Blog

by Zachariah Mampilly March 2021

That we are living in an era of popular protest is undeniable. A quick survey of headlines from around the world — or better yet, your social media...

• Social conflict
• Good governance
• Social movement

Working Paper

Although baseline data for post-conflict situations are frequently unavailable, there is a clear deterioration in the health conditions of populations during and following conflict. Excess mortality and morbidity, displaced populations, and...

• Health
• Social conflict
• War

Blog

by Roger Williamson September 2013

24 September 2013 Roger Williamson Another big weekend for UNU-WIDER. The stage was well set on Thursday 19 September for a consideration of...

• Economic policy
• Equality and inequality
• Structural adjustment (Economic policy)

Blog

by Malokele Nanivazo April 2012

Malokele Nanivazo Sexual violence crime (SV) in wartime is not a new phenomenon. Mass rapes have occurred in armed conflicts in Rwanda, Kosovo...

• Crime
• Education
• Humanitarian assistance

Blog

by Imed Drine June 2012

Imed Drine Many observers see youth unemployment as the major reason behind the recent popular uprisings in a number of Arab countries. Increasing...

• Democracy
• Economic surveys
• Education

Working Paper

Over 1975-2003 nearly 200 new constitutions were drawn up in countries at risk of conflict, as part of peace processes and the adoption of multiparty political systems. The process of writing constitutions is considered to be very important to the...

• Democracy
• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Social conflict

Working Paper

‘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...

• Democratization
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Corruption

Working Paper

This 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...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Corruption
• Natural resources

Working Paper

Peace can generate an economic dividend, which can be further increased by appropriate economic reform. This dividend can in turn be used to raise popular support for conflict resolution measures along the road to achieving a final political...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Public expenditure
• Social conflict

Working Paper

The long-running conflict in northern Uganda has led to major violations of human rights against civilians, destruction of infrastructure, reduced access to social services, and paralysed economic activity. Creating peace and fostering reconciliation...

• Public expenditure
• Local government
• Poverty

Working Paper

This paper examines the causes of conflict in Burundi and discusses strategies for building peace. The analysis of the complex relationships between distribution and group dynamics reveals that these relationships are reciprocal, implying that...

• Distribution
• Education
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

This paper studies the postwar economic and political reconstruction in Lebanon. The paper shows that the ‘reconstruction boom’ was short-lived. The economy experienced a growth trap early in the reconstruction period, and entered a cyclical crisis...

• Distribution
• Public expenditure
• Fiscal policy

Working Paper

In this paper, an attempt is made to identify some key challenges for infrastructure sectors in post-conflict reconstruction. In spite of the Hague and Geneva Conventions, infrastructure can be damaged in conflicts, and reconstructing infrastructure...

• Infrastructure (Economics)
• Public goods
• Social conflict

Working Paper

This paper presents a simple model to show how distributional concerns can engender social conflict. We have a two period model, where the cost of conflict is endogenous in the sense that parties involved have full control over how much conflict they...

• Equality and inequality
• Game theory
• Income distribution

Working Paper

Despite a sizeable literature, there is no consensus as to whether and how mineral resources are linked to conflict. In this paper, we estimate the relationship between giant mineral deposit discoveries and the intensity of armed conflict (measured...

• Ethnic relations
• Nonrenewable natural resources
• Social conflict

Working Paper

This paper investigates how people created, adapted and used social capital and conflict resolution during more than a decade of violent conflict in Liberia, and the potential of such capital to contribute to post-conflict peacebuilding and self...

• Capital
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Social conflict

Working Paper

This paper addresses informal cross-border trade in the Horn of Africa, with an emphasis on the Somalia borderlands. It will be shown that despite the collapse of a government in 1991, Somalia’s unofficial exports of cattle to Kenya have grown...

• Agriculture
• Informal sector
• International trade

Working Paper

Agricultural development can contribute significantly to peace by raising incomes and employment, thereby reducing the social frustrations that give rise to violence. Agricultural growth also generates revenues for governments, allowing them to...

• Agriculture
• International trade
• Revenue

Working Paper

This paper uses a game-theoretic framework to explain how collectivist values hamper societies’ efforts to elicit cooperation in inter-group games of prisoners’ dilemma (PD) and draws on the results of the analysis to interpret the meanings of three...

