 2000s, from 2000 to 2002, in GDP and in most labour market indicators, followed by improvements in nearly all of them, tracing out a U-shaped pattern. The international crisis of 2008 impacted...
Revisiting foundational feminist work on the concept of empowerment from the 1980s and 1990s, this paper draws on the findings of a multi-country research programme, ‘Pathways of Women’s Empowerment’, to explore pathways of positive change in women’s...
During the 2000s Bolivia experienced moderate economic growth and improved all labour market indicators. The economy suffered a slowdown as a consequence of the international crisis of 2008, but Bolivia sustained positive growth rates during that...
During the 2000s, Brazil experienced slow economic growth and a substantial improvement in labour market indicators. From 2001 to 2012, Brazil grew less than the Latin American average. However, the unemployment rate decreased, the employment...
During the 2000s Chile achieved rapid economic growth and improved most labour market indicators: the unemployment rate fell; the mix of employment by occupational position and sector improved; the educational level of the employed population, the...
Between 2000 and 2013, Colombia experienced rapid economic growth. The country suffered a slowdown at the beginning of the period and during the international crisis of 2008, but during both slowdowns, the growth rate never turned negative. Most...
In the 2000s, Costa Rica experienced moderate economic growth and a general improvement in labour market conditions. From 2000 to 2012, Costa Rica grew at the Latin American average. Most labour market indicators improved during 2001–09 and 2010–12...
The authors comprehensively analyse the long-run effect of foreign aid (ODA) on key macroeconomic variables in 36 sub-Saharan African countries from the mid-1960s to 2007, using a well-specified co-integrated VAR model as statistical benchmark...
During the 2000s, the Dominican Republic experienced above-average economic growth along with mixed results in labour market indicators. GDP per capita stagnated through 2004 and, for the most part, grew rapidly from 2005 through 2012. Comparing 2000...
February found UNU-WIDER busy sending out Calls for Papers on topics ranging from social protection to clean energy to discrimination and affirmative...
In this interview C. Peter Timmer, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, reflects on the conditions of possibility of structural transformation in...
Ecuador experienced moderate economic growth during the 2000s. The economy suffered a mild recession during the international crisis of 2008, but returned to pre-recession GDP per capita level in 2010. Most labour market indicators improved over the...
Very little is known about the extent to which wage and employment offsetting behaviours change by firm size to mitigate the detrimental effects of minimum wage regulation. Do micro establishments react more aggressively to minimum wage shocks...
In order to correct for the initial gender blindness of the Paris Declaration and related aid modalities as general and sector budget support, it has been proposed to integrate a gender dimension into budget support entry points. This paper studies...
The story of the event as told by Twitter. [<a href="//storify.com/UNUWIDER/aid-for-gender-equality-16-december-copenhagen-den" target="_blank">View...
The story of the event as told by Twitter. [<a href="//storify.com/UNUWIDER/recom-results-meeting-aid-and-our-changing-environ" target="_blank">View...
This paper synthesizes statistical information evidencing the proposition that extractive industries are of great significance in many low- and middle-income developing economies. It examines the scale of the current dependence of low- and middle...
The fisheries sector in sub-Saharan Africa has benefited from high and increasing amounts of foreign aid for over four decades. In the 1990s when evidence emerged that most stocks were overcapitalized and overfished, the effectiveness of fisheries...
Local content policies in the context of extractive industries have attracted increased interest in recent years. Most countries with a significant extractive industry have included local content requirements either in their legislation or...
This paper highlights the key strategies, both regional and domestic, that have led to the current structure of the poultry value chain in Southern Africa. While large firm strategies in poultry have been found to be regional in nature, and important...
Competitive elections in many parts of Africa generate powerful incentives to presidential candidates (and to a lesser extent political parties) to brand themselves in ways that transcend regional or ethnic loyalties. In Malawi, Joyce Banda—President...
The World Bank’s health sector projects in Timor-Leste—the Health Sector Rehabilitation and Development Project and the Second Health Sector Rehabilitation and Development Project—have been among the few successful operations it has funded in that...
In this paper, we address the question of whether official development assistance promotes gender equality in the Middle East and North Africa region by examining the effects of aid to Women’s Equality Organizations and Institutions on women’s...
Southern African countries’ interest in biofuel is due of its rural development potential. Finding models to optimize this benefit is therefore paramount. High-energy-density crops with low perishability allow farmers to grow small quantities on...
Whereas most research into microfinance tends to focus on the impact of access to such services, very little pays attention to what happens over time once a person becomes a client. The paper aims at analysing the conditions of loan renewals as most...
A large mining project has the potential to be a partner in assisting local communities in their development efforts. Communities located in close proximity to a large mine have every right to expect that the project will benefit their community...
This paper reviews integration among the eight African Regional Economic Communities by comparing their characteristics and progress with three other South–South Regional Integration Arrangements. Three conclusions emerge: (i) slow progress towards...
In a recent article, Nowak-Lehmann, Dreher, Herzer, Klasen, and Martínez-Zarzoso (2012) (henceforth NDHKM) conclude that foreign aid has not had a significant effect on income, based on evidence from panel data potentially covering 131 countries over...
The aim of this paper is to explain the divergent developmental outcomes between South Korea, Taiwan, and South Vietnam. Whilst US aid has correctly been cited as key factor in explaining the rapid post-war development of South Korea and Taiwan, the...
The last decade has witnessed an increase in the interest in agricultural land in developing countries. While a great deal of attention has been paid to understanding the impacts of this increased interest in agricultural land, very little is known...
This special issue introduction provides a historical perspective in order to contextualize the political economy of Africa’s emergent middle class. In doing so, three overarching research questions are discussed to better understand the middle class...
The Yemen Social Fund for Development (SFD) was established in 1997 with the support of the international community, and in particular the World Bank, to combat national poverty and reinforce the limited existing social safety net. Since its...
Silence reigns in the office these days. Doors are closed, discussions are short, and faces look strained. The reason is that we are in the process of...
This paper analyses the distribution of total aid and aid to the social sectors between 2009 and 2011. Its key findings are four-fold. First, despite the stated objectives of donors, total aid disbursements are broadly neutral, favouring neither the...
This special issue has its origins in work conducted under the Governance and Fragility theme of UNU-WIDER’s ReCom - Research and Communication on Foreign Aid programme (2011–13), and particularly the work on ‘Aid and Institution-building in Fragile...
Although agriculture is important for the livelihood of most Africans, especially the poor, donors did not accord it a high priority. Both volume and share of aid earmarked for agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa not only remained low, around five per...
Over the last decade there has been increasing demand to make research more useful and applicable for policy-making. And that is also very true within...
One of the more difficult issues aid organizations are facing is how to plan and conduct interventions in fragile situations where armed conflict is...
This paper investigates the role of non-traditional aid in meeting global challenges in improving gender equality and gender-related socioeconomic needs in the twenty-first century. We define non-traditional aid as private donations from individuals...
Since the 1990s, gender mainstreaming has been a widely accepted strategy for promoting gender equality within governments, multilateral agencies, and development NGOs, although critics continue to question its premises and results. This paper...
This paper discusses shifts in development assistance for health (DAH) since 1990, analyses the nature of the current distribution of funding, and considers future implications. Based on Jamison et al. (1998) and Frenk and Moon (2013), we introduce...
Agriculture plays an important role in terms of employment and its contribution to gross domestic product in many African countries. Thus, any policy initiative targeted towards poverty reduction in Africa should consider the agricultural sector as...
We investigate allocations of foreign aid by donors to the environment sector in Kenya covering the period 2001-12. Our data are largely obtained from official government and global aid databases complemented with donor interviews. We find that donor...
The paper reviews the dynamics of the financing based its analysis on the rich dataset of AidData ranging over 1993-2010, with around 9,077 observations on projects funded in Senegal by various multilateral as well as bilateral donors. The study...
The main objective of the paper is to determine the actual aid flows that have an environmental focus in Burkina Faso. The environment literature highlights important environment issues in air, land and water, including deforestation, desertification...
Why are some countries more successful at carrying out post-conflict reconstruction programmes than others? Why has Sierra Leone been more successful in the reform of its armed forces than Liberia has after the end of the Mano River Basin wars? This...
This paper analyses the role of foreign aid to assist development in two oil-rich countries: Indonesia and Nigeria. This paper seeks to understand the way foreign aid provided assistance to transform Indonesia from a ‘fragile’ state in the 1960s into...
This paper investigates how a development intervention which targets extremely poor households with investment capital influences relationships between those households and the landowning elite. It places this investigation in the context of the...
Agriculture is a main contributor to pro-poor growth in Africa, but gender inequalities in the sector hold back agricultural growth and affect household welfare negatively. The sector has been characterized by a lack of gender-disaggregated data and...
REDD+, when it officially became part of the international climate agenda in 2007, was an idea about payment to countries and projects for reducing emission from forests, with funding primarily from carbon markets. REDD+ has since become multi...
Botswana has serious environmental problems which, if not addressed, will undermine the attainment of sustainable economic development. This study attempts to determine what aid flows have actually been doing with regard to the environment in...
Institution-building in Somalia has met with high levels of failure for two decades. But successes have occurred in other Somali-inhabited regions of the eastern Horn, and have been especially present at the local and municipal level. The most...
Commodity price shocks are an important type of external shock and are often cited as a problem for economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. We choose nine Sub-Saharan African countries that are heavily dependent on a single agricultural commodity for...
During Sudan’s ‘interim period’ from the end of civil war in January 2005 until South Sudan’s independence in July 2011, foreign development agencies provided extensive support and billions of dollars in aid—for which institutional development and...
The mixed record on the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets and the focus on global public goods in post-MDG debates questions the future of traditional development co-operation (official development assistance, ODA). Meanwhile...
The ReCom—Research and Communication on Foreign Aid—programme produced 240 original studies. Some 300 researchers from 60 countries came together and provided evidence on what does and could work in development, and what can be transferred and scaled...
This paper seeks to (i) establish the areas in which aid from the major donors is concentrated; (ii) examine how aid has been allocated to the environmental sectors, and (iii) review the factors behind the success of environmental projects. Using...
The aid-growth literature has been explored using a wide range of econometric methodologies. The evidence of the effectiveness of aid to promote economic growth is mixed, suggesting that the link between aid and growth is complex and may not be well...
This article explores whether legal empowerment can address horizontal inequalities in post-conflict settings, and if so, how. It argues that legal empowerment has modest potential to reduce these inequalities but that there are risks of...
