Working Paper
Ban on female migrant workers
This study examines the skills-differentiated impact of a restrictive female labour migration policy in Sri Lanka using monthly departure data from 2012 to 2018 in a difference-in-difference model. The policy has resulted in decreasing departures...
Blog
The Polarized post-2015 Development Puzzle: The Poorest still Fall Behind
by
Marikki Stocchetti
April 2013
23 April 2013 Marikki Stocchetti 2015 will mark a moment of truth for the international community as the era of the Millennium Development agenda...
Blog
Jobs Drive Development: An interview with Martin Rama
by
Carl-Gustav Lindén
January 2013
15 January 2013Martin Rama from The World bank discusses the process behind the World Development Report 2013 on jobs, which he directed.He emphasises...
Blog
Microcredit and Poverty Alleviation: Can Microcredit Close the Deal?
by
M. G. Quibria
October 2012
M.G. Quibria In the wake of the worst famine of Bangladesh of the post-World War era Professor Muhammad Yunus launched a microcredit experiment in...
Blog
Reflecting Change: The Second Edition of ‘From Poverty to Power’
by
Duncan Green
November 2012
Duncan Green Updating a book on contemporary events can be unnerving. In the intervening years, events and new thinking combine to expose the...
Blog
The Bangladesh Paradox – An Interview with Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury
by
Carl-Gustav Lindén
January 2014
Carl-Gustav Lindén Bangladesh has made some remarkable strides in development and poverty reduction since independence, despite generally weak...
Blog
Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo
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...
Blog
Urbanization and Development in Asia: Linkages with Globalization and Migration
by
Lorraine Telfer-Taivainen
June 2012
Lorraine Telfer-Taivainen The Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary, was the venue for the launch on 16 June 2012 of the just...
Working Paper
Gender Earnings Differentials and Regional Economic Development in Urban China, 1988-97
Gender earnings differentials in urban China by region and their changes during the first decade of economic reform are examined. It is found that the female–male earnings ratio increased during the early stage of reform. The male earnings premium...
Working Paper
Women and Food Security in South Asia
The food security scenario in South Asia has witnessed rapid progress over the last few decades, yet nutrition outcomes, especially those related to women and children, have failed to keep pace. This paper contends that the role of women in providing...
Working Paper
Rethinking the Informal Economy
This paper explores the relationship of the informal economy to the formal economy and to the formal regulatory environment. It begins with a comparison of the earlier concept of the ‘informal sector’ with the new expanded concept of the ‘informal...
Working Paper
Women's Status and Children's Food Security in Pakistan
This study examines the role of women's intra-household status relative to men in children's food security in Pakistan. Data from the 1991 Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS) yield a measure of evidence of a positive relation between women's...
Working Paper
From Local to Global and Informal to Formal
This is a brief sketch of the Self Employed Women’s Association’s (SEWA) three-decade-long journey from the local to global and informal to formal sector in search of finding work and income for now 720,000 women workers. Though SEWA remains a local...
Working Paper
Voluntary Contributions to Informal Activities Producing Public Goods: Can These be Induced by Government and Other Formal Sector Agents?
This study attempts to determine the extent to which human potential may be unlocked by government or other formal sector actions that induce voluntary contributions by individuals to the activities of Indonesia’s posyandus or village health posts...
Working Paper
Public Policies to Promote Productive Occupation and Increase Formality Among the Moderately Poor
Public policy aimed at building capacity among the extremely poor (support for food and nutrition; health; education and, more recently, financial services), combined with a stable macroeconomic environment, has proved to be successful for poverty...
Working Paper
Environmental and Gender Impacts of Land Tenure Regularization in Africa
Although recent developments greatly increased interest in African land tenure, few models to address these issues at the required scale have been identified or evaluated. Rwanda’s nation-wide land tenure regularization programme is of great interest...
Working Paper
Gender-Related Indicators of Well-Being
This paper discusses the rationale as well as the challenges involved when constructing gender-related indicators of well-being. It argues that such indicators are critically important but that their construction involves a number of conceptual and...
Working Paper
Is It What You Inherited Or What You Learnt?
Using original survey data on Senegal that include an individualized measure of consumption, we study the role played by land inheritance, other bequests and parental background as influences on an adult’s economic welfare and economic activities...
Working Paper
Does Women’s Status Matter for Food Security? Evidence from Bangladesh
Using data from a survey of Bangladeshi households, this paper investigates the link between female status and food security. Employing three different indicators of female status – husband’s and wife’s assets brought at marriage, female share of...
