About this series

Open to both mainstream and heterodox contributions in the field of development economics, this series is consciously agnostic in its coverage so does not privilege one approach over another. A pool of thematic editors oversees nine research areas — macroeconomics, economic transformation, inequality and poverty, education and health, public finance, conflict, political economy of development, gender, agricultural development and environmental sustainability.

The academic audience of the series includes faculty and students in a range of social sciences and international development-related studies. The policy-orientated audience are civil servants and those working in civil society organizations in low-income and middle-income countries, and also staff of bilateral and multilateral aid agencies.

This series is Gold Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Current status of submissions

We are not accepting new proposals at this time. Please check this page periodically for updates on when submissions will reopen.

Publications 

The 1918–20 influenza pandemic – a retrospective in the time of COVID-19 by Prema-chandra Athukorala and Chaturica Athukorala

Parental investments and children’s human capital in low-to-middle-income countries by Jere R. Behrman

Great Gatsby and the Global South – intergenerational mobility, income inequality, and development by Diding Sakri, Andy Sumner, and Arief Anshory Yusuf

Varieties of structural transformation – patterns, determinants, consequences by Kunal Sen

Economic transformation and income distribution in China over three decades by Cai Meng, Björn Gustafsson, and John Knight

Chilean economic development under neoliberalism – structural transformation, high inequality and environmental fragility by Andrés Solimano and Gabriela Zapata-Román 

New structural financial economics – a framework for rethinking the role of finance in serving the real economy by Justin Yifu Lin, Jiajun Xu, Zirong Yang, and Yilin Zhang

Hierarchy of needs and the measurement of poverty and standards of living by Joseph Deutsch and Jacques Silber 

Knowledge and global inequality, 1800 onwards – Interrogating the present as history by Dev Nathan

Survival of the greenest – economic transformation in a climate-conscious world by Amir Lebdioui

Escaping poverty traps and unlocking prosperity in the face of climate risk – lessons from index-based livestock insurance by Nathaniel D. Jensen et al.

Series Editor-in-Chief

Kunal Sen, Director of UNU-WIDER and Professor of Development Economics at the Global Development Institute

Thematic editors

Tony Addison, University of Copenhagen and UNU-WIDER 
Chris Barret, Johnson College of Business, Cornell University
Rachel Gisselquist, Senior Research Fellow, UNU-WIDER
Carlos Gradin, Research Fellow, UNU-WIDER, and University of Vigo
Shareen Joshi, Georgetown University
Patricia Justino, Senior Research Fellow, UNU-WIDER and IDS, UK
Marinella Leone, University of Pavia
Jukka Pirttilä, University of Helsinki, and UNU-WIDER Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow
Andy Sumner, Kings College London, and UNU-WIDER Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow

Send all enquiries to: publications@wider.unu.edu

About the editors

Kunal Sen, UNU-WIDER Director, is Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge Elements in Development Economics series. Professor Sen has over three decades of experience in academic and applied development economics research, and has carried out extensive work on international finance, the political economy 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.

In addition to his work as Professor of Development Economics at the University of Manchester, Kunal 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 (IZA). He has also served in advisory roles with national governments and bilateral and multilateral development agencies, including the UK’s Department for International Development, Asian Development Bank, and the International Development Research Centre.

Tony Addison is a Professor of Economics in the University of Copenhagen’s Development Economics Research Group. He is also a Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, where he was previously the Chief Economist-Deputy Director. In addition, he is Professor of Development Studies at the University of Manchester, UK. His research interests focus on the extractive industries, energy transition, and macro-economic policy for development.

Chris Barrett is an agricultural and development economist at Cornell University. He is the Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management; and International Professor of Agriculture at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. He is also an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, and the African Association of Agricultural Economists.

Rachel M. Gisselquist is a Senior Research Fellow and member of the Senior Management Team of UNU-WIDER. She specializes in the comparative politics of developing countries, with particular attention to issues of inequality, ethnic and identity politics, foreign aid and state building, democracy and governance, and sub-Saharan African politics. Dr Gisselquist has edited a dozen collections in these areas, and her articles are published in a range of leading journals. 

Carlos Gradín is a professor of applied economics at the University of Vigo. His main research interest is the study of inequalities, with special attention to those that exist between population groups (e.g., by race or sex). His publications have contributed to improving the empirical evidence in developing and developed countries, as well as globally, and to improving the available data and methods used.

Shareen Joshi is an Associate Professor of International Development at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in the United States. Her research focuses on issues of inequality, human capital investment and grassroots collective action in South Asia. Her work has been published in the fields of development economics, population studies, environmental studies and gender studies.

Patricia Justino is a Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER and Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) (on leave). Her research focuses on the relationship between political violence, governance and development outcomes. She has published widely in the fields of development economics and political economy and is the co-founder and co-director of the Households in Conflict Network (HiCN).

Marinella Leone is an assistant professor at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia, Italy. She is an applied development economist. Her more recent research focuses on the study of early child development parenting programmes, on education, and gender-based violence. In previous research she investigated the short-, long-term and intergenerational impact of conflicts on health, education and domestic violence. She has published in top tier journals in economics and development economics. 

Jukka Pirttilä is Professor of Public Economics at the University of Helsinki and VATT Institute for Economic Research. He also serves as a Senior Non-Resident Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. His research focuses on tax policy, especially for developing countries. He is a co-principal investigator at the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Tax Systems Research. 

Andy Sumner is Professor of International Development at King’s College London; a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at UNU -WIDER and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He has published extensively in the areas of poverty, inequality, and economic development.

Areas of interest

Macroeconomics, economic transformation, inequality and poverty, education and health, public finance, conflict, political economy of development, gender, agricultural development, and environmental sustainability.