The paper examines why the efforts to promote gender justice by development aid have not succeeded in dealing with deeply-rooted structural injustices which prevent the realization of social justice and gender equality. The study analyses the...
The need for energy security and climate change mitigation have increased blending mandates worldwide; in Southern Africa, demand for biofuels could increase following South Africa’s planned blending mandates. However, land constraints limit local...
Expansion of biofuels production and consumption at the regional and national levels relies on both supportive energy prices and policy interventions. Despite enthusiasm for policy interventions to stimulate biofuel production in Southern African...
Rapid urbanization and rising income levels in Southern Africa have increased the consumption of perishable and processed food products. This paper relies primarily on firm-level interview data to assess competition and bottlenecks in transporting...
The aid allocation literature has neglected gender-specific needs for aid. We assess the hypothesis that gender inequality in education is more likely to affect the aid allocation of donor countries with female leadership in the relevant ministry. We...
Civil society organizations have played various roles in promoting the capture of benefits from and protection against the negative impacts of extractive industries. Payment disclosure is one potentially powerful tool for such organizations to...
Bangladesh and Pakistan had very divergent experiences with aid after 1971. Politics in Pakistan was less inclusive in terms of opportunities for intermediate class political entrepreneurs. In this context, the significant role of military aid to...
Improving the position of women continues to be an important concern in development. As we strive to make better living standards possible for people...
Public sector reforms are commonplace in developing countries. Much of the literature about these reforms reflects on their failures. This paper asks about the successes and investigates which of two competing theories best explain why some reforms...
Under-nutrition is the single biggest cause of the global burden of disease, and many of those affected are children. Early childhood under-nutrition has severe consequences; it accounts for more than 35 per cent of deaths and another 35 per cent of...
This paper describes the results of an impact evaluation of the National Solidarity Programme, a community-driven development programme in Afghanistan that created democratic village councils and funded small-scale development projects. Using a...
It is a widely accept projection that many low income countries (LICs) will remain low income for some time to come. Consequently, when assessing the policy options available to LICs it is important to take a long-term view. In the WIDER Working...
In this paper we update previous work that categorizes foreign aid projects in terms of their likely impact on the natural environment. We then document trends in the global distribution of environmental aid over time and show that environmental aid...
In this paper we discuss aid and the environment in Ghana. Our analysis indicates that expenditure by the government of Ghana has increased consistently since 2000, with seven sectors weakly linked to the environment taking about 78.9 per cent of all...
The Mexico City Policy (MCP) prohibits the United States Agency for International Development from providing aid to international non-governmental organizations that provide abortion-related services. This paper employs a panel data of 151 developing...
Facilitadores Judiciales is a programme run by the Organization of the American States and the Nicaraguan judiciary. The main objective of the programme is to improve access to justice for the disadvantaged people in Nicaragua. From 1998 to 2010 the...
The World Bank is uniquely positioned to identify and disseminate innovative development practices. Based on his thirty-year experience as a World Bank staff member, the author takes an institutional perspective on the innovation climate at the World...
The purpose of this paper is to capture the impact of foreign capital inflows (which include foreign aid and foreign direct investment) on economic growth in Cameroon. Using the autoregressive distributive lag approach to cointegration and time...
The foreign aid landscape has undergone a paradigm shift in the last few decades, with changes in the behaviour of ‘traditional’ donors and a new focus on selectivity in aid disbursement, as well as ‘new’ donors and South-South co-operation playing...
In recognizing that women’s participation and gender equity is a precondition for the achievement of acceptable development outcomes, extractives industry companies are increasingly making public commitments to integrating gender equality, inclusion...
Given likely increases in biofuel demand across Southern Africa, we identify suitable production models in Zambia for the Southern African market. This is crucial given, on the one hand, the problems of contract failure and transaction costs that...
Historically, Chile has been an economy dominated by mineral and agro-industrial products and subject to frequent external shocks particularly in copper prices. Since the 1980s, the authorities have developed various mechanisms to cope with these...
After its 14-year civil war, Liberia worked with multiple donors and partners to restore security. This paper explores the Liberia National Police’s innovative efforts to create a more gender-sensitive police service and describes the international...
The prevailing aid orthodoxy works well enough in stable environments, but is ill-equipped to navigate contexts of volatility and fragility. The orthodox approach is adept at solving straightforward technical or logistical problems (paving roads...
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Governments play a major role in the...
This paper investigates the impact of social transfer programmes on school enrollment and child labour in Malawi utilizing a micro-simulation evaluation method. Four hypothetical cash transfer programmes, differentiated in terms of their conditions...
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Much of the information relevant...
The failure of the Somali state from 1993 to 2012 represents one of the world’s most profound and prolonged cases of state collapse. Initially, education and other government services came to a standstill. With the halt of fighting in some areas...
This paper provides an overview of the characteristics of migrant households and analyses the effects of migration in Vietnam, on the basis of the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey conducted in 2012 and 2014. The data reveal significant...
We examine aid-induced Dutch Disease—after controlling for the effects of remittances and FDI flows—in the context of two North African countries, Morocco and Tunisia. We do so by performing a multivariate time series analysis of aggregated annual...
South Africa has some of the highest rates of joblessness in the world and youth unemployment is particularly severe. Roughly two in five young South...
The vast majority of households in rural Vietnam undertake agricultural activities and for many this is their main livelihood. Moreover, this agriculture has become increasingly commercialized over time. This paper uses the five wave VARHS balanced...
This study investigates the ethnic disadvantage in rural Vietnam, focusing on the magnitude of the majority–minority gap and the constraints on ethnic minority households that contribute to the gap. Using a biannual panel dataset spanning the period...
Effective state-business relations (SBRs) have been lacking in industrial policy thinking despite the strong theoretical case for SBRs. The empirical study of state-business relations in developing countries has emerged only recently, with notable...
This paper contributes to the debate on aid effectiveness by looking at the ‘how’ of aid effectiveness. In other words it provides an assessment of whether aid only filled a financing gap or whether it, in addition, helped influence the political...
Introduction Across the globe, today’s youth are often paradoxically considered both ‘agents of change’ who are driven by their aspirations for a better life and ‘a lost gen-eration’ who are trapped by their economic vulnerability. Nowhere is this...
A recent study of 36 sub-Saharan African countries found a positive impact of aid in the absolute majority of these countries. However, for Tanzania and Ghana, two major aid recipients, aid did not seem to have been equally beneficial. This paper...
This study develops a scenario-based model to assess the current and future trends in energy demand in Africa and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Future energy demand is forecast on the basis of socio-economic variables such as gross domestic...
There are now a range of estimates of the global scale of tax avoidance. These include: the $600 billion annual tax loss estimated by IMF researchers...
A dynamic relationship between foreign aid and domestic fiscal variables in Uganda is analysed using a cointegrated vector autoregressive model over the period 1972-2008. Results show that aid is a significant element of long-run fiscal equilibrium...
World biofuel production has been increasing to improve energy security and mitigate global warming. Southern Africa’s bioenergy demand could increase with South Africa’s planned fuel blending mandates, triggering increased demand for feedstocks and...
We study the association between the gender of the highest-ranking manager (the CEO) and gender differences in employees’ outcomes using detailed linked employer–employee data from the formal sector in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal. Our...
This paper investigates the impact of migration of male household heads on the autonomy of their spouses. Using panel household survey data from Ethiopia, the methodology mainly relies on an instrumental variables approach that addresses the...
In this paper, we examine the impact of soil conservation adoption on gender-specific resource allocations within households in Zambia. The extension of funding of conservation farming (CF) training sessions in 2007 in specific districts in Zambia...
Rising standards for accurately inferring the impact of development projects has not been matched by equivalently rigorous procedures for guiding decisions about whether and how similar results might be expected elsewhere. These ‘external validity’...
This paper examines whether the presence of refugees alters the intra-household allocation of tasks across genders in the hosting population. Using panel data (pre- and post-refugee inflow) from Kagera, a rural region of Tanzania, we find that the...
This paper brings labour back into the literature on legal empowerment against poverty. Employing a historical lens, I outline three waves of legal movements. Each wave is distinguished by its timing, the state-level target, and the actors involved...
The last two decades have seen rapid economic growth in Zambia and the proliferation of foreign supermarket chain stores. However, this growth has translated into neither significant job creation nor significant poverty reduction. Furthermore, while...
Rapid population growth, urbanization, and income growth are triggering increased demand for high-value agricultural products across Southern Africa with scope for gains from trade and regional integration. We analyse the animal feed to poultry value...
There is scant analysis on the causal relationship between fiscal capacity and social protection expenditure in the developing world. We investigate the causal relationship between fiscal capacity of the state and social protection expenditure...
Across the world, people in urban rather than rural areas are more likely to support gender equality. To explain this global trend, this paper engages with geographically diverse literature and comparative rural–urban ethnographic research from...
This paper examines the relationship between gender, social capital, and access to finance of micro, small, and medium enterprises in the manufacturing sector in Vietnam. Our dataset is from the 2011, 2013, and 2015 waves of the Micro, Small, and...
Using a rich panel dataset of SMEs active in the manufacturing sector in Vietnam, this paper investigates the drivers of firm productivity, focusing on the role played by international management standards certification. We develop and test the...
This paper discusses global public goods related to the world’s land resources, their current provision and likely future provision, their potential impacts on the world’s poorest households, as well as prospects for using foreign assistance to...
This paper uses panel data to assess the relative importance of social networks and geographic proximity to micro, small, and medium enterprises in Vietnam. The results suggest that a larger social network, and hiring employees mainly through social...
Donor support for decentralization comes in two main categories: recommendations at the policy level and project activities at the programming level. At the policy level, donors promote decentralization by recommending greater autonomy for...
Foreign aid and technology transfer are an essential means, especially for the least developed countries, towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals as well as facilitating adaptation to, and mitigation of, climate change. The deployment of...
Mozambique has achieved remarkable macroeconomic success over recent decades, boasting one of the world’s highest rates of GDP growth. However, absolute poverty remains persistent, spilling over into social unrest. To better understand the link...
Following an overview on the fast changing global context of agriculture, and food and nutrition security, this paper provides a framework for identifying the set of essential international public goods for a well-functioning world agriculture and...
What are the major determinants of green growth? What role can the government play to promote green growth? To address these questions, this paper develops a simple Green Solow model that sheds light on the role of finance and technology in the...
Rapid urbanization, and particularly the associated problems of urban poverty, unsustainable development and environmental degradation, pose an enormous challenge to many developing countries. In the last decade more foreign aid has been diverted to...
