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Do minimum wages reduce inequality in India?Wage inequality in India has declined over the past two decades. This article examines the role of rising minimum wages in driving this trend...
Kunal Sen
Director
Professor Kunal Sen has over three decades of experience in academic and applied development economics research. He is the author of eight books and the editor of five volumes on the economics and political economy of development. Since 2019 he has served as Director of UNU-WIDER while on leave from the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, where he is a professor of development economics.
Professor Sen is a leading international expert on the political economy of growth and development. He has performed extensive research on international finance, the political economy determinants of inclusive growth, the dynamics of poverty, social exclusion, female labour force participation, and the informal sector in developing economies. His research has focused on India, East Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.
Professor Sen’s books include The Political Economy of India’s Growth Episodes (2016), The Process of Financial Liberalization in India (1997), and the Economic Restructuring in East Asia and India: Perspectives on Policy Reform (1995). His is a co-editor of Deals and Development: The Political Dynamics of Growth Episodes (2018) and The Politics of Inclusive Development (2016). And has also written twenty-five chapters in other volumes and published more than ninety peer-reviewed journal articles on topics in his field.
In addition to his work as a professor of development economics, Kunal Sen has been the Joint Research Director of the Effective States and Inclusive Development (ESID) research centre, and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Labor Economics in Bonn. He has also served in advisory roles with national governments and bilateral and multilateral development agencies, including the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
He has been awarded the Sanjaya Lall Prize in 2006 and Dudley Seers Prize in 2003 for his publications.
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Celebrating 40 Years of UNU-WIDER
In 2025, UNU-WIDER completes four decades of work. Starting as a small think-tank in relatively remote Helsinki, it has grown into a global institute...
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Magicians, powerbrokers, and workhorses: The keys to structural transformation in African cities
Structural transformation involves the movement of workers from low-productivity to high-productivity sectors—often from agriculture to manufacturing...
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Understanding labour market inequality in Indonesia and India
Growing income inequality poses a major global challenge, even as the inequality between countries has shrunk due to rapid economic growth in nations...
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Does the Kuznets Curve still matter 70 years on? Yes! Here’s whySeventy years ago, Simon Kuznets was immortalised by his finding that inequality rises first and then falls later—the hypothesis widely known as the...
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How India’s economy has fared under ten years of Narendra Modi
More than 960 million Indians will head to the polls in the world’s biggest election between April 19 and early June. The ruling Bharatiya Janata...
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Nigeria: botched economic reforms plunge the country into crisisNigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is facing an economic crisis. From a botched currency redesign to the removal of fuel subsidies and a currency...
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Financing development goals in times of crisisPursuing the global development agenda will require genuine commitment from political leaders and significant stepping-up of government efforts. But...
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Looking back, moving forward – a photo retrospective of the 2019-23 WIDER Work Programme
As we conclude the groundbreaking years of the 2019–23 work programme on transforming economies, states, and societies, we reflect on the milestones...
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Pinelopi Goldberg warns of the impact of deglobalization: Sobering insights from the 27th WIDER Annual Lecture
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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UNU-WIDER’s new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) advances progress on SDG 8: Decent WorkUNU-WIDER’s 6-week online course on delivering Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8) brings together recent research on the linkages between economic...
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Will a revenue boom support development in resource-rich economies?The post-COVID-19 economic recovery and Russia’s war with Ukraine have caused some natural resource prices to reach new highs. Although forecasting...
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Does political clientelism lead to higher corruption and a weaker rule of law?Political clientelism is the strategic, discretionary, and targeted exchange of goods and services between politicians and voters for political...
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The developing world is facing a new debt crisis: What can we do about it?The recently concluded COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh had one important outcome for developing countries: the announcement of a loss and damage fund. This...
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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 IndiaIn recent decades, India has experienced rapid economic growth alongside radical affirmative action programs enacted since independence. This column...
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In memory of Martin Ravallion: A global leader in development economics(19 March 1952 – 24 December 2022) It is with the greatest sadness and a deep sense of grief and shock that we received the news of the passing of...
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Not too long and not too short: Introducing the new UNU-WIDER and Cambridge University Press series in Development EconomicsSimon 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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Digital platforms and job search: Experimental evidence from MozambiqueDigital technologies can be deployed to improve job search, but their effectiveness in practice is disrupted. This column uses experimental data to...
