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Why do we see boom-and-bust growth in fragile and conflict-affected states?
One of the most pressing challenges in development policy is to bring about rapid, sustained, and inclusive growth in developing countries. Apart from...
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Journal Article
The corruption–growth relationshipCorruption is widely believed to have an adverse effect on the economic performance of a country. However, many East and Southeast Asian countries either achieved or currently are achieving impressively rapid economic growth despite widespread...
Working Paper
Clientelism, public goods provision, and governanceIt is widely believed that clientelism—the giving of material goods in return for electoral support—is associated with poorer development outcomes. However, systematic cross-country evidence on the deleterious effects of clientelism on development...
Working Paper
Inequality, institutions, and cooperationWe examine the effects of randomly introduced economic inequality on voluntary cooperation, and whether this relationship is influenced by the quality of local institutions, as proxied by corruption. We use representative data from a large-scale lab...
Blog
Clientelism – another reason to worry about US democracy
The last several months have given us many reasons to worry about US democracy – not least the riot at the US Capitol and the president’s refusal to...
Working Paper
Global oil theft: impact and policy responsesThis paper, the first of two on global oil theft and fraud, discusses the prevalence, methods, and consequences of global oil theft, valued at US$133 billion per year and equivalent to 5–7 per cent of the global market for crude oil and petroleum...
Blog
Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Malokele Nanivazo Sexual violence crime (SV) in wartime is not a new phenomenon. Mass rapes have occurred in armed conflicts in Rwanda, Kosovo...
Blog
Reflections on Transition: Twenty Years after the Fall of The Berlin Wall
Gérard Roland The above titled book, published by Palgrave Macmillan 2012, brings together contributions from a conference that took place in Helsinki...
Working Paper
Firm-level corruptionThis paper adds to the recent literature on firm-level corruption by relying on rich data including detailed information on the purpose and amounts of bribe payments among Vietnamese micro, small, and medium firms. Using industry-location averages to...
Working Paper
Is the International Community Helping to Recreate the Pre-Conditions for War in Sierra Leone?‘In a very real sense, the conditions that spawned the war and inflicted gruesome casualties on Sierra Leone’s citizens have not disappeared’, warned the International Crisis Group. In this paper we argue that many of those conditions are being...
Working Paper
Diamonds, Foreign Aid, and the Uncertain Prospects for Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Sierra LeoneThis article examines the external and internal dimensions of post-conflict reconstruction in Sierra Leone. The United Nations, bilateral donors such as the United Kingdom, and transnational non-governmental organizations and aid agencies have been...
Working Paper
Inequality, Corruption, and Competition in the Presence of Market ImperfectionsWe analyze the relation between inequality, corruption and competition in a developing economy context where markets are imperfect. We consider an economy where different types of households (efficient and inefficient) choose to undertake production...
Working Paper
Enforcing the Right to Food in IndiaOver the past decade, a series of events in India have brought the question of food security into sharp focus. Vast famine-affected areas versus surplus production and stocks of grains, the impact of globalization and World Trade Organization laws on...
Working Paper
Institutional bypass and aid effectiveness in AfricaMany practical and action-oriented international roadmaps to improve the quality of aid and its delivery and impact on development—including the Paris Declaration, Accra Agenda for Action, and Busan Partnership—emphasize a more active involvement of...
Journal Article
How does petty corruption affect tax morale in sub-Saharan Africa?Revenues from taxation gain in importance to finance economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. One obstacle to enhancing the willingness to remit taxes can be the extortion of bribes by public officials. Using micro-level data from the...
Blog
Narendra Modi’s performance on the Indian economy: Five key policies assessed
When Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister in spring 2014 the Indian economy was in the doldrums. There was a clear policy paralysis in India’s...
Working Paper
Cocaine CitiesThe relationship between the cocaine trade and urban land markets in South America has been overlooked by the mainstream economics and urban studies literature. This paper examines two avenues through which the cocaine trade can have a large impact...
Working Paper
Foreign Direct Investment in AfricaData from several investor surveys suggest that macroeconomic instability, investment restrictions, corruption and political instability have a negative impact on foreign direct investment (FDI) to Africa. However, the relationship between FDI and...
Working Paper
Wealth Distribution, Lobbying and Economic GrowthThis paper presents a model allowing one to analyze the joint determination of inequality, taxes, human capital and growth. We consider the political economy of redistribution between three income groups in a dynamic economy. The paper seeks to...
Blog
Social ties amongst lower-income citizens shape support for vote-buying candidatesAcross Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia, political candidates often attempt to buy the votes of the most socio-economically deprived communities. But new...
Blog
Clientelism and targeting of welfare benefits: Can a centralized formula-based system do better?Local governments in India—known as panchayats—are sometimes criticised for failing to deliver benefits earmarked for vulnerable regions or households...
Working Paper
Extractive industries: addressing transparency, corruption, and theftThis paper analyses the roles that states, civil society, and international actors can play in tackling the weak governance that sometimes leads to resources being used for private rather than public benefit. It discusses the corruption that bedevils...