The current climate change crisis has repeatedly alerted mankind to the urgency of tackling this pressing global challenge before it is too late. Developing countries, which have contributed negligibly to the present climate change problem are...
The majority of the world’s poor, by income poverty and multi-dimensional poverty, now live in countries officially classified by the World Bank as middle-income countries. Of course nothing happens when a country crosses a (somewhat) arbitrary...
This paper examines whether foreign aid, together with other economic, social and environmental factors, contributes to sustainable development. It starts with a theoretical model where sustainable development is modeled as a different kind of growth...
Agricultural development is facing great challenges in meeting global food security and is expected to face even greater difficulties under climate change. The overall goal of this paper is to examine how foreign aid in particular can be used to...
This paper argues that attempts at state-building in Afghanistan have led to institutions that are not robust. The state institutions and organizations continue to be highly dependent on external resources and technical expertise, and lack of...
The Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, was critical in making gender equality a development goal and adopted gender-mainstreaming as its primary mechanism to achieve this. Effective implementation of gender-mainstreaming...
Giới thiệu Việt Nam là một nước đông dân ở khu vực Đông Nam Á với lịch sử lâu đời và đặc trưng về kinh tế, chính trị và xã hội.2 Sau khi kết thúc chiến tranh với Hoa Kỳ năm 1975, Việt Nam đã có những tham vọng lớn về tương lai; song mặc dù có nhiều...
We study how migration affects education of girls in Tajikistan—the poorest post-Soviet state and one of the most remittance-dependent economies in the world. Using data from a three-wave household panel survey conducted in 2007, 2009, and 2011, we...
Over the last half-century, the role of women in society has changed substantially. However, the gender income gap and the difference in labour force participation persist. Akerlof and Kranton introduce the concept of identity from sociology and...
Traditionally, much of the research on economic growth drivers has been focused on small and medium enterprises. In recent years the academic focus on small businesses has shifted to a particular group of firms that are interesting from an economic...
This paper is intended to bridge the theoretical literature describing efficient intra-household behaviour and the development literature that collects empirical regularities pointing toward the existence of strategic decision-making among spouses...
The paper considers the experience of the European Investment Bank and addresses policy lessons for developing countries as they seek finance for development. The paper argues that the key lesson for developing countries is that the traditional role...
This paper analyses the way aid for agriculture and rural development in the global south has changed over time. It finds three key shifts. First, a change in funding priority that has seen aid commitments move to the social sectors. Second is a...
In many African countries, decentralization has long been viewed as a means for improving local service delivery. Yet, despite various decentralization initiatives, poor service delivery continues to be problematic in two of Kenya’s largest cities...
The paper provides a comparative analysis of the incidence of evaluation methods in antipoverty transfer programmes in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. The paper identifies two broad explanations for the incidence of evaluation in antipoverty...
I discuss how aid can support growth in small, isolated economies. Small markets frustrate scale economies and competition. Combined with high transport costs, essential inputs become prohibitively expensive. Breaking the coordination problem...
Aid is not generally aimed at the poorest people, though most multilateral or bilateral agencies would like to think they get included. However, donors’ strategies are generally blind to differentiation among the poor, and have not improved in this...
Over many past decades countries in sub-Saharan Africa have received extensive bilateral and multilateral aid in support of the production of relevant, timely, and good quality data and statistics. But assessing aid effectiveness in the statistical...
Recent years have seen a growing interest among donors on taxation in developing countries. This reflects a concern for domestic revenue mobilization to finance public goods and services, as well as recognition of the centrality of taxation for...
This paper evaluates the impact of an integrated rural development programme on farming techniques and food security in the Gaza area of rural Mozambique. We examine the impact of a group-based approach, in a country with few impact evaluations of...
This paper examines the effect of education aid on primary enrollment and education quality. Using the most recent data on aid disbursements and econometric specifications inspired by the general aid effectiveness literature, we find some evidence...
While it has been increasingly recognized that efficient management holds the key to the development of micro and small enterprises in developing countries, we know very little about the managerial capacity of business owners and managers in these...
Aid providers frequently link supporting small firms to job creation. Small firms create about half of new jobs in Africa, but they also have higher failure rates. Ignoring firm exit exaggerates net employment growth. Using panel data for Ethiopia...
This paper provides a survey of six widely used non-experimental methods for estimating the impact of programmes in the context of developing economies (instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, direct matching, propensity score matching...
The Brazilian Ministry of Social Development’s co-operation with sub-Saharan Africa has shifted from an initial engagement in cash transfers to a recent engagement in food and nutritional security. This paper aims at understanding the main drivers...
Today it is widely acknowledged that increasing the gender sensitivity of development aid increases its effectiveness. This report evaluates the extent to which the World Bank integrates gender concerns into its policies and investments, pointing out...
Civil service reform is one of the most intractable yet important challenges for governments and their supporters today. However, civil service reform thus far has largely failed. Based on a review of existing literature, this paper presents...
The ‘right’ choice of instruments and modalities to provide aid to developing countries in support of poverty reduction and economic development is arguably the most contested issue in the current international debate on aid effectiveness. A...
The experience and lessons of the last two decades have shown that ignoring the key differences between the economics of peace and the economics of development has been a major reason why countries relapse into conflict. This paper briefly analyses...
In many nations today the state has little capability to carry out even basic functions like security, policing, regulation or core service delivery. Enhancing this capability, especially in fragile states, is a long-term task. Countries like Haiti...
In the wake of the current financial and economic crises, the economies of sub-Saharan Africa find themselves squeezed between likely reductions in official development assistance and the pressing challenge to eradicate poverty. Public expenditure...
Agriculture is one of the major greenhouse gas (GHG) emission sources in China. This paper aims to identify the key factors that have led to rising GHG emissions in China’s agricultural sector in recent decades. This research allows for spatial...
This paper explores the current evidence underlying the debate on aid effectiveness, with a specific focus on the health sector. It summarizes the history of aid and outlines the methodological challenges encountered when assessing its effectiveness...
Many reform initiatives in developing countries fail to achieve sustained improvements in performance because they are merely isomorphic mimicry—that is, governments and organizations pretend to reform by changing what policies or organizations look...
This paper reviews what has been learned over many decades of foreign aid to education. It discusses what works and what does not and in this discussion draws attention to the fact that even a simple assessment requires more than providing a uniform...
This paper addresses the issue of the impact of aid supply on aid effectiveness. We proceed in two steps. First, we review research works that deal with the problem of governance in donor-recipient relationships and are susceptible of highlighting...
Various development objectives are worthy, but to my mind, one objective dominates all others: reducing the scourge of absolute economic misery in the world. In this paper, I focus on an important but relatively underemphasized approach to poverty...
Sub-Saharan African cities have been growing at historically unprecedented rates. Since the early 1970s, they have welcomed international assistance involving a succession of major thematic objectives. The main agency involved in urban assistance has...
Over the years EU aid has been much discussed—and criticized. Besides the accusations of being old fashioned, slow and bureaucratic there is also the complexity of a close neighbourship with the EU’s foreign policy in general, trade and the eternal...
This study examines the role of politics on decentralization and service delivery in South Africa, with a specific focus on Johannesburg and Cape Town. The research delineates how national decentralization has affected service delivery...
Mali long seemed a model, low-income democracy. Yet, in a few short weeks in early 2012, more than half of the territory came under the military control of an Islamist secessionist movement, and a military coup deposed the democratically-elected...
This paper sets out to provide an introduction to two sets of questions, and to some relevant literature that has tried to answer them. The first set of questions concern what determines growth in low-income countries, and how the answers are...
This paper studies the distribution of resources within Albanian families in 2012 using a collective consumption model with two alternative specifications: the first enables the estimation of intrahousehold distribution of resources among male adults...
A consensus among social scientists is that fertility rates in Africa are declining. What determines these declines? I present fresh evidence that shows education, especially for women, is an important determinant of the fertility transition in...
As a political scientist specializing in the comparative politics of development, including particular attention to issues of governance and democracy...
Structural transformation in rural Vietnam has led to rising incomes and a diversification of livelihoods away from agriculture. Using panel data on children in 2,181 rural households surveyed over the 2008-14 period, we examine how the welfare of...
This paper presents a descriptive analysis on the ownership of different types of technology—both agricultural machinery and information technology—within households in rural areas of Vietnam. We find that there has been little development in the...
Why do some states, with foreign assistance, transition from ‘fragile’ to ‘robust?’ Scholars in state-building have argued that neotrusteeship is an effective strategy by which external organizations might build post-conflict states. This working...
We exploit a spatial discontinuity in the coverage of an agricultural extension program in Uganda to causally identify its effects on malaria. We find that eligibility for the program reduced the incidence of malaria by 8.8 percentage points, with...
Average adult height is a physical measure of the biological standard of living of a population. While the biological and economic standards of living of a population are very different concepts, they are linked and may empirically move together. If...
The notion that foreign aid harms the institutions of recipient governments remains prevalent. We combine new disaggregated aid data and various metrics of political institutions to re-examine this relationship. Long-run cross-section and alternative...
With the aim of reducing women’s greater unpaid care work than men’s and increasing women’s paid employment, this paper examines the extent to which World Bank investments address unpaid care work. The paper conducts an in-depth gender analysis of 36...
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. The 21st Conference of the...
This paper examines the questions of why and how foreign assistance was utilized successfully in South Korea but less so in Ghana, with a focus on the role of aid in the process of state building and state transition in these two countries. Before...
After the Second World War, both Greece and Italy experienced a Left-Right political polarization and a reproduction of earlier patterns of political patronage. Both Italy and Greece received international aid, including emergency relief, interim...
International corporate tax is an important source of government revenue, especially in lower-income countries. An important recent study of the scale of this problem was carried out by International Monetary Fund researchers Ernesto Crivelli, Ruud...
This paper begins by noting that Uganda has been a public sector reform leader in Africa. It has pursued reforms actively and consistently for three decades now, and has produced many laws, processes and structures that are ‘best in class’ in Africa...
At the first of this autumn's seminar series, Dr Shi Li will present on income inequality in China. Abstract – Recent changes in income inequality in China During the past three decades China’s economic growth has been among the fastest in the world...
At the seminar on 27 September 2017, Joseph Vecci will present experimental findings on religion, leadership, and coordination. Abstract – Religion, leadership, and coordination: Evidence from a lab experiment in the field Religious inequality and...