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Fiscal states in developing economies: Why do they matter and where do they come from?Modern states are complex organizations which perform a broad range of functions. They have an important role in economic and human development. The...
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Can access to finance spur entrepreneurship in Indian informal sector?Credit constraints, a consequence of the widespread failure of credit markets in developing countries, are widely regarded as a key constraint to...
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Reducing inequality — why working together is no longer just an optionThe time limit to reach the goals of the 2030 Agenda is now just eight years away. It is vital to pursue a new model of partnerships, based on...
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What does ‘promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth’ mean for everyday life?Erica stands under a rudimentary market stall in Accra, Ghana, selling fruits — she has done this every day for 10 years now. Like many women in the...
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Why women are made to rely on vulnerable workThe gender pay-gap is one of the foremost indicators of gender inequality and thus a guide for women’s economic empowerment policies. Although there...
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Least Developed Countries are facing five major challenges: Four suggestions to tackle them
This month we had the honour to co-host the first ever LDC Future Forum here in Helsinki. It was our first large-scale live event since the COVID-19...
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How can research help Least Developed Countries achieve sustainable development?
The next decade is a make-or-break for the world’s most vulnerable countries. To tackle the unprecedented confluence of COVID-19, climate, and...
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Conflict-prone countries are not doomed to an eternal trapThe situation of Afghanistan has drawn a picture of a poor, conflict-prone, doomed country. But this does not have to be the case. We have examples of...
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Unlocking the mystery of domestic savings: What difference do they make?The socioeconomic fallout from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore discussions on domestic resource mobilization (hereafter DRM)...
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Helping the poor to survive lockdownThe 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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Grandads, dads, and sons: Examining multigenerational mobility in IndiaWhile studies have examined the association in socioeconomic status between parent and offspring, there has been relatively little research on...
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Do resource rich economies have better or worse human development outcomes?Although increasingly challenged, we often hear that being resource rich can adversely affect growth prospects. Here we concentrate instead on a...
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Over 2 billion workers globally are informal — what should we do about it?
Informality is a pervasive phenomenon in the labour markets of developing countries. Two billion workers, representing 61.2 per cent of the world’s...
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Ghana's lockdown hit vulnerable workers hard: What needs to happen next timeCoronavirus 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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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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Sub-Saharan Africa had a manufacturing renaissance in 2010s – it’s a promising sign for the years aheadThe 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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Why should I care about economic growth?
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...
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35 years of research for change – what's next?: Building just societiesTo celebrate its 35th birthday, UNU-WIDER has looked back at some of its greatest achievements. As the year closes, Armida Alisjahbana, Kunal Sen...
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UNU-WIDER at 35: Letter from the Director
2020 promised to be a big year for UNU-WIDER, with the celebration of our 35th anniversary, the 45th birthday of UNU, and 75 years of the UN. But as...
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Decent work and COVID-19 – it’s time for a just deal for all workers
Seven months into the unprecedented crisis of COVID-19, we already see significant effects on employment and earnings worldwide. The fallout could see...
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Five ways coronavirus is deepening global inequality
Before coronavirus, inequality was already increasing in many parts of the developing world. But the pandemic is going to greatly heighten existing...
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Unmaking ‘Make in India’The current government has attempted to improve India’s ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business Indicators, but with limited success. This article...
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Double dividends and mixed blessings: What would the pioneers of development economics make of new trends in developing economies?Today, we see clear trends in developing countries of a potentially troubling ‘new normal’ for economic development. We see tertiarization with rising...
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Migrant workers in the Covid-19 pandemicMillions of migrant workers around the world provide valuable income for their families and contribute more broadly to the economies of both their...
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Age composition of population and Covid-19The novel Covid-19 is affecting the advanced countries in the Western Hemisphere disproportionately more than developing countries. In this post, Basu...
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7555 km and beyond: Working together to achieve the SDGs'It was great to have enough time to discuss each paper. I received useful and frank feedback. The topics are relevant for everyone. I noticed a...
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From small beginnings, big impact
2020 marks the 35th year of UNU-WIDER’s impact in the sphere of development economics. Over the years, the institute has influenced the discourse...
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Social mobility in developing countries: Research and policy gaps
Are the chances of a child growing up in China reaching higher income or occupational levels than their parents any higher than those of a child in...
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Reflections on the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics
The award of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics to Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of MIT, and Michael Kremer of Harvard University, has led to a...
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