• Cooperative societies
• Game theory
• Institutional economics

Working Paper

Countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Angola, and Sierra Leone are now attempting to recover from major wars, often amidst continuing insecurity. The challenge is to achieve a broad-based recovery that benefits the majority of people. The economic and...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development
• International trade

Working Paper

The political economy of civil wars has acquired unprecedented scholarly and policy attention. Among others, the International Peace Academy’s programme on Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (EACW) has aimed to contribute to a better understanding of the...

• Economic development
• Social conflict

Working Paper

The purpose of this paper is to outline trends and patterns in movements of asylum-seekers to Western so-called industrialized countries from 1990-2001. The paper begins by characterizing three distinct phases of asylum migration since the end of the...

• Emigration and immigration
• Social conflict
• Statistics

Working Paper

Data 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...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Foreign investments
• Corruption

Journal Special Issue

Recent years have seen a surge of research into the causes of conflict together with its development effects, as well as the design of peace initiatives, peace-keeping and programmes of reconstruction, reconciliation and democratization in ‘post...

• Economic development
• Social conflict

Journal Special Issue

Reconstruction from conflict is a complex and demanding task, and a major challenge for the UN system as well as the wider donor community. National authorities and their donor partners are faced with multiple priorities - rebuilding infrastructure...

• Conflict management
• Economic development
• National security

Journal Article

Recent evidence from an exhaustive political-economy study of growth of African economies—the Growth Project of the African Economic Research Consortium—suggests that ‘policy syndromes’ have substantially contributed to the generally poor growth in...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Macroeconomics
• Social conflict

Policy Brief

In simple language and with numerous concrete examples, this policy brief analyses the impact - among others - of key ex-ante factors such as acute 'horizontal inequality' between social groups in the distribution of assets, state jobs, social...

• Equality and inequality
• International relations
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Present in India since the 1960s, the Naxalite insurgency has steadily spread across the country. Counterinsurgency measures lagged behind and did not follow any systematic process till the early 2000s with the exception of Andhra Pradesh, which in...

• Conflict management
• Construction sector
• Credit

Working Paper

The Age of Humanitarian Emergencies makes an effort to define and operationalize a humanitarian emergency. After having discussed extensively definitions related to collective violence, especially genocide and civil war, the paper opts for a more...

• Humanitarian assistance
• Hunger
• Natural disasters

Working Paper

Rwanda'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...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Institutional economics
• Corruption

Working Paper

Support for entrepreneurship is widely seen as a mechanism to facilitate prosperity and peace in a growing number of post-conflict states. In this paper I critically evaluate this view. I argue that entrepreneurship is a ubiquitous quality in post...

• Economic development
• Entrepreneurship
• National security

Working Paper

The record of aid to fragile and poorly-performing states is the real test of aid effectiveness. Rich countries can justify aid to fragile states both through altruism and self-interest. But, with some exceptions, donors have appeared at the wrong...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development
• International relations

Working Paper

The Maoist insurgency in Nepal is one of the highest intensity internal conflicts in recent times. Investigation into the causes of the conflict would suggest that grievance rather than greed is the main motivating force. The concept of horizontal or...

• Equality and inequality
• Insurgency
• Regional economics

Working Paper

This diagnostic study explores the political conditions that are associated with humanitarian emergencies. It employs a risk rather than cause-effect methodology. Humanitarian emergencies are not random events. They occur most frequently in states...

• Ethnic relations
• Human rights
• Refugees

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Aid for Gender Equality and Development

• Democracy
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Justice, Administration of

Working Paper

Towards the Abyss? The Political Economy of Emergency in Haiti analyzes the various factors that have contributed to create a protracted humanitarian emergency situation in Haiti. The first section deals with the economic causes, the interplay...

• Economic development
• Land use
• Population

Blog

by Tony Addison February 2012

Tony Addison It’s now February, and Helsinki remains deep in snow. We had an extended blizzard last weekend, with temperatures hovering around minus...

• Human capital
• Nationalism
• Democracy

Blog

by Tony Addison December 2012

Tony Addison This year has rushed by at speed. For UNU-WIDER it’s been a year of big successes. We will have published some 110 working papers by the...

• Accessibility
• Economic development
• Climate change

Blog

by Tony Addison August 2012

Tony Addison With this issue, Angle returns refreshed from its Nordic summer break. The sun continues to shine on the Baltic, although it is getting...

