Research Brief
Three key insights for research on social mobility in developing countries
The volume, Social Mobility in Developing Countries: Concepts, Methods, and Determinants, brings together leading scholars from a range of social science disciplines working on a variety of issues related to social mobility. Three motivations guide...
Project
Social development indicators - measuring human well-being
Theme: 2002-03
Summary measures of human well-being are increasingly used to compare and monitor performance within and across countries. The UNDP's Human Development Index (HDI) is one of a number of measures which have done much to refocus attention on the...
Project
Insurance against poverty
Theme: 2000-01
Households in developing countries face many risks. Informal insurance mechanisms (marriage, the extended family, and investment in social capital) provide some protection but are weak in the face of major calamities that affect households en masse...
Project
The impact of privatization and regulation of utilities and social services in Latin America
Theme: 2000-01
Latin America has now privatised a large number of utilities (water, electricity, transport, and telecommunications) and now makes more use of market approaches to delivery in the social sectors (education and health). Privatisation has major...
Project
Health inequalities and development
Theme: 2006-07
The purpose of this project was to investigate issues related to health inequality. Although health is an important indicator of overall wellbeing, it is only recently that research has focused on health inequality. This project brings forth issues...
Project
Rising income inequality and poverty reduction - are they compatible?
Theme: 1998-99
Over the last several years, the donor community has increasingly focused its efforts on poverty eradication. Meanwhile, income inequality appears to have been rising in many developed, developing and transitional countries. Economic theory explains...
Project
Frontiers of poverty analysis
Theme: 2008-09
The aim of this project is to take stock of the often overlooked options now available to researchers at the frontiers of poverty analysis and to illustrate their use in developing country contexts. The main project activity will be an international...
Project
Development in an urban world
Theme: 2008-09
In 2007 the number of urban inhabitants will surpass rural dwellers as a percentage of the total world population. By 2030 the proportion of people living in cities globally is expected to reach 61%, with almost 80% of urban dwellers living in less...
Project
Gender and food security
Theme: 2006-07
UNU-WIDER’s recent project ‘Hunger and Food Security’ exerted a strong attraction for academia, international organizations (FAO, WFP, and UNCTAD), civil society organizations, and the media. The first project meeting, held in Jaipur in March 2005...
Project
Personal assets from a global perspective
Theme: 2004-05
The project aims to assemble data about the distribution and composition of personal assets in developing, transition, and developed countries and to study the implications of personal asset-holding for economic development. The most important asset...
Project
Millennium development goals - assessing and forecasting progress
Theme: 2004-05
Achievement of the MDG goals by 2015 is an ambitious undertaking. The donor community is now mobilizing resources behind the goals, and efforts to implement the goals are now underway at national and international levels. It is inevitable that...
Project
Hunger and food security - new challenges and new opportunities
Theme: 2004-05
Millions of people remain desperately food insecure, and over a decade of agricultural-sector reform appears to have achieved little in the way of improving entitlement to food in many countries. This project will investigate why progress in...
Project
Global trends in inequality and poverty
Theme: 2002-03
The scale and causes of international income inequality and poverty continue to be much debated. Yet, the quality of the analysis and data underlying this debate still leaves much to be desired. Accordingly, this project will collate poverty data to...
Project
Spatial disparities in human development
Theme: 2002-03
Many developing and transition countries have considerable regional variation in average household income, poverty, and health and educational status. National human development indicators can therefore mislead policy-makers when large regional...
Project
Growth and poverty conference
Theme: 2000-01
Conferences: 25 May 2001 WIDER Development Conference on Growth and Poverty
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