Working Paper
Using remote tracking technologies to audit and understand medicine theftMedicine theft is a leading cause of inadequate healthcare. Audits of public health supply chains suggest that up to a third of medicines go missing in low-income countries, disproportionately affecting those facing greater health risks and poverty...
Journal Article
Corruption and the Efficiency of Capital Investment in Developing CountriesThis paper tests the effect of corruption on the efficiency of capital investment. Using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys, covering 90 developing and transition economies, we consider whether the cost of informal bribe payments...
Working Paper
Development, Aid and ConflictRwanda's genocide is the end-result of a combination of processes, none of which can easily be priorized or separated from the others. These processes are: extreme pauperization and reduction of life chances for a majority of the poor, especially...
Working Paper
A short history of India's economyThis paper is a short history of the Indian economy since 1968. India today is a changed country from what it was half a century ago, when Myrdal published his Asian Drama. The stranglehold of low growth has been broken, its population below the...
Journal Article
Anti-corruption policy making, discretionary power and institutional qualityWe analyse policymakers’ incentives to fight corruption under different institutional qualities. We find that ‘public officials’, even when non-corrupt, significantly distort anti-corruption institutions by choosing a lower detection probability when...
Working Paper
Promoting Education within the Context of a Neo-Patrimonial StateIn the first two or three decades of independence, Nigeria, like the rest of Africa. placed heavy emphasis on expanding educational opportunities from primary school through university. This has resulted in a very impressive increase in the number of...
Working Paper
Women legislators and economic performanceThere has been a phenomenal global increase in the proportion of women in politics in the last 20 years. While there is evidence that raising the share of women politicians has substantive impacts on the composition of government spending, there is...
Working Paper
South-South labour migration and the impact of the informal China-Ghana gold rush 2008–13This paper examines irregular South-South migration from China to Ghana, and the role it has played in transforming livelihoods and broader developmental landscapes. It looks at the entry from the mid-2000s of approximately 50,000 Chinese migrants...
Working Paper
Inequality, good governance and endemic corruptionCan a society suffering contests between rich and poor achieve good governance in the face of endemic corruption? We examine a stylized poor state with weak institutions in which a ‘culture of evasion’ damages state authority. Many evade tax payments...
Working Paper
Développement, Aide, et ConflitLe génocide rwandais est le résultat final d'une combinaison de mécanismes dont aucun ne peut revendiquer être prioritaire ou indépendant des autres. Parmi ces mécanismes figurent une extrême pauvreté et la réduction des perspectives d'avenir pour la...
Working Paper
The corruption–growth relationshipCorruption is widely believed to negatively affect economic growth. However, many East and Southeast Asia countries either achieved or currently are achieving impressively rapid economic growth despite widespread corruption — the ‘East Asian Paradox’...
Journal Article
Inequality, good governance, and endemic corruptionPart of Journal Special Issue Public economics and development action
Journal Article
South‐South Irregular MigrationPart of Journal Special Issue Migration Governance and Policy in the Global South
Working Paper
Illegal Immigration, Human Trafficking, and Organized CrimeIt is important to make a careful distinction between illegal immigration, human smuggling, and human trafficking which are nested, but yet different concepts. This distinction is relevant because these different categories of the illegal movement of...
Working Paper
Corruption and the Efficiency of Capital Investment in Developing CountriesThis paper considers the effect of corruption on the efficiency of capital investment. Using firm-level level data from the World Bank enterprise surveys, covering 90 developing and transition economies, we consider whether the cost of informal bribe...
Blog
From the Editor's Desk (August 2013)
22 August 2013 Tony Addison Angle returns from its Nordic summer break, to bring you more news and results from UNU-WIDER’s programme. Coming up in...
Blog
Varying Growth Trajectories of the West and the South: The Role of Inequality and Institutions
27 August 2014 Vladimir Popov Modern economic growth started in the West, not because of the efficiency of various capitalist institutions...
Research Brief
Barriers to Effective Civil Service Reform in Developing CountriesThe civil service is the backbone of the state, and can either support or undermine a country’s entire system of governance. Donor’s recognize this important fact and have often tried to promote civil service reform in the countries they are...
Blog
Economic Lessons from Recent Research for Achieving SDG8
This article is part of UNU’s “17 Days, 17 Goals” series, featuring research and commentary in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development...
Blog
From the Editor's Desk (September-October 2015)
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...
Working Paper
Foreign Aid and Sustainable ForestryForeign 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...
Working Paper
Foreign Aid and the Failure of State Building in Haiti Under the Duvaliers, Aristide, Préval, and MartellyAfter 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...
Working Paper
What Can Experiments Tell Us About How to Improve Governance?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...
Working Paper
Civil Service ReformCivil 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...
Working Paper
Beyond Electoral DemocracyIn the 1990s, analysts were almost unanimous in considering Benin to be one of the most important aid recipients among the newly democratizing African countries. After more than two decades of democratic practice, the country has clearly completed...
Working Paper
State-Building Through NeotrusteeshipWhy 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...
Working Paper
Overcoming the Limits of Institutional Reform in UgandaThis 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...
