WIDERAngle

Expert commentary from our network

About

The WIDERAngle publishes expert commentary and analysis of the latest research in global development. The WIDERAngle supports UNU-WIDER’s missions to undertake research and policy analysis on the most pressing concerns affecting humanity and provides a forum for knowledge sharing, discussion, and debate.

 

To see past newsletters, visit our WIDERAngle archive.

 

Write for the WIDERAngle

We accept submissions that represent sincere efforts to advance knowledge on topics related to the promotion of sustainable and equitable development for all. Although many of our writers are established in their fields, we particularly encourage submissions from early-career researchers, policy professionals, and writers who represent Global South countries and perspectives.

 

For guidelines on WIDERAngle submissions, please refer to our Guidelines for submissions.

 

Send submission queries to editorialteam@wider.unu.edu.

 

EDITORIAL TEAM

Executive Editor: Annett Victorero

Managing Editor: Timothy Shipp

Assistant Editor: Tristan Reid

 

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Watts happening to work? The labour market effects of South Africa’s electricity crisis

by Haroon Bhorat, Tim Köhler
two miners with shovels
In South Africa, the power grid undergoes rotational, scheduled outages—or rolling blackouts—most commonly referred to as load shedding. Load shedding is primarily a consequence of frequent breakdowns at the national utility. These are due to a combination of poor long-term planning, a lack of financial resources, rampant state capture and corruption, and aging coal-fired power stations. Four of every five (80%) of South Africa’s coal-fired plants are past their mid-life cycle. Power outages...

How to get back on track to ending poverty – the imperative for a livable planet

by Luis Felipe López-Calva
We are off track to end poverty. Despite remarkable progress over the past few decades, the goal of eradicating poverty remains elusive, and SDG1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere is out of reach. While more than a billion people have been lifted out of poverty, the pace has significantly slowed. If we persist with business-as-usual, by 2030 around 7% of the world’s population will still live in extreme poverty—more than double our target of 3%.Unsurprisingly, this challenge is...

Just transitions and the importance of social protection reforms for ambitious climate action

by Christina Dankmeyer, Katrin Gasior, Gemma Wright
As greenhouse gases once again climb to record levels, countries are under pressure to make the move to a low-carbon economy. Policies that move in this direction are needed to mitigate against the worst impacts of climate change, but policy choices will have winners and losers. As it is crucial to consider the effects of climate change mitigation policies on various population groups, we explore two policy options —carbon pricing and removal of fossil fuel subsidies. In our latest...

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    Blog
    Bolstering the skills of young people – the key to South Africa's economic growth
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    As a young data developer responsible for mining and analysing the administrative tax data provided to researchers through the SA-TIED programme, I am...

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    Are knowledge monopolies driving global inequality?
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    In a new release for the UNU-WIDER and Cambridge University Press Elements in Development Economics series, I look at global capitalist economic...

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    Mapping economic stability for countries in the Global South
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    In 2024, central banks worldwide are confronted with the challenges of juggling inflation control, economic growth, and the preservation of financial...

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    Affirmative action in Brazil’s higher education system

    Evidence from Brazil shows how affirmative action students in the higher education system adjust their behaviour to catch up with initially higher...

    Blog
    The poorest countries attract few foreign investments
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    The share of the least developed countries (LDCs) in global foreign investments is less than one percent. But positive developments have taken place...

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    Chile under neoliberalism

    In our book, we examine Chile's economic, social, and development policies over the past six decades. The focal point is the enduring influence of the...

    Policy Brief
    Man at a supermarket, with a female clerk, Tanzania. Image: Imani Nsamila / UNU-WIDER
    Keys for sustaining Tanzania’s economic development
    Policy Brief
    How to create decent work for women

    Despite advancements for gender equality in some spheres, labour market outcomes for women continue to be worse than for men. Gender gaps in pay, labour force participation rates, and measures of job quality are stubbornly persistent and continue to...

    Research Brief
    Search image, calculator, pen, Ugandan currency, URA form. Image: Kalungi Kabuye / UNU-WIDER
    What is the impact of corporate tax incentives in Uganda?
    Blog
    Affirmative action policies to increase diversity are successful, but controversial, around the world

    In a landmark judgment in June 2023, the US Supreme Court ruled against the use of race-conscious admissions in colleges and universities. This...