• Environment
• Children
• Climate change

Working Paper

• Economic development
• Regional economics
• Social conflict

Working Paper

• Economic development
• History of economics
• Social conflict

Working Paper

This paper, a draft from the early stages of an ongoing UNU/WIDER research project, outlines hypotheses for the economic cause of humanitarian disasters. Complex humanitarian emergencies are considered to be man-made crises, in which large numbers of...

• Economic conditions
• Elite (Social sciences)
• Natural resources

Policy Brief

Although the impacts of violent conflict on investment, production, incomes and inequality have been widely studied on an aggregate level, comparatively less is known about the more diverse impacts of such conflict at the micro (particularly firm)...

• Entrepreneurship
• Microeconomics
• Social conflict

Working Paper

Contemporary Africa reveals a range of causes, consequences and responses to conflicts which are increasingly interrelated as well as regional in character, as around the Great Lakes/Horn. Their economic and non-state features are undeniable, leading...

• National security
• Regional economics
• Social conflict

Working Paper

This paper provides a beginning toward explaining why humanitarian emergencies have been so substantial in the post-cold war era, a period expected to be less violent. The humanitarian emergencies of the contemporary period tend to be state-centred...

• Democratization
• Economic development
• Humanitarian assistance

Working Paper

Le 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...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Institutional economics
• Corruption

Working Paper

This paper develops and tests five hypotheses regarding the economic causes of complex humanitarian emergencies (CHEs). We argue that: (1) such emergencies, involving large-scale deaths and population displacements, are most likely to occur when...

• Economic development
• Economic growth
• Ethnic relations

Working Paper

This paper explains correlations between humanitarian emergencies and political economies of 'failing states' in Liberia and Sierra Leone. In both, Cold War era rulers acquired personal power through their influence over economic exchange...

• Failed states
• Natural resources
• Economic power

Working Paper

The northeast region of India remains fraught with severe violence, poor growth and acute frustration among its youth. Success of policies to resolve the region’s crisis has proved less than encouraging. What could be the way out of the violence–poor...

• Conflict management
• Economic development
• Government accountability

Working Paper

This paper reviews the challenges and experiences in rebuilding fiscal institutions in postconflict environments, based on advice from the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department to selected countries. The recommended strategy involved a three-step process...

• Financial institutions
• Fiscal policy
• Social conflict

Working Paper

The current consensus objective of development aid in the international community is to reduce poverty in general and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in particular. In addition, the dominant view identifies economic growth as the...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development
• Poverty

Working Paper

In this paper, we estimate the costs of state failure, both for the failing state itself and for its neighbours. In our analysis, the cost of failure arises from two distinct sources: organized violence due to the incapacity of the state to ensure...

• Economic development
• Failed states
• Poverty

Working Paper

Can we predict when and where violence will break out within cases of genocide? Given often weak political will to respond, knowing where to strategically prioritize limited resources is valuable information for international decision makers...

• Conflict management
• National security
• Social conflict

Blog

by Tony Addison February 2013

Tony Addison As the snow continues to lie deep across Helsinki, UNU-WIDER is putting the last touches to the ReCom results meeting on ‘aid and the...

• Industrialization
• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Children

Blog

by Tony Addison March 2013

Tony Addison This month saw UNU-WIDER in Stockholm for the ReCom results meeting on ‘aid and the social sectors’, which took place at Sida on 13 March...

• Decision making (Finance, Public)
• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Agriculture

Blog

by Tony Addison October 2013

31 October 2013 Tony Addison October finds Angle in New York, for our event on ‘Fragility and Aid–What Works?’ at the Permanent Mission of Germany to...

• Agriculture
• Budget
• Children

Blog

by Pranab K. Bardhan May 2010

It's imperative to demolish myths around the economic achievements of China and India and get a better sense of the real challenges. The author of the...

• Economic development
• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality

Research Brief

A secure environment is an important component of successful economic development initiatives. Policing reforms in African states have been disappointing; the image of state policy and police–community relations remain poor. States that have enacted...

• Democracy
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development

Book Chapter

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...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Ethnic relations
• Poverty

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Aid to Support Fragile States

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development
• Social conflict

Working Paper

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...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Equality and inequality
• Social conflict

Working Paper

This paper provides an overview on the impacts of food aid. We consider its effects on consumption, nutrition, food markets and labour supply, as well as the extent to which it exacerbates or mitigates conflict. We also consider the comparative...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Food industry and trade
• Labour supply

Working Paper

This paper examines the current security–governance–development nexus, something that is often also discussed under the concept of ‘transitional justice’ (TJ). The paper analyses how the ambiguous, evolving and expanding nature of the concept of TJ...