Quantifying the impacts of expanding social protection on efficiency and equity: evidence from a behavioral microsimulation model for Ghana Pia Rattenhuber Video of Public economics for development conference - SOUTHMOD tax-benefit microsimulation 1...
Learning dynamics in tax bunching at the kink: evidence from Ecuador Albrecht Bohne Video of Public economics for development conference - Employment and labour income 1/3 Do public employment services improve employment outcomes? Evidence from...
Using revenue administrative data for research: practical experiences and research in the Ugandan context Ronald Waiswa Video of Public economics for development conference - Revenue authorities’ administrative data 1/1
Toward closer cohesion of international tax statistics: the ICTD-UNU-WIDER Government Revenue Dataset 2017 Kyle McNabb Video of Public economics for development conference - Taxation: The data and research agenda 1/2 Taxation and development Tony...
The geography of NGO activism against multinational corporations Pamina Koenig Video of Public economics for development conference - Multinationals 1/3 Estimating the scale of corporate profit shifting: tax revenue losses related to foreign direct...
08:00-09:00 Registration and coffee 09:30-11:00 Research Results and the ‘big picture’ Professor Gary Fields, Cornell University – Aid, Growth and Jobs Dr Martin Rama, World Development Report 2013, World Bank – The World Bank’s World Development...
On 20th July 2015, John Page, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow and UNU-WIDER Non-resident Senior Research Fellow, spoke to the Board of Executive Directors (1) of the World Bank Group about the joint African Development Bank, Brookings Institution...
UNU-WIDER organized two sessions during the 17th World Congress of the International Economic Association. Learning to Compete – Sunday 8 June 2014 Chaired by Finn Tarp Out of Africa: A comparative perspective on why Africa failed to industrialize...
Selection criteria Can I apply for the Visiting PhD Fellowship programme after submitting my thesis or completing my PhD? A: Unfortunately, the programme is only open to people who are still working on their thesis and pursuing their PhD during their...
Elites have a disproportionate impact on development outcomes. While a country's endowments constitute the deep determinates of growth, the trajectory they follow is shaped by the actions of elites. But what factors affect whether elites use their...
This collection analyses the new trends in capital flows to emerging markets since the Asian crisis, their determinants and policy implications. It explains why such flows have declined so dramatically in recent years, emphasising both structural and...
Establishing peace and reconstructing Africa's war-damaged economies are urgent challenges. For Africa to recover, communities must reconstruct, private sectors must revitalize, and states must transform themselves. Thus, unless communities rebuild...
This excellent new book contains contributions from a number of leading experts and is the result of the UNU/WIDER project on globalization and low-income countries. The discussion focuses in on how to harness globalization for the benefit of present...
Poor people in developing countries are often affected by droughts, floods, illness, crop failure, job loss, and economic downturns. Much of their energy goes into coping with these shocks and into day-to-day survival. While insurance and credit...
This book examines the economic consequences of immigration and asylum migration. It focuses on the economic consequences of legal and illegal immigration as well as placing the study of immigration in a global context.
The present volume contains six papers on financial-policy issues and country experiences, presented at a joint ECLAC/UNU-WIDER/UNCTAD seminar held at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile, on 5-6 October 1992. In the first, Yilmaz Akyuz discusses...
This book presents development strategies and lessons based on a large range of 'success' countries across the developing world. In addition to the country cases, it presents regional and overall syntheses that cover orthodox vs. heterodox policies...
Exploring the effects of the post-1989 developments in Eastern and Central Europe on the social and economic position of the women of the region, Valentine Moghadam explains how the economic crisis and subsequent development, social breakdown, and...
Leading scholars and policymakers reflect on current thinking in development economics and on what may happen during the next two decades. Covering the major themes in development in an accessible way, this original and authoritative contribution...
Since the mid-1980s there have been substantial cuts in military spending throughout the world, with the exception of Pacific Asia. The end of the Cold War, democratization in Africa and Latin America, structural adjustment programmes, debts and cuts...
This book brings together papers written by representatives from UN agencies and academics who take a fresh look at the expanding role of transnational corporations and foreign direct investment in the world economy. These papers deal with such...
Women, a majority of the world's population, receive only a small proportion of its opportunities and benefits. According to the 1993 UN Human Development Report, there is no country in the world in which women's quality of life is equal to that of...
The essays in this study contribute to an analysis of the prospects for the world's economy in the face of environmental constraints. The contributors examine the implications of development in both northern and southern hemispheres, and the extreme...
This lucid and accessible collection explores gender and national identity within political movements in the Middle East, the Maghreb and South Asia. It reveals how nationalism, revolution and Islamization are gendered processes, and argues that in...
This volume aims at remedying the relative dearth of studies addressing issues of women and development in Arab countries. One major concern of its authors is to improve the statistical information available by including the often omitted aspect of...
Employment has been adopted as a leading concern for the United Nations World Social Summit in March 1995. This important study, prepared for the Summit by the World Institute for Development Economics Research, comprises a wide-ranging set of...
This report represents the seventh time that the small and medium enterprise (SME) survey has been conducted. The results of previous survey rounds, and in particular those of 2005, 2007, and 2009 inspired the Central Institute for Economic...
This report represents the seventh time that the small and medium enterprise (SME) survey has been conducted. The results of previous survey rounds, and in particular those of 2005, 2007, and 2009 inspired the Central Institute for Economic...
On the 10th of April, 2012, the African Development Bank and UNU-WIDER organized a research workshop on the theme of ‘Employment in Tunisia: What Do We Know? What is the Way Forward?’. The aim of this workshop was to bring together universities and...
This lucid and accessible collection explores gender and national identity within political movements in the Middle East, the Maghreb and South Asia. It reveals how nationalism, revolution and Islamization are gendered processes, and argues that in...
This book is a collection of systematically prepared case studies describing the environmental policy of thirteen countries in terms of capacity-building. Capacity for environmental policy and management, as the concept is used in this volume, has...
Within-country income inequality has risen since the early 1980s in most of the OECD, all transitional, and many developing countries. More recently, inequality has risen also in India and nations affected by the Asian crisis. Altogether, over the...
The essays in this study contribute to an analysis of the prospects for the world's economy in the face of environmental constraints. The contributors examine the implications of development in both northern and southern hemispheres, and the extreme...
This volume aims at remedying the relative dearth of studies addressing issues of women and development in Arab countries. One major concern of its authors is to improve the statistical information available by including the often omitted aspect of...
This volume consists of 18 essays dedicated to the memory of Carlos Diaz-Alejandro on topics that reflect his interests and contributions to the history and theory of international trade and economic development. The issues covered include historical...
Two and a half billion people are affected directly on a day to day basis by the allocation and use of primary local resources. Yet `official' development economics has concentrated on headline international issues and only recently begun to take...
Rampant inflation is a major economic problem in many of the less developed countries; two out of three attempts to stabilize these economies fail. Inflation Stabilization provides a valuable description and a critical analysis of the disinflation...
The Republic of South Africa faces the imperative of escaping economic stagnation. The broad-level economic ills besetting South Africa are well known but bear brief repetition: real GDP per capita has hardly grown for nine years; productivity growth...
In contrast to South Africa, most of the other economies in the southern Africa region have grown reasonably rapidly over the past two decades. Recent experience has, however, highlighted the vulnerability of these economies to shocks, sometimes...
The Helsinki Graduate School of Economics (GSE) was inaugurated on 24 October at an opening ceremony that took place at the University of Helsinki. The goal of the new school is to strengthen and broaden the field of economic research in Finland. As...
The World Bank, one of the most central actors in the global fight to reduce poverty, has been recently under the spotlight for its approach to human rights, or rather lack thereof. The United Nations human rights mechanisms have called for a...
Finn Tarp participated in the expert hearing on Finnish Government's Development Policy Report which outlines the development policy programme for 2016-2019.
Tue, 15 March 2016
Finnish Parliament Annex,
Arkadiankatu 3,
Helsinki,
Finland
The final review workshop for the African Economic research Consortium (AERC) research project rethinking regional integration in Africa for inclusive and sustainable development took place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 24-25 September. Maureen Were, UNU...
On 7 November, Shreya Bhattacharya, PhD Candidate, University of Houston, will present her research. Abstract - The effect of inter caste networks on well-being Interactions within neighbourhoods have been shown to influence both short run and long...
Wed, 7 November 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6A,
Helsinki,
Finland
United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) in partnership with the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) will host the WIDER Annual Lecture 20 at the Stockholm School of Economics on 23 March 2016. The lecture will be delivered by Martin Ravallion, a leading economist in the study of poverty and policies for fighting it.
On 14 November Pui Yi Wong, PhD Candidate, University of Malaysia will present her research. Abstract - The role of the state, market and society in developing ikat textile value chains in Sarawak, Malaysia The ideal role of the state in facilitating...
Wed, 14 November 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6A,
Helsinki,
Finland
On 21 November Amèvi Kouwoaye, PhD Candidate, University of Laval, will present his research. Abstract - Trade tax reforms and poverty in developing countries: why some countries benefit and others lose out? This paper studies the relationship...
Wed, 21 November 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6A,
Helsinki,
Finland
A multidisciplinary conference on informality and development will be arranged by Indiana University and Cornell University on 22-23 October 2016 in Bloomington, Indiana. The deadline for submission is 1 May 2016.
On 7 November António Cruz will give a presentation within the NOVAFRICA seminar series of Nova School of Business and Economics in the New University of Lisbon (Universidade Nova de Lisboa). The presentation is based on a WIDER working paper...
Wed, 7 November 2018
Nova School of Business and Economics,
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus de Carcavelos, Rua da Holanda, Nº 1,
Carcavelos,
Portugal
UNU-WIDER Research Fellow, Sam Jones, gave a presentation at a public seminar at the University of Helsinki on the possible impacts of the fourth industrial revolution on African countries, using examples from Mozambique. The event, ‘Human meets...
Thu, 18 October 2018
Think Corner (Tiedekulma),
Yliopistonkatu 4,
Helsinki,
Finland
In August 2018, UNU-WIDER and the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) of the Ministry of Planning and Finance of Myanmar signed an agreement to develop a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) and to conduct economy-wide analysis using the SAM for the...
Fri, 9 November 2018
–
Wed, 14 November 2018
Central Statistical Organization (CSO) Office,
Naypyidaw,
Myanmar (Burma)
On 14 September the Inclusive Growth in Mozambique project will host a public forum on natural gas in Maputo. The event focuses on better ways to manage natural resources revenue in Mozambique. Tore Eriksen, a senior advisor from Norway’s Ministry of...