    Blog
    Gender pay gaps on the rise in South Africa

    New analysis of income data in South Africa shows the gender pay gap—how much more men earn than women—has increased. According to findings from a...

    Policy Brief
    Tasks, skills, and institutions

    Concerns about widening income inequality within countries continue to gain prominence in public debate worldwide. In the last decade, attention to the concentration of income at the very top of the distribution (top 1%) has increased. This...

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    On the road to fairer societies in Asia and the Pacific region: Four focus areas on center stage

    A recent panel discussion at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok set out to identify policy...

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    Pinelopi Goldberg warns of the impact of deglobalization: Sobering insights from the 27th WIDER Annual Lecture
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    With several violent conflicts around the world weighing heavily on our minds, we attended the 27th WIDER Annual Lecture. Dr. Pinelopi Goldberg’s...

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    How institutions matter in Mozambique

    Launched in 2015 and completed in 2022, the Institutional Diagnostic Project aimed at identifying institutional factors that affect development...

    Policy Brief
    WIDER Annual Lecture Brief | Globalization in crisis – confronting a new economic reality
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    Stuck at the bottom of the job ladder in Africa: The stumbling block to resilient growth and prosperity
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    When the question of creating good jobs and decent work in Africa arises, policymakers and development partners often focus on formalization. For...

    Blog
    SOUTHMOD family extended: Welcome to the three new Latin American teams

    How would progressive income taxation affect income inequality in Bolivia? What are the costs and benefits of implementing a state pension in Colombia...

    Research Brief
    Perceptions of inequality among young adults in Mozambique
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    The Great Gatsby Curve and the Global South: Time for a more ambitious redistribution and reparations agenda

    The famous 1920s book The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is the classic analogy for the American dream of meritocracy —that any person can...

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    The richer your neighbours, the more you borrow – the case of South Africa
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    Research on how income inequality affects borrowing behaviour reignited after the 2008 global recession. One prevailing theory is that rising income...

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    Four global problems that will be aggravated by the UK’s recent cuts to international aid

    UK economic forecasts have improved markedly since the September 2022 mini-budget. The economic recession may now be more shallow and public borrowing...

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    Is a strong middle class the secret to high levels of human development?

    Many countries today experience increasing or persistent income inequality, a major concern for citizens and politicians alike. This concern is...

    Blog
    How can cities create better jobs in sub-Saharan Africa?

    Structural transformation involves the movement of workers from low-productivity sectors to high-productivity sectors. It has historically been...

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    Social mobility among disadvantaged groups in India

    In recent decades, India has experienced rapid economic growth alongside radical affirmative action programs enacted since independence. This column...

    Blog
    New global estimates on profits in tax havens suggest the tax loss continues to rise

    The world has been trying to curb profit shifting to tax havens for a decade, but consistent time series evaluating the impact of these reforms have...

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    New country on the SOUTHMOD map: Meet our tax-benefit microsimulation team in Rwanda!
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    How can Global South countries improve their tax and social protection systems? One way is to take advantage of tools that help assess the impact of...

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    Not too long and not too short: Introducing the new UNU-WIDER and Cambridge University Press series in Development Economics

    Simon Kuznets’ pipe dream was to have economic inequality data that rarely existed when he was writing. What are the pipe dreams of today’s...

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    The inheritance of human capital: Rethinking how much parents’ influence children’s human capital in low- and middle-income countries
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    The measure of human capital —the economic value of one’s skills and experience— acknowledges that investments in people’s cognitive and emotional...

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    Reducing inequality — the great challenge of our time
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    Early in October 2022, international and Colombian researchers gathered together for three days at the UNIANDES campus, located at the foot of the...

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    Report from the WIDER Development Conference on reducing inequality
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    For several decades, UNU-WIDER has actively worked on pathfinding and groundbreaking research on inequalities. We host one of the most extensive...

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    Urban poverty: cities, slums, and the need for policy action

    Developing countries will be predominantly urban by 2030. While urbanization is historically associated with development and broad-based social...