• Democracy
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Justice, Administration of

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Institutional economics
• Corruption

Working Paper

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...

• Children
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development projects

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Explaining Violent Conflict

• Democracy
• Public administration
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Explaining Violent Conflict

• Equality and inequality
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Explaining Violent Conflict

• Economic development
• Social conflict

Position Paper

This position paper on Aid, Governance, and Fragility was prepared by UNUWIDER under the ReCom programme of Research (Re) and Communication (Com) on foreign aid. It aims to provide an up-to-date overview and guide to two topics of central importance...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Institutional economics
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book From Conflict to Recovery in Africa

• Imperfect competition
• Macroeconomics
• Poverty

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Explaining Violent Conflict

• Corruption
• Public administration
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Conflict and Peace-building

• Democracy
• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Social conflict

Blog

by Roger Williamson October 2013

30 October 2013 Roger Williamson The UNU-WIDER meeting held last week in New York on the topic of fragility and aid argued forcefully that you cannot...

• Agriculture
• Budget
• Conflict management

Book Chapter

Part of Book From Conflict to Recovery in Africa

• Agriculture
• Economic growth
• Structural adjustment (Economic policy)

Book Chapter

Part of Book From Conflict to Recovery in Africa

• Democratization
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Poverty

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Spatial Inequality and Development in Asia

• Equality and inequality
• Global warming
• Regional economics

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Globalization-Poverty Channels and Case Studies from Sub-Saharan Africa

• Globalization
• Land tenure
• Social conflict

Working Paper

The notion that economic development in African states requires minimal levels of security has become widely accepted in the international development community. Reforming non-functioning policing systems is an important step toward achieving...

• Democracy
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Aiding Government Effectiveness in Developing Countries

• Democracy
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development

Working Paper

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...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book Democratic Trajectories in Africa

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Equality and inequality
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book From Conflict to Recovery in Africa

• Financial institutions
• Macroeconomics
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Civil War in Developing Countries

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Game theory
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Humanitarian assistance
• Hunger
• Natural disasters

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Explaining Violent Conflict

• Ethnic relations
• Corruption
• Natural resources

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Explaining Violent Conflict

• National security
• Regional economics
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Economic development
• Land use
• Population

Working Paper

The design of policies towards countries where major conflicts have ended is becoming a major issue in the development agenda partly because of the numbers of countries where such policy is relevant and partly because their situation tends to be...

• Conflict management
• Economic policy
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

Since existing injustices and the quest for justice are seen to be the main causes for violent clashes, it is often claimed that the restoration of justice must be the most important goal of post-conflict reconstruction. However, the current policy...

• Conflict management
• Justice, Administration of
• Economic power

Working Paper

Using a large-scale novel panel dataset (2005–14) on schools from the Indian state of Assam, we test for the impact of violent conflict on female students’ enrollment rates. We find that a doubling of average killings in a district-year leads to a 13...

• Education
• Equality and inequality
• Human capital

Working Paper

A critical task is to construct a development state-a set of democratically-accountable institutions capable of effective policy design and implementation. The new state agenda is ambitious and resource intensive. It cannot therefore be achieved...

• Public debt
• Democratization
• Public expenditure

Working Paper

This study examines the relative merits of grievance-based explanations of civil conflict that stress ‘Malthusian crises’ and ‘creed-related,’ civilizational clashes against competing propositions of greed- and governance-related explanations. The...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Natural resources
• Public administration

Working Paper

In a significant number of developing countries, revenue from the sale of a few natural resources accounts for the vast majority of export earnings and a large share of total government revenue. As a result, the allocation of revenue from natural...

• Distribution
• Equality and inequality
• Natural resources

Working Paper

The relationship between an economy's financial sector and the occurrence and resolution of conflict may at first sight appear tenuous. Banking systems, financial regulation and currency arrangements do not appear to be relevant in understanding why...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Equality and inequality
• Financial institutions

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue African Development in an Urban World

• Economic development
• Regional economics
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Entrepreneurship and Conflict

• Economic development
• Entrepreneurship
• Informal sector

Journal Article

This paper models transnational terrorism as a three-way strategic interaction involving a government that faces armed opposition at home, which may spill over in the form of acts of terrorism by the state's opponents against the government's...