Fri, 14 September 2018
Universidade Eduardo Modlane,
Av. Julius Nyerere 3453,
Maputo,
Mozambique
On 30 October, John Page gives a presentation on the drivers of industrial location at the London School of Economics. This event is part of a series of lectures delivered by Brookings Institution Senior Fellow and UNU-WIDER Non-Resident Senior...
Tue, 30 October 2018
London School of Economics and Political Science,
Houghton St,
London,
United Kingdom
This SAM is built using National Accounts data from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT), including balance of payment data, government finance data, and highly aggregated industry-level production accounts. The SAM provides a detailed...
Professor Jukka Pirttilä, UNU-WIDER Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow, presented at a microsimulation seminar organized by the Ministry of Finance of Finland on 31 October 2018. The goal of the seminar was to discuss the recent research done by...
On 30 November, John Page will give a presentation on natural resources and industrialization at an event co-organized by UONGOZI and UNU-WIDER at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. This event is part of a series of lectures delivered by...
Fri, 30 November 2018
University of Dar es Salaam,
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
Haroon Bhorat’s, Kubeen Naidoo’s, and Kavisha Pillay’s article 'South Africa’s civil servants are the country’s new labour elite' was published in the Conversation on 19 February 2016. The piece was picked up by Business Day and Eyewitness News.
UNU-WIDER is looking for an outstanding individual with strong commitment and potential to support the Finance Team of the Institute. Closing date: 15 January 2018, 23:59 UTC+2
In this work stream, researchers from UNU-WIDER, National Treasury (NT) and the South African Revenue Service (SARS), will build and expand the tax administrative and other micro enterprise data available in South Africa, thereby developing these...
This work stream has two main aims. First, to arrange access to individual and firm-level taxpayer data at South African Revenue Service (SARS) for research use. The goal is to create well documented longitudinal datasets with key variables that can...
National Treasury (NT) is central to macroeconomic policy in South Africa and holds a key role in maintaining macroeconomic stability. This work stream is designed to further strengthen the capacity of NT, alongside other actors in the region, and to...
Under this work stream UNU-WIDER, the National Treasury (NT), and the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) will work jointly to address distributional issues in both the bottom half and the top of the income distribution. While...
The unavoidable warming and potential substantial departures from prevailing weather patterns associated with climate change are likely to be major drivers of migration, agriculture, and international trade in Southern Africa, and globally. The...
Policy makers face critical decisions regarding a regional economic strategy in southern Africa and this work stream will bring together personnel from UNU-WIDER, the Department of Trade and Industry (dti), and Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies...
UNU-WIDER is looking for an outstanding individual with strong commitment and potential to support the research and training programme of the Institute and in particular its related activities in Mozambique. Closing date: 29 January 2018, 23:59 UTC+2
UNU-WIDER, the National Treasury of the Republic of South Africa (NT), and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) invite proposals from qualified researchers for detailed economic analysis of the available administrative datasets. Submission...
2017 Marco Carreras, Purnachandar Dachapalli and Giulia Mascagni Effective corporate tax burden and firm size in South Africa: A firm-level analysis Mulalo Mamburu Defining high-growth firms in South Africa Pieter Van der Zwan, Danie Schutte, Waldo...
Ricardo Santos is a UNU-WIDER Research Fellow stationed in Maputo, Mozambique, focused on the Inclusive growth in Mozambique – scaling-up research and capacity -programme and Technical Resident Advisor to the Centre of Economics and Management...
A Zitamar news article has drawn on research from the Inclusive growth in Mozambique project. Inequality, a key concern of the project, continues to draw public attention in the country. An excerpt from the article 'Mozambique’s National Directorate...
A news article in the Jornal A Verdade has highlighted the Inclusive growth in Mozambique project's labour market survey, which will shed light on the transition from education to employment of Mozambican university students. Extract from the article...
The conference on poverty and inequality in Mozambique, part of the Inclusive growth in Mozambique project, took place at the end of November in Maputo, drawing interest from local policymakers, academics, and development practitioners – in addition...
UNU-WIDER is looking for an outstanding individual with strong web and systems development skills to join the Knowledge & Information Services Team of the Institute. Closing date: 6 July 2018, 23:59 UTC+3
On 29 May 2018 the first ‘Myanmar Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Survey’ is published. The launch event will bring together policy-makers, representatives from international organizations and researchers to discuss the findings of the report.
Tue, 29 May 2018
Central Statistical Organization (CSO),
Office #32,
Naypyidaw,
Myanmar (Burma)
Kasim Ggombe Munyegera, the Country Economist for the International Growth Center speaks about the Gender Gap in Firm Productivity at the WIDER Seminar Series session on 30 May 2018. Abstract - The gender gap in firm productivity: Evidence from...
Wed, 30 May 2018
UNU-WIDER Library,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
On 06 June, UNU-WIDER Research Associate Amina Ebrahim talks about the South African youth wage subsidy. Abstract - The effects of a youth wage subsidy on South African employment: An update South Africa’s Employment Tax Incentive (ETI), launched in...
Wed, 6 June 2018
UNU-WIDER Library,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
Seonghoon Kim, Assistant Professor at Singapore Management University presents evidence from a study conducted in Malawi looking at the impacts of learning in mother tongue at the WIDER Seminar Series session on 4 July 2018. Abstract - Teach me in my...
Wed, 4 July 2018
UNU-WIDER Library,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
On 27 June 2018 Associate Professor Himanshu Himanshu from Jawaharlal Nehru University presents a re-examination of trends in inequality in India. Abstract - Inequality in India: A re-examination This paper presents a re-examination of trends in...
Wed, 27 June 2018
UNU-WIDER Library,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
UNU-WIDER is looking for an outstanding individual (2 positions) with strong commitment and potential to support the 2019–23 research programme as well as the training programme and communication activities of the Institute Closing date: 13 July 2018...
UNU-WIDER is looking for an outstanding individual (2 positions) with strong commitment and potential to support the 2019–23 research programme as well as the training programme and communication activities of the Institute. Closing date: 13 July...
UNU-WIDER is looking for an outstanding individual (2 positions) with strong commitment and potential to support the 2019–23 research programme as well as the training programme and communication activities of the Institute. Closing date: 13 July...
UNU-WIDER and the University of Ghana will organize a policy workshop titled ‘Capacity building for Ghana’s economic development: prospects and challenges’ on 17 March 2016 in Accra. The event will bring together graduate students, decision-makers...
Thu, 17 March 2016
ISSER Conference Center, University of Ghana,
Botanical Gardens Road,
Legon-Accra,
Ghana
On 25 July, Matias Busso Lead Economist at Inter-American Development Bank will be presenting experimental evidence on the impact of peers to individuals' academic achiements. *Please note that this event will be held at a different location to...
Wed, 25 July 2018
Scandic Grand Marina Hotel, Meeting room Compass,
Katajanokanlaituri 7,
Helsinki,
Finland
Authors for the Volume II of the book published under the Asian Transformations project meet in Shanghai, China on 29-30 June 2018 to discuss the book's chapters final drafts.
Fri, 29 June 2018
–
Sat, 30 June 2018
Fudan University,
600 Guoquan Road,
Shanghai, 200433,
China
UNU-WIDER is looking for an outstanding individual with strong commitment and potential to support the Programme Officer, and UNU-WIDER’s senior management, in the planning, monitoring, and implementation of the Institute’s work programme. The...
This session is centred around the high profile UNU-WIDER volume on Growth and Poverty in sub-Saharan Africa published in 2016. The research project resulting in the book sought to provide a carefully researched view about the extent to which recent...
In the SOUTHMOD project microsimulation models for various developing countries are being built and maintained by national teams in the respective countries together with leading researchers in the field, coordinated by UNU-WIDER. As developing...
This session will present the key findings from Learning to Compete (L2C), a multi-year UNU-WIDER comparative research programme investigating the seemingly simple, but frustratingly puzzling question: Why is there so little industry in Africa? Based...
This session will showcase current research about distributional change in middle-income countries. Gary Fields will draw upon UNU-WIDER research on Latin America in his presentation that will focus on changes in labour market outcomes and the links...
Drawing on the project of the same name, this session looks in detail at emerging industries in Africa, from both a global and a country perspective. Historically, manufacturing has led the structural transformation process. But manufacturing growth...
Horizontal inequalities or inequalities that coincide with identity-based cleavages and ethnic polarization put developing countries at risk of economic and political instability. How can this be prevented, and these disadvantages alleviated? Do anti...
This session explores the future for aid, drawing upon an extensive body of UNU-WIDER work on the topic since 2009. Aid is at an inflexion point. Traditional and new aid donors, and their development partners, need to recast their relationship for a...
The panel session will discuss recent research at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on inclusive growth issues such as income inequality, structural transformation, and gender diversity. Promoting global economic growth and stability requires an...
Growth of agriculture remains the key to development in agriculture-based economies. The objective of this panel is to take stock of recent advances in identifying the determinants of low technology adoption, and in charting the course for future...
This session explores the interlinkages between poverty, inequality, and jobs. It will shed light on the compatibility between the planned eradication of poverty to the year 2030 and the expected trends in key economic variables such as GDP growth...
The economics profession has witnessed an increasing interest in the analysis of inequality of income and wealth with a global perspective. This has led to a growing research trying to understand the trends and driving forces of global inequality...
UNU-WIDER has engaged in research with a focus on improving our understanding of enterprise dynamics that can help our understanding on how best to alleviate allocative inefficiencies in the business sector. This session will present three research...
Creating enough jobs for young people is a priority for many governments, particularly in Africa, where population growth is fastest. The region is experiencing rapid urbanization, but without the industrialization or decline in rural populations...
Asia has witnessed a remarkable economic transformation since the publication of Gunnar Myrdal’s Asian Drama half a century ago. UNU-WIDER has undertaken a study, Asian Transformations: An Inquiry into the Development of Nations, which analyses the...
The Bulletin of the World Health Organization will publish a theme issue on quality of-care in the era of SDGs. This theme issue will include original research articles on quality-of-care in low- and middle-income countries. The selection of this research will prioritize rigorous methods, generalizability across contexts, and salience of findings for policy. The deadline for submission is 31 May 2016.
Over the past two decades, Social Assistance has emerged as a new paradigm in the fight against poverty and vulnerability in the Global South. The rise of Social Assistance coincided with unprecedented changes in the economic and social structures of...
Inequality is a key development challenge and ‘reducing inequality within and among countries´ is at the very core of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approved by the UN General Assembly in September 2015. Inequality has also been a recurring...