Journal Article
Buying Peace or Fuelling WarPart of Journal Special Issue Explaining Violent Conflict
Journal Article
Designing Effective Civil Service Reform Lessons from Past ExperiencePart of Journal Special Issue Aiding Government Effectiveness in Developing Countries
Journal Article
The Socioeconomic Roots of Conflict in the CaucasusPart of Journal Special Issue Explaining Violent Conflict
Working Paper
Corruption and assortative matching of partners in international tradeWhile the effects of corruption on bilateral trade have been relatively well explored, its effect on the composition of trading partners has not been studied. In this paper, we argue that corruption in a country is likely to impose asymmetric costs...
Working Paper
Corruption and InequalityEconomic inequality provides a fertile breeding ground for corruption and, in turn, leads to further inequalities. Most corruption models focus on the institutional determinants of government dishonesty. However, such accounts are problematic...
Blog
From offshore oil to offshore finance: How tax havens facilitate corruption in the extractive industriesIn many countries, news of an oil discovery or the award of an exploration license is rarely greeted with enthusiasm by the general public. Any hopes...
Journal Article
Clientelism, corruption and the rule of lawPart of Journal Special Issue Clientelist Politics and Development
Working Paper
Corruption and crisis: do institutions matter?While the short-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on lives and livelihoods are well understood, we know little about the effect of the pandemic for longer-term outcomes such as corruption. We look at the historical data on political and economic...
Working Paper
Countering global oil theft: responses and solutionsThis second of two papers on global oil theft discusses ways to reduce oil theft, misappropriation, and fraud. At US$133 billion per year, oil is the largest stolen natural resource globally, while fuel is the most smuggled natural resource. Oil...
Working Paper
Incorporation of offshore shell companies as an indicator of corruption risk in the extractive industriesWe show that the incorporation of offshore entities increases when oil and gas exploration licences are awarded. We exploit leaked data on the incorporation of shell companies and detailed information on tax havens and the awarding rounds of oil...
Working Paper
Tax provisioning by extractive industry multinational subsidiariesExtractive industries are spread across mining of metal and minerals, oil and gas, among others. Multinationals in these sectors are confronted with different challenges ranging from corruption, political risk, economic uncertainty, sunk costs, and...
Working Paper
Herding, rent-seeking taxpayers, and endemic corruptionIn an environment with extensive corruption where much of the population evades paying their full taxes due, we tackle the question of optimal taxation when constituencies with opposing objectives (the poor and the rich) push tax policy in different...
Working Paper
The end of Londongrad? The impact of beneficial ownership transparency on offshore investment in UK propertyThe United Kingdom’s (UK) property markets are thought to be a common destination for corrupt and criminal assets and money laundering, with investment often through offshore shell companies. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, we...
Working Paper
A model to explain the impact of government revenue on the quality of governance and the SDGsThis paper empirically investigates the link between the level of government revenue per capita and six indicators of quality of governance in an unbalanced panel data set consisting of all countries in the world (217) using data from 1980 to 2020...
Blog
Could the war in Ukraine encourage Western leaders to finally deal with shadow finance?
'I say to the Russian oligarchs and the corrupt leaders who bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime: no more… We are coming for your ill...
Blog
Do elites capture foreign aid?Does foreign aid end up in the pockets of elites instead of contributing to inclusive economic development? A recently published journal article...
Working Paper
Revisiting community-driven reconstruction in fragile statesCommunity-driven reconstruction (CDR) is an approach to post-war reconstruction that gives discretion to local community councils in establishing priorities and overseeing the implementation of reconstruction and development activities. A series of...
Working Paper
Reform of the Malawian Public SectorSince the early 1990s, Malawi has tried to undertake economic reforms, including the restructuring of the public sector, even as it embraced democratic reforms. Paucity of human and financial resources has made the process difficult and drawn out...
Working Paper
Politics, Society and Financial Sector Reform in BangladeshThis paper examines the financial sector reform experience of Bangladesh. It finds that while there have been some improvements in competition and efficiency, loan defaults still remain a significant problem. It also finds urban bias in loan...
Working Paper
Is it Possible to Reform a Customs Administration?An ethnographic approach is applied to Cameroon customs in order to explore the role and the capacity of the bureaucratic elites to reform their institution. Fighting against corruption has led to the extraction and circulation of legal ‘collective...
Working Paper
What traders know: the (mis)perceptions of formal and informal cross-border tradersCross-border traders face a choice between official and unofficial border crossings. The latter allow them to evade taxes, but expose them to other risks, such as bribes, fines, and arrest. We investigate the perceptions of cross-border traders about...
Journal Article
Foreign Direct Investment in AfricaPart of Journal Special Issue FDI to Developing Countries
Working Paper
Political Clientelism and CaptureWe provide a theory of political clientelism, which explains sources and determinants of political clientelism, the relationship between clientelism and elite capture, and their respective consequences for allocation of public services, welfare, and...
Working Paper
Taxation, infrastructure, and firm performance in developing countriesThis paper investigates the relationship between taxation and firm performance in developing countries. Taking firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES) and tax data from the Government Revenue Dataset (ICTD/UNU-WIDER), our...
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