• Conflict management
• Game theory
• Social conflict

Working Paper

The concept of scapegoating is frequently used to explain how opportunistic elites attempt to deflect blame onto vulnerable ethnic minorities, particularly during times of social turmoil. However, the notion of scapegoating is undertheorized in the...

• Econometric models
• Entrepreneurship
• Ethnic relations

Working Paper

This paper explores one possible argument for how to respond to the epistemic troubles in the production of knowledge about urban Africa. The problem I have in mind is the preponderance of policy-oriented research on the development challenges and...

• Economic development
• Regional economics
• Social conflict

Working Paper

As the world moves towards its so-called urban ‘tipping point’, urbanization in the global South has increasingly come to be portrayed as the portent of a dystopian future characterized by ever-mounting levels of anarchy and brutality. The...

• Regional economics
• Social conflict
• Urban economics

Working Paper

Dar es Salaam is exceptional in East Africa for having a record of relatively little ethnic tension, and remaining tranquil and true to its name, the ‘harbour of peace’. This paper explores the interface between ethnic and national identities in...

• Colonies
• Decolonization
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Reconstructing the financial system in countries affected by violent conflict is crucial to successful and broad-based recovery. Particularly important tasks include: currency reform, rebuilding (or creating) central banks, revitalising the banking...

• Banking
• Financial institutions
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue FDI to Developing Countries

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Foreign investments
• Corruption

Working Paper

Tree crops have changed land tenure in Africa. Farmers have acquired more permanent, alienable rights, but have also faced disputes with competing claimants and the state. I show that the introduction of Para rubber had similar effects in the Benin...

• Agricultural industries
• Land reform
• Land tenure

Working Paper

We analyse rural household livelihood and children’s school enrollment decisions in a post-conflict setting in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh. The innovation of the paper lies in the fact that we employ information about current...

• Children
• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Education

Working Paper

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 syndromes’ have substantially contributed to the generally poor...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Macroeconomics
• Social conflict

Working Paper

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...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Ethnic relations
• Poverty

Book Chapter

Part of Book Making Peace Work

• Economic development
• Entrepreneurship
• National security

Book Chapter

Part of Book Making Peace Work

• Infrastructure (Economics)
• Public goods
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book Making Peace Work

• Health
• Social conflict
• War

Book Chapter

Part of Book Making Peace Work

• Financial institutions
• Fiscal policy
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book Making Peace Work

• Conflict management
• Economic policy
• Equality and inequality

Book Chapter

Part of Book Making Peace Work

• Conflict management
• Justice, Administration of
• Economic power

Book Chapter

Part of Book Making Peace Work

• Economic development
• Social conflict

Working Paper

This paper illustrates how, in relation to globalization, formal and informal land institutions are prone to generate conflict over land rights and examines the implications of such conflicts on security levels of access to primary assets for the...

• Globalization
• Land tenure
• Social conflict

Working Paper

The post-independence Mozambican civil service, what was left of it following the exodus of Portuguese settlers in the mid-1970s, was poorly educated, with low incentives. In subsequent years, the combination of a war-ravaged economy, poor human...

• Public expenditure
• Poverty
• Public administration

Working Paper

This paper discusses some of the principal issues relating to the reconstruction of the financial sector in conflict-affected countries, focusing on currency reform, the rebuilding (or creation) of central banks, the revitalization of the banking...

• Central banking
• Financial institutions
• Social conflict

Working Paper

Inequality has risen in many countries over the last two decades, especially in the transition economies, but also in many developing and developed economies. This is disturbing since little progress can be made in poverty reduction when inequality...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution

Working Paper

The economic policies of transition and reconstruction in Mozambique, like the policies of central planning beforehand, were based on an inappropriate model of the inherited rural economy. Under central planning, the peasantry was looked upon as a...

• Agriculture
• Economic growth
• Structural adjustment (Economic policy)

Working Paper

This paper models transnational terrorism as a three-way strategic interaction involving a government that faces armed opposition at home, which may spill over in the form of acts of terrorism by the state’s opponents against the government’s...

• Conflict management
• Game theory
• Social conflict

Working Paper

War provides economic opportunities, such as the capture of valuable natural resources, that are unavailable in peacetime. However, belligerents may prefer low-intensity conflict to total war when the former has a greater pay-off. The paper therefore...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Game theory
• Natural resources

Working Paper

Warlords compete for turf that provides them with rents and ‘taxable’ resources but they can also offer a semblance of security within their respective territories. This article first examines two economic models of warlord competition. Because such...