Although considerable international resources have been devoted to state-building and institutional strengthening in fragile and conflict-affected states, results have been generally mixed. Why and how have some states transitioned successfully from...
This panel will discuss the reforms that are necessary to build an adequate international monetary system for the twenty-first century. This includes: A global reserve system that contributes to the stability of the global economy and is considered...
Does foreign aid still play a role in shaping democratic trajectories in sub-Saharan Africa? Given significant economic and political developments over the past five years, this panel revisits previous UNU-WIDER research findings on aid and democracy...
Advances in variable renewable energy technologies are resulting in structural shifts in energy systems globally. Developing countries typically feature promising endowments in renewable resources, rapidly growing demand, and a relative lack of...
The joint UNU-WIDER, Brookings and University of Cape Town “Africa’s Lions” project, culminated in an edited book volume which aimed to define some of the key constraints facing African economies as they attempt to maintain long-run economic growth...
Drawing on UNU-WIDER’s past work in this area the presenters in this session will provide a synopsis/assessment of that work and look to the future covering the following three topics: 1. The design of foreign aid and foreign direct investment to...
This session explores the history of development economics (including the role of UNU-WIDER) and looks to the future: new policy issues, as well as new tools and techniques. Throughout its history, development economics has paid close attention to...
Many developing countries are rich in natural resources, giving them opportunities to use their mineral wealth to achieve economic transformation and poverty reduction. Yet many fail to invest their resource rents effectively. Consequently, economies...
As underscored in Goal 10 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, inequality matters – both vertical (between individuals) and horizontal (between groups). A growing body of research on horizontal inequality shows links, in particular, with...
UNU-WIDER is looking for an outstanding individual with strong commitment and potential to support the research and training programme of the Institute. Closing date: 7 March 2018, 23:59 UTC+2.
Philip Verwimp, Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, will present at the WIDER Seminar Series spring sneak-peak on 14 February 2018. Please note that pre-registration is not necessary for this event. Abstract – Impact evaluation of an off...
Wed, 14 February 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
UNU-WIDER Research Fellow Carlos Gradín will kick off the spring 2018 session of the WIDER Seminar Series on 7 March 2018. Abstract – Occupational gender segregation in post-apartheid South Africa | Slides In this paper, we show that occupations in...
Wed, 7 March 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
Kalle Hirvonen, Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), will present at the 21 March 2018 session of the WIDER Seminar Series. Abstract – The impact of large-scale social protection interventions on grain prices...
Wed, 21 March 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
On 28 March 2018, Assistant Professor Vincent Somville of the Norwegian School of Economics will present at the WIDER Seminar Series. Abstract – Barriers to female empowerment: Evidence from a field experiment in Tanzania Many young girls in...
Wed, 28 March 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
Sanchari Roy, Senior Lecturer at King’s College London, will speak at the WIDER Seminar Series on 4 April 2018. Abstract – Women’s inheritance rights reform and the preference for sons in India We investigate whether legislation of equal inheritance...
Wed, 4 April 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
Lore Vandewalle, Assistant Professor at The Graduate Institute, will speak at the 18 April 2018 session of the WIDER Seminar Series. Abstract – Access to formal banking and household finances: Experimental evidence from India Access to formal banking...
Wed, 18 April 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
Martin Ravallion’s WIDER Annual Lecture focused on the economic and political issues surrounding the use of direct interventions, such as cash transfers and in kind contributions, against poverty. He highlighted two key lessons that are important for...
In order to improve the understanding of tax-benefit systems and their role in developing countries, and to increase the use of tax-benefit microsimulation models, UNU-WIDER invites proposals from qualified researchers for detailed economic analysis...
UNU-WIDER is pleased to announce that, following a highly successful 10 years under the leadership of Professor Finn Tarp, the Institute’s next director has been named. Professor Kunal Sen will join the Institute as Director-Designate on 1 September...
Researchers will meet in Helsinki on 15-16 February 2018 to discuss their work arising from a recent UNU-WIDER call for papers for detailed economic analysis of the Viet Nam Access to Rural Households Survey (VARHS) dataset. The meeting provides a...
Tue, 13 February 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
This SAM is built using Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) unpublished industry-level production accounts, commodity-level supply–demand balances and a Supply Matrix together with national accounts, official public finance statistics, and IMF...
Patricia Justino, Research Fellow at IDS, will present at the WIDER Seminar Series on 11 April 2018. Abstract – On the legacies of wartime governance In conflict zones around the world, both state and non-state actors deliver governance at local...
Wed, 11 April 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6B,
Helsinki,
Finland
Professor Njuguna Ndung’u has been appointed as the next African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Executive Director effective September 1, 2018. Over the years Professor Ndung’u has held a number of top positions in the field of economics and...
The conference aims at bringing together Nordic and international scholars for the exchange of ideas and discussion of recent results within theoretical and applied development economics research.
UNU-WIDER, with other UN agencies and affiliates, is present at the World Village Festival 2018. The festival takes place 26-27 May 2018 in Helsinki, Finland.
Sat, 26 May 2018
–
Sun, 27 May 2018
UN Village/YK-Kylä,
Railway Square,
Helsinki,
Finland
This is the second training event on the ECUAMOD model, which will provide participants with comprehensive training to use the tax-benefit microsimulation model effectively. It is targeted for existing and potential new users of the model at...
Mon, 2 July 2018
–
Wed, 4 July 2018
Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales,
Av. Río Amazonas N37-271 and Villalengua,
Quito,
Ecuador
UNU-WIDER is looking for an outstanding individual with strong commitment and potential to take the lead of the Information Services Team of the Institute and has backstopping and quality assurance skills on all IT related activities. Closing date: 6...
On 18 October, Lilian Korir, PhD Candidate, University of Lincoln, will present her research. Abstract - The nexus between food insecurity, vulnerability and resilience: evidence from Kenya Food insecurity remains a major global concern, particularly...
Thu, 18 October 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6A,
Helsinki,
Finland
We are seeking qualified proposals to advance economic research, capacity-building, and policy dialogue in South Africa and the southern Africa region. Submission deadline 30 November 2018 23:59 UTC+2.
The workshop brought together around 20 participants, including researchers and staff members from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), UNU-WIDER, the Southern African Social Policy Research Institute (SASPRI), and the University of Makerere to...
Using the Myanmar Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Survey (MSME) Dataset, around 30 participants from the Central Statistical Organization of Myanmar will receive training on report writing.
Mon, 26 November 2018
–
Fri, 30 November 2018
Central Statistical Organization,
Naypyidaw,
Myanmar (Burma)
On October 24 Habtamu Ali Beshir, PhD Candidate, Lancaster University, will present his research. Abstract: Impacts of contemporaneous and early life price shocks on human capital production The effect of economic shocks on human capital is...
Wed, 24 October 2018
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6A,
Helsinki,
Finland
UNU-WIDER is pleased to announce that Professors Ann E. Harrison, Justin Yifu Lin, and Benno Ndulu will join the WIDER Board in January 2019. All three new board members are prominent development economists who have worked closely with UNU-WIDER in...
Sabina Alkire is Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) — a research centre within the Department of International Development, University of Oxford — where she works on a new approach to measuring poverty and...
Ashwini Deshpande has written an opinion piece based on her recent WIDER Working Paper in the Indian independent journalism site The Wire. She writes about the widespread prevalence of discriminatory attitudes towards quota students in India that was...
The WIDER Annual Lecture by Sabina Alkire was streamed live on 24 October 2017 from Helsinki. The stream can also be accessed from our YouTube channel as well as Facebook. Video of WIDER Annual Lecture 21 by Professor Sabina Alkire
The purpose of this event is to introduce participants to MicroZAMOD, with a view to promoting its use within government for evidence-based policy-making. Training is directed to potential users of the model. As well as providing an overview of the...
PhD students Anne Kantel of the American University and Virgi Sari of the University of Manchester will both give 30-minute presentations at the seminar on 8 November. Anne Kantel: Abstract – Decentralizing or delegitimizing environmental governance...
Wed, 8 November 2017
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B,
Helsinki,
Finland
UNU-WIDER Research Fellow Miguel Niño-Zarazúa will present his work on information externalities, programmatic spending, and voting preferences at the seminar on 15 November. Abstract – Information externalities, programmatic spending, and voting...
Wed, 15 November 2017
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B,
Helsinki,
Finland
Anirban Mitra of the University of Kent will discuss vote-buying and corporate donation restrictions in India at the seminar on 22 November. Cash for Votes: Evidence from India This paper investigates the prevalence of vote-buying in democratic...
Wed, 22 November 2017
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B,
Helsinki,
Finland
At the WIDER seminar on 29 November, Yoa Pan of Aalto University will present her work on successful social programmes in China. Abstract – Aladdin’s lamp unleashed: Successful social programmes over local political cycles A social programme can...
Wed, 29 November 2017
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B,
Helsinki,
Finland
Over 100 enumerators and their supervisors from across Myanmar participated in this 2-day training event in preparation for a survey of small and medium-sized enterprises throughout the country. At the event participants discussed the survey manual...
Mon, 15 May 2017
–
Tue, 16 May 2017
Central Statistical Organization,
Naypyidaw,
Myanmar (Burma)
Following their first training, enumerators and supervisors from across Myanmar met to finalize their preparation for a survey of small and medium-sized enterprises. Participants discussed pending questions about the survey process, then participated...
Mon, 29 May 2017
–
Tue, 30 May 2017
Central Statistical Organization,
Naypyidaw,
Myanmar (Burma)
As part of the ‘Towards Inclusive Development in Myanmar’ project, 20 staff members of the Central Statistical office of Myanmar met to receive training on sampling methodology in preparation for the drafting of a quantative survey of small and...
Tue, 14 March 2017
–
Wed, 15 March 2017
Central Statistical Organization,
Naypyidaw,
Myanmar (Burma)
Representatives of CSO branches in 14 states/regions of Myanmar and supervisors from the main office in Naypyidaw met in preparation for a survey of small and medium-sized enterprises in Myanmar. The aim of the training was to present the survey...
Fri, 28 April 2017
Central Statistical Organization,
Naypyidaw,
Myanmar (Burma)
Researchers and policy makers met in Hanoi on 7-8 November 2017 to discuss ongoing work on micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises based on the latest data available from the Viet Nam SME survey. With a significant share of the country’s labour...