    Blog
    Indonesia, the developer’s dilemma, and Vision 2045

    According to the World Bank, Indonesia has reached the upper-middle income status in 2019 after spending almost two decades in the lower-middle income...

    Policy Brief
    Inequality is not an inevitable consequence of economic development
    Blog
    Want to catch up on UNU-WIDER research? Here are 10 of the most interesting papers published over the last year
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    In this blog, the managing editor of the WIDERAngle shares his personal view on some of the most important —and potentially overlooked— work recently...

    Blog
    Sunshine, elephants, and boomerangs: Is a dramatic rise in global income inequality looming?

    Global Inequality 101: Global inequality is the distribution of income across all people on the planet from the poorest to the richest. It can be...

    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...

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    Advancing social mobility research: Where to start
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    Innovation in academic investigation and policy response is critical to addressing global challenges. That is why the most recent Nobel Prize in...

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    Dual learning disadvantages in East Africa: And how to deal with them
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    Children from poorer families in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda face a double disadvantage in their opportunity to access learning: not only is the...

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    Interview with Carlos Gradín on global inequality for the Conversation Weekly podcast
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    The following is an excerpt: mRNA vaccines, asteroid missions and collaborative robots: what to watch in science in 2022 – podcast Daniel Merino, The...

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    Corona pandemic revealed gaps in African social security systems
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    Millions of Africans lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but state social security systems were of little help to people who lost...

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    Above or below the poverty line: Three key questions for understanding shifts in global poverty

    In 2010 and the following years, there was attention to the fact that much of global poverty had shifted to middle-income countries (for example here...

    Research Brief
    What do we need to know about social mobility in the Global South?

    The volume, Social Mobility in Developing Countries: Concepts, Methods and Determinants, brings together leading scholars from several disciplines to advance research practice on social mobility. Three sets of motivations guide this joint effort...

    Policy Brief
    O papel das políticas de impostos e benefícios durante a pandemia da COVID-19 em 2020 em Moçambique
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    Virtuous circles and downward spirals: The power of ideas & the limits of technocracy
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    What will it take to shake loose the distemper of our times, and initiate a virtuous spiral of renewal? In a recent UNU-WIDER webinar, Alan Hirsch and...

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    Dr Pia Rattenhuber on inequality in crises — an interview

    How do crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic influence inequality and the other way around? This year’s UN Day Dresden put a spotlight on “Inequalities...

    Policy Brief
    Limited impact of the tax-benefit system in Tanzania during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020
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    COVID-19 and the Global South — From crisis response to sustainable development
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    Around the world, the pandemic, and the measures taken to address it, have had far reaching effects on poverty, inequality, and governance. And even...

    Policy Brief
    Distributional effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda
    Policy Brief
    Distributional effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana
    Policy Brief
    The role of tax-benefit policies during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in Mozambique
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    Working together to better understand how COVID-19 affects poverty and inequality

    In summer 2020 the SOUTHMOD team set out, with partners, to analyse the impact of government policies on protecting households from getting poorer and...

    Policy Brief
    Distributional effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Zambia
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    Kanika Mahajan – IEA featured economist interview
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    Kanika Mahajan, a researcher engaged in UNU-WIDER's project on 'The changing nature of work and inequality', is the August 2021 featured economist of...

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    Wasted talent – How COVID-19’s effect on the poor could make all of society poorer
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    The opening keynote of the recent WIDER Development Conference, COVID-19 and development – effects and new realities for the Global South, was given...

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    Global inequality may be falling, but the gap between haves and have-nots is growing

    In one of the most unequal countries in the world, South Africa, the poorest 40% have annual incomes of less than US$1,000 (£727) per person. The...

    Policy Brief
    Regional integration and Tanzania’s export performance
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    Social protection at a crossroad
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    How can we ensure a resilient and inclusive recovery from COVID-19? How can we hold on to the target of eradicating poverty and hunger by 2030, with...

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    Helping the poor to survive lockdown

    The Hrishipara Daily Diaries Project has been tracking the daily spending of 60 poor households in rural Bangladesh for the last six years. Analysis...