• Game theory
• Informal sector
• Social conflict

Working Paper

Ethiopia is one of a number of SSA economies that adopted state-led development strategies in the 1970s (others include Angola and Mozambique), and suffered from intense conflict (leading to the fall of the Derg regime in 1991). The new government...

• Financial institutions
• Macroeconomics
• Social conflict

Working Paper

Of the 41 HIPCs, 11 are classified by the IMF and World Bank as conflict-affected. Can debt relief reduce the level of violent conflict in these countries? By providing additional resources to finance broad-based public spending, debt relief could...

• Public debt
• Fiscal policy
• Game theory

Working Paper

The ethnic conflicts in Burundi and Rwanda have severely weakened the economies and worsened the structural fiscal imbalances of these countries. Government revenue has declined due to the erosion of the tax base and tax administration capacity. At...

• Public expenditure
• Fiscal policy
• Macroeconomics

Working Paper

Privatization, together with liberalization and deregulation, constituted the core of Mozambique's economic transition. Privatization in Mozambique has taken place on an unusually large scale in comparison with the rest of Africa. Privatization...

• Government accountability
• Privatization
• Social conflict

Working Paper

Corruption is endogenous to many political structures and serves key functions beyond the self-interest of public officials and politicians. Like violence, corruption participates in political ordering and, although corruption may in itself play a...

• Corruption
• Public administration
• Social conflict

Working Paper

With the Derg's overthrow in 1991, Eritrea embarked on the construction of a new state. New economic institutions were created, and considerable reform undertaken. Problems in co-ordinating reform and reconstruction were largely avoided, mainly...

• Democratization
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Institutional economics

Working Paper

We argue that the conflicts in the Caucasus are the result of the abrogation by the elite of the earlier, Soviet era, social contract. This process was accompanied by the collapse of the formal economy; evidenced by huge national income compression...

• Ethnic relations
• Corruption
• Natural resources

Working Paper

The paper analyses credibility and reputation in the context of peace negotiations. Where war provides economic gains to one side, peace is not incentive compatible, and peace agreements will necessarily degenerate, as they become time inconsistent...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Game theory
• Social conflict

Working Paper

A simple two-stage game-theoretic model of conflict is analysed, where the government can send raiders for terrorising the population to flee before the fighting proper begins. The resulting displacement of population reduces the efficiency of the...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Game theory
• Social conflict

Working Paper

Angola’s difficulties in achieving macro-economic stability and economic liberalization have serious implications for private-sector development. Hyperinflation, and frequent policy reversal, constrain and distort investment in both the informal and...

• Imperfect competition
• Macroeconomics
• Poverty

Working Paper

Contemporary civil wars are rooted in a partial or complete breakdown of the social contract, often involving disputes over public spending, resource revenues, and taxation. A feasible social contract gives potential rebels something akin to a...

• Public expenditure
• Game theory
• Poverty

Working Paper

Political violence, coup d’état, civil wars and inter-state wars, all have fiscal dimensions (and sometimes fiscal causes). Who gets what—public employment and public spending—and who has to pay for it, are questions that raise fundamental issues...

• Public expenditure
• Fiscal policy
• Institutional economics

Working Paper

The list of illnesses afflicting Angolan society is a long one: political instability, civil war, macroeconomic mismanagement, and the desperation born of poverty. A profound sense of uncertainty afflicts all levels of society-the government (and its...

• Human capital
• Institutional economics
• Macroeconomics

Working Paper

Since large-scale programmes of post-war resettlement and reintegration are costly, it is important to learn the lessons of the resettlement programme started after the end of Eritrea's liberation war in 1991. Eritrea's system of land tenure largely...

• Equality and inequality
• Land tenure
• Social conflict

Working Paper

In this working paper we provide an overview of two recent special journal issues on violent conflict and entrepreneurship. These are the special issue of the Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (2011) and the special issue of the Journal...

• Economic development
• Entrepreneurship
• Informal sector

Working Paper

Governments frequently compartmentalize issues of reform and reconstruction into separate strategies and separate ministries (the fate of poverty reduction as well). Donors do likewise, for each has its own responsibilities; the IMF focuses on reform...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Public expenditure
• Poverty

Working Paper

Africa has become synonymous with conflict. There were armed conflicts in 16 of Africa's 54 countries in 1999. For Africa to recover, communities must reconstruct, private sectors must revitalize, and states must transform themselves. Aid donors...