Tue, 7 November 2017
–
Wed, 8 November 2017
Center for Economic Management (CIEM),
68 Phan Đinh Phung - Ba Dinh,
Hanoi,
Vietnam
UNU-WIDER’s Director Finn Tarp gave a presentation at the Launch of the Finnish Government’s Development Policy Paper for 2016-2019 organized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, on 12 February 2016 in Helsinki. The event brought together...
Fri, 12 February 2016
Marina Congress Center,
Katajanokanlaituri 6,
Helsinki,
Finland
UNU-WIDER and The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) co-organized a project coordination meeting on the Biofuel growth opportunities in Southern Africa project on 22 January 2016 in Pretoria. The aim was for the researchers...
Fri, 22 January 2016
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),
Meiring Naude Rd,
Pretoria,
South Africa
This conference, part of the Inclusive growth in Mozambique project carried out with partners, will bring together government representatives, policy advisors, and development practitioners to discuss the latest results on, as well as methodologies...
Mon, 27 November 2017
Hotel Avenida,
Av. Julius Nyerere 627, 3236,
Maputo,
Mozambique
This public forum, to be held in Portuguese on 28 November 2017, will focus on findings and policy lessons stemming from recent research on inequality in Mozambique, with the ultimate aim of promoting innovative policies for inclusive growth. The...
Tue, 28 November 2017
Complexo Pedagógico, Eduardo Mondlane University,
Av. Julius Nyerere, 1993,
Maputo,
Mozambique
Each year the Center for Universal Education at Brookings (CUE) convenes policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders in the girls’ education arena to discuss the most pressing issues as identified by the Echidna Global Scholars, a group of global...
Wed, 8 November 2017
Brookings Institution,
1775 Massachusetts Avenue N.W.,
Washington, DC,
United States
UNU-WIDER Chief Economist-Deputy Director, Tony Addison, presented on the extractives industries and development during the exchange visit of the 5th Commission of the Parliament of Mozambique to Finland on 14 November 2017. Addison spoke to the...
These Social Accounting Matrices are consistent data frameworks that capture the information contained in the National Income and Product Accounts, a Supply Table (ST) and a Use Table (UT), as well as the monetary flows between institutions.
There will be a special poster session in the afternoon of 5 July 2017. Up to 22 posters will be presented in a suitable venue at conference premises and they will be displayed throughout both conference days. Authors are requested to illustrate...
UNU-WIDER invites qualified hotels and conference venue suppliers to make an offer for the provision of accommodation and conference services related to two (2) development conferences to be held in Helsinki, Finland, during 2016.
On 4 December 2015 Finn Tarp spoke at the 1st Grand Mozefo Forum 2015 under the heading ’The future is now. Humanizing growth’. The event was aimed at contributing to accelerating growth, inclusion and sustainability in the country by providing a platform for key development actors to interact.
The University of Pretoria will hold from 3-7 July 2017 the second Winter School – one of the key events in the public economics capacity building initiative managed by GTAC on behalf of the National Treasury.
Mon, 3 July 2017
–
Fri, 7 July 2017
University of Pretoria,
cnr Lynnwood Road and Roper Street,
Pretoria,
South Africa
This year the International Economic Association held its World Conference in Mexico City. The five day event, held from 19th to 23rd of June, featured a huge variety of sessions on many of the key economic issues of the day, as well as keynotes by...
Mon, 19 June 2017
–
Fri, 23 June 2017
Camino Real Hotel,
Mariano Escobedo 700,
Mexico City,
Mexico
An editorial published in Business Day, a daily business newspaper based in Lagos, has drawn on the World Income Inequality Database (WIID) to point to Nigeria’s growing inequality. The piece uses the database along with measures from the World Bank...
The Kingdom of Lesotho is classified by the UN as one of the least developed countries in the world. It is entirely reliant on South Africa for all imports and exports, while a few commodities help supplement its income. Lesotho has suffered...
The Finnish United Nations field service contingent visited UNU-WIDER in July as part of their yearly get-together, organized this year in Helsinki. The purpose of the visit was to learn about the Institute and its work in developing contexts, where...
There will be a special poster session of 45 minutes on both days of the conference. Up to 22 posters will be presented in a suitable venue at conference premises and will remain on display throughout both conference days. Authors are requested to...
The cornerstone of the ‘Towards inclusive development in Myanmar’ project is the establishment of a rigorous Myanmar Enterprise Monitoring System (MEMS) focused on the industrial small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. The MEMS is primarily aimed...
The IPP International Conference 2017, ‘Development and Poverty: China and the World’, will feature speakers and participants from the West, East Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and mainland China to discuss challenges faced by countries in their...
The WIDER Seminar Series showcases the latest research on key topics in development economics. At the weekly sessions, early-career and senior researchers present recent and ongoing work touching on structural transformation, inclusion, and...
United Nations University's World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) and the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) are collaborating on a research programme which focuses on climate change and green development issues. The...
Group visit by students of Hokkaido University, Japan, for briefing on UNU-WIDER's mandate and research, particularly ongoing research work within the project on Foreign Aid, Recom: Research and Communications
The State of Development in Asia - Current Trends and New Challenges. Presentation to Finnish Ambassadors to Asia & Oceania, Konigstedt Kartano, Helsinki, August 16, 2012
On 6 September 2017, Sowmya Dhanaraj of the Madras School of Economics will present her work on women at work in India. Abstract – Easing entry and improving job retention for rural Indian women: The role of family structure Culture is considered as...
Wed, 6 September 2017
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B,
Helsinki,
Finland
An article published in The Economist has drawn on the UNU-WIDER project Industries without smokestacks to discuss why Africa’s development model puzzles economists. The article argues that Africa has not followed the patterns of structural...
At the WIDER Seminar on 18 October 2017, Pauline Rossi will present findings on private health investments in Senegal. Abstract – Private health investments under competing risks: evidence from malaria control in Senegal | Slides This study exploits...
Wed, 18 October 2017
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B,
Helsinki,
Finland
At the 1 November seminar, Selim Gulesci will present results on tenancy contracts in agriculture. Abstract – Moral hazard: Experimental evidence from tenancy contract This paper reports results from a field experiment designed to estimate the...
Wed, 1 November 2017
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B,
Helsinki,
Finland
David Carment of Carleton University will present at the WIDER seminar on 13 September 2017. Abstract – Exiting the fragility trap: Rethinking our approach to the world's most fragile states | PPT slides It is frequently assumed that developing...
Wed, 13 September 2017
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B,
Helsinki,
Finland
The seminar on 20 September 2017 will feature two 30-minute presentations. Shiqi Guo will present on urban air quality in China and Abrams Tagem will share his findings on foreign aid and domestic revenue mobilization. Shiqi Guo: Abstract – How does...
Wed, 20 September 2017
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B,
Helsinki,
Finland
UNU-WIDER will hold a project workshop, ‘Forced migration and inequality: country- and city-level factors influencing refugee integration’, on 4 October 2017 in Accra, Ghana. The event brings together researchers to discuss work-in-progress, and...
This planning meeting is for the project team members, and is by personal invitation only. For more information on this research, please see the research page
Chair: Erik Berglof, Chief Economist, EBRD Speakers: Professor Gérard Roland, University of California, Berkeley. Dr Rania Al-Mashat, Assistant Sub-Governor and Head of Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of Egypt. Professor Roland, editor of...
Tue, 19 June 2012
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development,
One Exchange Square,
London,
United Kingdom
Presenter: Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis, UNDP Nepal, formerly UNU-WIDER Senior Research Fellow. Over the last few decades, globalization has had a visible effect on urbanization and migration patterns across much of Asia. Analyses of migration patterns...
The conceptualization and measurement of poverty has been the subject of intense study for more than a century. The adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 gave additional stimulus to these longstanding efforts, this time at the...
Africa is one of the fastest urbanizing regions of the world. On the one hand, this demographic transformation offers important opportunities for growth, economic development, and innovation. On the other hand, rapid urbanization generates high...
Tue, 5 June 2012
African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town,
Cape Town,
South Africa
Writing in Business Day, Hilary Joffe discusses one of the questions raised at a workshop held in collaboration with the South African Revenue Service and Treasury as part of the project 'Regional growth and development in Southern Africa'. The...
In her keynote address, Ingrid Palmary will discuss how global influences shaped the development of South Africa’s anti-trafficking legislation (Prevention and Combatting of Trafficking in Persons Act no. 26715, 2013). The issue of international...
Migration decisions affect those left behind in ways that are partly taken into account by market forces (e.g., wage effects on labour markets), and in other ways that for the most part that can be seen as ‘pure externalities’. Diasporas are an...
UNU-WIDER Research Fellow Smriti Sharma has penned an opinion piece in Women and Girls, a news platform focused on issues faced by female populations in the developing world. She writes about the importance of reducing the educational disadvantage of...
For complete information on this event, please refer to the official homepage (Finnish) http://www.maailmakylassa.fi/english/home (English) The event offers new perspectives on tolerant multiculturalism, development cooperation, global issues and...
Sat, 26 May 2012
–
Sun, 27 May 2012
Kaisaniemi Park & Railway Square,
Helsinki,
Finland
Social Protection in the form of conditional cash transfers, non-contributory social pension schemes or targeted workfare programs, have evolved in recent years in an increasing number of developing countries. Impact evaluations show that social...
Wed, 23 May 2012
Mediterranean Museum Auditorium,
Fredsgatan 2,
Stockholm,
Sweden
Group visit by the Helsinki Students’ UN Association for a seminar on UNU-WIDER’s mandate and research programme, with a research presentation on the UNU-WIDER project ‘Development Under Climate Change’ given by James Thurlow, Research Fellow at UNU...
Finn Tarp, Director of UNU-WIDER presented a Keynote paper during the Plenary Theme: Enhancing Collaborative Governance and Management of the Extractive Industries for Equitable Wealth Distribution and environmental Management in Africa
Useful details about travel and arrangements related to the WIDER Development Conference, Migration and mobility – new frontiers in research and policy. The conference is being held in Accra, Ghana, on 5-6 October 2017.
There will be two 30-minute presentations at the seminar on 11 October 2017. Venkata Nadella of Indiana University will present evidence from India on social group identity, electoral reservations, and entrepreneurship, and Alma Boustati of the...
Wed, 11 October 2017
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B,
Helsinki,
Finland
The African Development Bank, the African Development Institute and UNU-WIDER, in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, organize a workshop on the subject...
South Africa announced in February 2012 that it will introduce a carbon tax to reduce the country’s high levels of greenhouse gas emissions and assist in the global effort to curb climate change. This makes South Africa one of the first countries...