Blog
Decoding development – insights from UNU-WIDER's synthesis process and beyond
At UNU-WIDER, we undertake our work explicitly within the context of an emergent strategy designed to maximize the impact of our research findings. We...
Journal Special Issue
Globalization-Poverty Channels and Case Studies from Sub-Saharan Africa
This issue analyses the impact of globalization on Africa and present an overview of the six Africa case studies.
Journal Special Issue
Female Entrepreneurship Across Countries and in Development
In this article we provide an introduction to the papers in the special section of this edition of the European Journal of Development Research. We start by framing the challenges posed by female entrepreneurship to the research community, note some...
Report
Aid in a Post-2015 World
The ReCom – Research and Communication on Foreign Aid – programme produced 247 original studies. More than 300 researchers from 59 countries came together and provided evidence on what does and could work in development, and what can be transferred...
Working Paper
Marital trajectories and women’s wellbeing in Senegal
Divorce and widowhood followed by remarriage are common for women in Africa. A key question is how such discontinuous marital trajectories affect women’s wellbeing. Women’s marital trajectories in Senegal are described and correlated with measures of...
Working Paper
The Economics of Marriage in North Africa
Marriage is the single most important economic transaction and social transition in the lives of young people. Yet little is known about the economics of marriage in much of the developing world. This paper examines the economics of marriage in North...
Working Paper
Gendered Perspectives on Economic Growth and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Researchers have linked sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) poor growth performance in recent decades to several factors, including geography, institutions, and low returns to investment. This literature has not yet integrated the research that identifies...
Policy Brief
Can We Eradicate Hunger?
World hunger is prevalent yet receives relatively less attention compared to poverty. The MDGs have taken a step to address this with the resolution of halving the number of starving people in the world by 2015. A substantial and sustainable...
Working Paper
Tenure Insecurity, Climate Variability, and Renting-Out Decisions Among Female Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia
Land tenure arrangements in Africa are generally skewed in favour of males. Compared to males, female plot owners face complex sets of constraints and systemic high tenure insecurity which culminate in low yields. In order to obtain better returns...
Working Paper
Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change in Uganda
This paper hypothesizes that adaptation to climate change is influenced by the gender of the decision maker of the household. Using a two-wave household panel survey dataset, choice of adaptation strategies employed by female- and male-headed...
Working Paper
Gender Difference in Support for Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa
Little investigation has been made to explain why women are less likely than are men to support democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. This gender difference in politics has been found in numerous studies and may hinder the much needed legitimation of...
Blog
Extreme poverty - the poorest are being left behind
by
James Stewart
March 2016
At our 30th Anniversary Conference we took the chance to interview Martin Ravallion of Georgetown University—we asked him to discuss his recent work...
Working Paper
Health and Labour Market Participation in Uganda
The paucity of non-agricultural paid employment, and under utilization of female labour in Uganda, and other sub-Saharan African countries, is often seen to be the next major obstacle to further poverty reduction and development in the region...
Working Paper
A Model of Nutrition, Health and Economic Productivity
The objective of this paper is to develop a Model that integrates the biologically determined human need for food energy and the economic activity (most) people Bust engage in to be able to eat. The optimal work effort and the optimal body size of...
Blog
Aid and gender – making foreign aid count
International Women’s Day on 8th March 2016 is a time to celebrate. It is also a time for reflection. We must constantly remind ourselves that while...
Working Paper
Sex Workers in Calcutta and the Dynamics of Collective Action
This paper explores the nature of collective action and group behaviour through a case study of a highly successful political organization of poorer sex workers in Calcutta. The paper asks: What stimulated the participation of sex workers in their...
Working Paper
Inequalities, Agency, and Well-being
The capabilities approach has emphasized that inequalities can be analyzed in various dimensions of human functioning. Indicators of these inequalities can be incorporated into assessments of well-being. The capabilities approach also highlights the...
Working Paper
Group Functioning and Community Forestry in South Asia
This paper examines group functioning in the management of common pool resources, such as forests. In recent years community forestry groups have mushroomed in South Asia. But how participative, equitable and efficient are they? Many have done well...
Book Chapter
An Empirical Analysis of the Economics of Marriage in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia
From the book: Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics, Vol. 2. Marriage is the single most important contractual arrangement youth in North Africa undertake as they navigate their transition to adulthood. Despite its importance in shaping subsequent...
Book Chapter
Gender, Economic Growth, and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
From the book: Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics, Vol. 2.