• Democratization
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Poverty

Book Chapter

Part of Book Foreign Aid for Development

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development
• International relations

Book Chapter

Part of Book Foreign Aid for Development

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development
• Poverty

Book Chapter

Part of Book Urbanization and Development

• Regional economics
• Social conflict
• Urban economics

Book Chapter

Part of Book Urbanization and Development

• Colonies
• Decolonization
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Land and Property Rights

• Agricultural industries
• Land reform
• Land tenure

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Small Business, Entrepreneurship, and Violent Conflict in Developing Countries

• Entrepreneurship
• Regional economics
• Small business

Blog

Jamie Bleck and Kristin Michelitch [1] Mali has continued to be in the news since its military coup in March 2012. Much of the news coverage on Mali...

• Household survey
• Infrastructure (Economics)
• Social conflict

Blog

by Omar Shahabudin McDoom January 2013

Omar Shahabudin McDoom What should donors do when confronted with regimes that violate important normative standards of state behavior and commit...

• Agriculture
• Criminal law
• Democracy

Blog

by Rachel M. Gisselquist March 2013

Rachel M. Gisselquist There is much to commend in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as we approach their target deadline of 2015. In addition to...

• Conflict management
• Economic development
• Equality and inequality

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Failed states
• Natural resources
• Economic power

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Failed states
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Minorities
• Post-communism
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Minorities
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Social conflict
• War

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Minorities
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Minorities
• Natural resources
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Failed states
• Natural disasters
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Agriculture
• Social conflict
• War

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Social conflict
• War

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Natural resources
• Social conflict
• War

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Natural resources
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Population
• Social conflict
• Water

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Institutional economics
• Microeconomics
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Equality and inequality
• Natural resources

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Humanitarian assistance
• Natural disasters
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Conflict and Peace-building

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Corruption
• Natural resources

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Conflict and Peace-building

• Public expenditure
• Local government
• Poverty

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Conflict and Peace-building

• Distribution
• Education
• Equality and inequality

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Ethnic relations
• Human rights
• Refugees

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Conflict and Peace-building

• Democratization
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Corruption

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Conflict and Peace-building

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Public expenditure
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Civil War in Developing Countries

• Game theory
• Informal sector
• Social conflict

Journal Article

Part of Journal Special Issue Civil War in Developing Countries

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Natural resources
• Public administration

Blog

by Carl-Gustav Lindén October 2013

30 October 2013 Carl-Gustav Lindén Despite many successful transitions towards peace and multiparty electoral systems there are still 47 fragile...

• Democratization
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• International agencies

Book Chapter

Part of Book From Conflict to Recovery in Africa

• Democratization
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Institutional economics

Book Chapter

Part of Book From Conflict to Recovery in Africa

• Government accountability
• Privatization
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book From Conflict to Recovery in Africa

• Equality and inequality
• Land tenure
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book Linking the Formal and Informal Economy

• Capital
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Social conflict

Book Chapter

Part of Book War, Hunger, and Displacement

• Economic development
• Economic growth
• Ethnic relations

Book Chapter

Part of Book Reforming Africa's Institutions

• Public expenditure
• Poverty
• Public administration

Book Chapter

Part of Book Poverty, International Migration and Asylum

• Emigration and immigration
• Social conflict
• Statistics

Book Chapter

Part of Book Fragile States

• Economic development
• Failed states
• Poverty

Book Chapter

Part of Book Spatial Disparities in Human Development

• Equality and inequality
• Global warming
• Regional economics

Journal Article

Reducing or writing off the debts of the 41 heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) can potentially reduce social conflict by releasing resources from debt-service to enable governments to make fiscal transfers that lower the grievances of rebels...

• Public debt
• Fiscal policy
• Game theory

Journal Article

War provides economic opportunities, such as the capture of valuable natural resources, that are unavailable in peacetime. However, belligerents may prefer low‐intensity conflict to total war when the former has a greater pay‐off. This paper...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Game theory
• Natural resources

Book Chapter

Part of Book Fiscal Policy for Development

• Public expenditure
• Fiscal policy
• Macroeconomics

Book Chapter

Part of Book Resource Abundance and Economic Development

• Economic policy
• Equality and inequality
• Natural resources