Finn Tarp, Director of UNU-WIDER delivered a seminar on 'The Political Economy of Green Growth' as part of the TCD/UCD Development Research Seminar Series 2012 organised by the Trinity International Development Initiative (TIDI) at Trinity College...
Overcoming state fragility is one of the most important international development objectives of the 21st century. Many fragile states have turned into failed states, where millions of people are caught in deprivation and seemingly hopeless conditions...
Mon, 19 March 2012
St Catherine's College,
Manor Road,
Oxford,
United Kingdom
Presenter Amelia U. Santos-Paulino, UNCTAD Chair Gordon Alexander, UNICEF Office of Research Discussant Gerárd Roland, University of California Overcoming state fragility is one of the most important international development objectives of the 21st...
Wed, 14 March 2012
Istituto degli Innocenti ,
Piazza della Santissima,
Florence,
Italy
‘Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, Setbacks, and New Directions’ by Danielle Resnick. In the past twenty years, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have experienced significant strides towards becoming more democratic as a result of...
The opening was chaired by Ms Anne Sipiläinen, Under Secretary of State, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland. In the session presented by UNU-WIDER Chief Economist and Deputy Director Tony Addison and Research Fellow Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, the...
Wed, 25 January 2012
–
Thu, 26 January 2012
House of Estates,
Snellmaninkatu 9-11,
Helsinki,
Finland
The poster session will be chaired by Wisdom Akpalu and features the following discussants: Emmanuel Ayimpusah, Dede Gafa, Abdul Malik Iddrisu, Richard Osei-Bofah, Millicent Otopabea Awuku, Bernice Owusu-Brown, and Johnson Wilson Appiah Kubi. Please...
Presentation by Rachel M. Gisselquist. Title: 'Ethnic Divisions, Local Governance, and Public Goods Provision: New Avenues for Research' (paper by Rachel M. Gisselquist, Stefan Leiderer, and Miguel Nino-Zarazua).
Presentation on i) aid, growth and development: what do we know?; (ii) poverty and human development; (iii) the changing global context; and (iv) Conclusions: a post 2015 perspective. Based on UNU-WIDER's research on foreign aid (ReCom) and to...
Group visit by 12 members of the Finnish parliamentary Development Policy Committee, for a briefing on UNU-WIDER's research projects, particularly research work within the ReCom - Research and Communication on Foreign Aid.
Wed, 12 February 2014
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6,
Helsinki,
Finland
Finn Tarp presented: INQUÉRITO AS INDÚSTRIAS MANUFACTUREIRAS 2012 (IIM 2012): APRESENTAÇÃO DOS RESULTADOS Mozambique’s Ministry for Planning and Development and in partnership with the Confederation of Economic Associations, Copenhagen University and...
The 2nd Asian Development Review Conference was organized in Manila 1-2 August 2013 by the ADB, the Asian Development Review (ADR) and the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). The Director of UNU-WIDER, Finn Tarp, presented a paper on structural...
'The Future of Growth – Economic Values and the Media' is the issue of the sixth Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum from 17-19 June 2013 at the World Conference Center Bonn (WCCB).
Presentation Training Workshop under the project '2011 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for green growth policy analysis and monitoring in Vietnam'. Rob Davies and Dirk van Seventer provided the training to the SAM working team of the Central Institute...
For complete information on this event, please refer to the official homepage (Finnish) http://www.maailmakylassa.fi/english/home (English) The event offers new perspectives on tolerant multiculturalism, development cooperation, global issues and...
Sat, 25 May 2013
–
Sun, 26 May 2013
Kaisaniemi Park & Railway Square,
Helsinki,
Finland
Presentation Presentation followed by a panel discussion with members of the Development Policy Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. The panel included Mr Jouko Jääskeläinen, Chair (MP/ Christian Democrats) and Ms Maria Lohela,...
The workshop will provide journalists with conceptual tools needed for understanding and reporting on the impact of foreign aid on development in different themes ranging from economic growth at the macro level to the consequences of specific...
Africa: Climate Change and Economic Development Climate Change and Economic Development in Africa is the theme of the 38th plenary session of the African Economic Research Consortium’s (AERC) Biannual Research Workshop 2013.The session will feature...
Group visit by students of University of Tampere, Finland, for briefing on UNU-WIDER's mandate and research, particularly ongoing research work within the project on Foreign Aid: Research and Communications.
Wed, 20 March 2013
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6,
Helsinki,
Finland
Video: panel discussion which took place on Monday 18 March 2013 in Oxford: http://fsmevents.com/csae/session6/ What lessons can be learnt from developed countries that might be useful for developing and emerging economies? With an emphasis on long...
Mon, 18 March 2013
Bernard Sunley Lecture Theatre, St. Catherine’s College,
Manor Road,
Oxford,
United Kingdom
Over the last two centuries, the experiences of the first wave of industrialized countries in Europe and the US, and the more recent experiences of the East Asian Tigers, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China, India, and Vietnam, have illustrated the...
Thu, 11 April 2013
London School of Economics and Political Science, Wolfson Theatre,
London,
United States
Group visit by Helsinki Authorized Guides, for briefing on UNU-WIDER's mandate and research, particularly ongoing research work within the project on Foreign Aid: Research and Communications.
Wed, 10 April 2013
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6,
Helsinki,
Finland
Training Workshop under the project 'Development of Vietnam’s 2011 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) to facilitate the implementation of green growth strategy'. Rob Davies and Dirk van Seventer provided the training to the SAM working team of the...
Professor Finn Tarp made a presentation 'Does Aid Increase Growth? during a Development Policy Programme for Finnish journalists, at the Department for Communication and Culture, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Helsinki. Presentation
Presented by: Dr Ranjula Bali Swain (Department of Economics, Uppsala University). Abstract This paper evaluates the impact of widespread training programs provided by the Self Help Group (SHG) program. Indian SHGs are mainly NGO-formed microfinance...
The Workshop aimed at having an open discussion with the Swedish Finance Minister, Anders Borg, on pressing development issues in sub-Saharan Africa. The discussion included concerns on growth sustainability, inclusive growth and development, and the...
Wed, 28 November 2012
Nordic Africa Institute,
Villavägen 6,
Uppsala,
Sweden
United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) is pleased to announce the following seminar by Kaushik Basu, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics of the World Bank Global Crisis...
A report describing the main findings and key policy recommendations arising from a new survey of Vietnamese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) was launched at Ha Noi’s Central Institute of Economic Management on 21 November 2012. The results of...
Wed, 21 November 2012
Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM),
Hanoi,
Vietnam
The 20th century witnessed global processes of urbanization on an unprecedented scale, to the extent that more than half of the world's population now lives in urban areas for the first time in human history. Latin America is the developing world's...
Fri, 26 October 2012
Senate Room, University of Glasgow,
University Avenue,
Glasgow,
United Kingdom
This workshop will discuss the relationship between research, and development policy and practice. The aim is to discuss the extent of research evidence based policy-making. This workshop was attended with a presentation by Tony Addison, Chief...
Mon, 19 November 2012
Hanasaari, The Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre,
Espoo,
Finland
A workshop to launch the joint UNU-WIDER, CIEM, University of Copenhagen climate change study 'Implications of Climate Change for Economic Growth and Development in Vietnam' was organized at the Central Institute of Economic Management on 26 July...
Thu, 26 July 2012
Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM),
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Invited Guest Lecturer, Aziz Karimov, Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. The lecture introduces food security concept and its four dimensions. It also describes food system approach which can help better understand the interactions between Food Security...
A one-day (closed) workshop, consisting of UNU-WIDER researchers, invited speakers, Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs staff, representatives from other relevant ministries in Finland, and participants from the Nordic development agencies and DFID...
For more information on the presentation by Finn Tarp, Director of UNU-WIDER, please refer to the link (in Danish language): http://www.ibis.dk/index.php?menuId=38&upId=2.
UNU-WIDER’s collaboration with the University of Ghana for a joint research and post-graduate teaching programme is launched in presence of the Rector of the United Nations University Professor Konrad Osterwalder and the Vice-Chancellor of the...
The Danish Society for International Development and the Centre for African Studies at Copenhagen University are pleased to announce an international conference on The new Africa – no longer the hopeless continent? Presentation by Finn Tarp, Director...
Fri, 2 November 2012
IDA Meeting Centre,
Kalvebod Brygge 31 – 33,
Copenhagen,
Denmark
Invited Guest Lecturer, Yongfu Huang, Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER on 'Keynesian Theories'. The lecture is on Keynesian theories of economic fluctuations covering the topics of nominal stickiness, demand shocks, market failures, imperfect information...
Invited Guest Lecturer, Yongfu Huang, Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER on 'Real Business Cycle Theory'. The lecture is on real business cycle model covering the effects of global shocks on economic fluctuations and business cycle in the context of...
Speaker Augustin Kwasi Fosu, Deputy Director of UNU-WIDER. Recent evidence from an exhaustive political-economy study of growth of African economies – the Growth Project of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) - suggests that ‘policy...
Tue, 9 October 2012
Seminar Room 3-4, Economicum,
Arkadiankatu 7,
Helsinki,
Finland
Recent years have seen a proliferation of composite indicators or indexes of governance and their use in research and policy-making. This article proposes a framework of 10 questions to guide both the development and evaluation of such indexes. In...
Social scientists are increasingly engaging in experimental research projects of importance for public policy in developing areas. While this research holds the possibility of producing major social benefits, it may also involve manipulating...
Aid to Haiti has not been effective due to failure of the country’s political and economic elites to participate and assist in the development process. US foreign policy has in some cases reinforced the tendency for elites to personally profit from...
Danielle Resnick In just a little over a month, policy makers will converge in Busan, South Korea for the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness...
Understanding chronic poverty and its evolution is complex given the amount of information involved. This paper proposes a new approach to analysing the evolution of chronic poverty in a multivariate setting using a Shapley decomposition of a...
24 September 2013 Andy Sumner A series of papers since late 2010 has discussed a shift in the location or 'geography' of global poverty. The shift is...
Alisa DiCaprio Innovations in social protection systems design have moved forward quickly on the supply-side over the past decade. But the same degree...
The distinction between development assistance and climate finance is driven by an optic of compensation largely derived from the ‘polluter pays’ principle. For practical as well as conceptual reasons, this principle provides a weak basis for climate...
Each dollar of aid per year provides 0.17 people with access to water or sanitation. This amounts to a cost of US$5.88 per person. Due to economies of scale, countries with large populations benefit more from aid to the water and sanitation sectors...