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    India’s manufacturing and services value-chains are shifting South: A curse or a blessing?
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    Much has been written on India as an outlier in Global Value Chains (GVC). Despite being one of the largest and fastest-growing markets located in...

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    Grandads, dads, and sons: Examining multigenerational mobility in India

    While studies have examined the association in socioeconomic status between parent and offspring, there has been relatively little research on...

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    Mozambique's difficult decade: Three lessons to inform next steps

    At the start of the last decade, Mozambique’s prospects looked stellar. Following from the early 1990s, when peace finally arrived after a devastating...

    Research Brief
    Trends in global inequality – a comprehensive approach
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    COVID-19 lays bare Cape Town’s social divide, deepens underlying inequalities

    The COVID-19 pandemic delivered a devastating economic shock to livelihoods across the world. In Cape Town, it has been toughest on those who had just...

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    'Love thy neighbour'?: Evidence from a randomized neighbourhood relocation policy in India
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    Caste in India plays an instrumental role in determining access to education, jobs, public spaces, and social networks. For instance, despite state...

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    Good intentions falling short – the case of pension-related tax expenditures in South Africa
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    Tax benefits to boost contributions into pension funds or pension-related tax expenditures (PTEs) are used widely by governments worldwide to address...

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    Unaccompanied asylum-seeking youth in the UK – an interview with an expert: Inequalities in access to education
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    I recently spoke to Catherine Gladwell, who is the Director and Founder of Refugee Education UK (formerly Refugee Support Network) and one of the...

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    New WIID Companion to improve the study of inequality
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    There is a growing need to understand income inequality trends and how they interplay with other social, economic, and political outcomes, both at the...

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    Ghana's lockdown hit vulnerable workers hard: What needs to happen next time

    Coronavirus lockdowns brought the world to a standstill. Rules on hygiene and social distancing have reshaped daily life, schools and businesses had...

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    Sub-Saharan Africa had a manufacturing renaissance in 2010s – it’s a promising sign for the years ahead

    The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the global economy, with world output contracting at 3.5% in 2020, and no recovery likely before the fourth...

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    A ‘data revolution’ for sustainable development leaves gaps on inequality
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    Among the many things said about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the description by the President of the UN General Assembly’s 70th...

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    Have you heard about the GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database?
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    On 17 February 2021 the Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) and UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database (ETD) will be launched. The new...

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    Why should I care about economic growth?
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    Director of UNU-WIDER, Professor Kunal Sen is a world leading expert in development economics and led on ESID’s research into economic growth. In this...

    Research Brief
    Does exchange rate volatility amplify existing inequalities in South Africa?

    Even though poverty and inequality have been of overriding concern in South Africa’s development policies and programmes since its democratization in 1994, measures of poverty, inequality, and related phenomena in the country do not show a clear...

    Research Brief
    Job duration in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa

    The two primary features of a job are its wage and how long it lasts. Today, there is an extensive literature on wages in the developing world thanks to the expansion of national household survey data. However, far less work has been conducted on job...

    Research Brief
    Unlocking a regional plastics value chain between Mozambique and South Africa

    Plastics are universal and integrated into different sectors of the economy. Industrial policy requires countries to look at moving up the value chain and producing progressively more sophisticated products to contribute to improved economic...

    Research Brief
    Special economic zones in Zambia and South Africa

    East Asia’s successful experience in accelerating the process of industrial development with SEZs paved way for the use of SEZs as policy instruments in Africa. In southern Africa, Zambia and South Africa instituted SEZs in legal and institutional...

    Research Brief
    Extreme inequalities

    South Africa is, by most contemporary measures, the most unequal country in the world. Yet, relatively little attention has been given to country’s wealth inequality. It is crucial to accurately measure the concentration of wealth inequality over...

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    The developer’s dilemma in India – the role of politics and economic ideology

    Policy makers seeking inclusive growth frequently face the developer’s dilemma between prioritizing structural transformation, which is potentially...

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    Late development, early adoption – how new technology is reshaping the future of structural change
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    Technological catch-up is bringing new asynchronies to development pathways. What does this mean for employment, globalization, and inequality? A...

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