Filter by...
Reset all
Publications (213)
![key](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/amol-tyagi-0juktkOTkpU-unsplash.jpg?itok=Y0hIcfL2)
As a young data developer responsible for mining and analysing the administrative tax data provided to researchers through the SA-TIED programme, I am acutely aware of the economic challenges faced by the average South African, particularly young people. According to recent data from Statistics...
![Photo by Daniel Korpai on Unsplash.com](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/daniel-korpai-p91W9-rrhLA-unsplash-square.jpg?itok=-IL31g8s)
In a new release for the UNU-WIDER and Cambridge University Press Elements in Development Economics series, I look at global capitalist economic history through a new lens. In the book, I highlight how the creation of, command over, and exclusion from knowledge is a critical factor explaining why...
![world globe](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Global%20South.jpg?itok=s1xJVHUs)
In 2024, central banks worldwide are confronted with the challenges of juggling inflation control, economic growth, and the preservation of financial stability. A new report from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) outlines many of the dangers the economy faces...
Blog
Evidence from Brazil shows how affirmative action students in the higher education system adjust their behaviour to catch up with initially higher-performing privileged students.Affirmative action (AA) policies, aiming to address historical inequalities and promote social justice, have sparked...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Publications/Policy-brief/Image/thumbnail-PB-1-2024.jpg?itok=WW9u-_1N)
– Policy lessons for low- and middle-income countries
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 hamper women’s economic empowerment globally...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/dane-deaner-_-KLkj7on_c-unsplash.jpg?itok=MQZuc-eC)
In a landmark judgment in June 2023, the US Supreme Court ruled against the use of race-conscious admissions in colleges and universities. This decision marked a controversial end to affirmative action in US higher education admissions.Race-conscious admissions policies at American universities have...
Blog
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 study conducted by the SA-TIED programme, in 2021, women in South Africa earned 78 cents for every rand earned by men, compared to 89 cents in 2008. This...
– Earnings inequality and polarization in eleven countries
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 concentration largely originates from the accumulation of...
Blog
– 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 interventions that can drive transformational change and support the Asia–Pacific (APAC) region in achieving the SDGs. The panel convened experts from...
![SOUTHMOD Latin America teams blog 052023](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/Flags-for-blog-Latin.png?itok=rRYWcKcl)
– 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? Which social protection policies reduce income poverty in Peru? In addition to the nine pre-existing countries with their own tailored tax-benefit...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Publications/Research-brief/Image/IGMRB2023-1.png?itok=1bjNsEpR)
– Differences based on gender
A recent study examines how inequality is perceived among young adults in Mozambique and how perceptions of inequality correlate with different demographic characteristics, including gender. It focuses on how young Mozambicans view the disparities between rich and poor people and why. Additionally...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/ryoji-iwata-X53e51WfjlE-unsplash-square.jpg?itok=pwDmenSK)
– 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 achieve a better life regardless of their background— though the story illustrates the fragility of the dream. It also shows an age of prosperity just...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/cardmapr-nl-9fByQORuvqM-unsplash-square.jpg?itok=kViKCEBw)
Research on how income inequality affects borrowing behaviour reignited after the 2008 global recession. One prevailing theory is that rising income inequality in the US and other high-income economies eroded real household incomes and prompted more and more borrowing. This growing debt culminated...
Blog
UK economic forecasts have improved markedly since the September 2022 mini-budget. The economic recession may now be more shallow and public borrowing lower than previously expected. However, faced with persistently high inflation and continued uncertainty caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/mauro-mora-31-pOduwZGE-unsplash_square.jpg?itok=PotywhP3)
Many countries today experience increasing or persistent income inequality, a major concern for citizens and politicians alike. This concern is justified; as some individuals get richer, most people’s real incomes stagnate. Widening income inequality brings challenges to a nation’s development...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/mieke-campbell-iszoQegFXm0-unsplash_square.jpg?itok=ELWLocvD)
In recent decades, India has experienced rapid economic growth alongside radical affirmative action programs enacted since independence. This column explores what we know about the impact on social mobility. While there is some evidence of educational mobility, occupational mobility has not...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/publication-image-blog-21122022-tax-haven-cristofer-maximilian-unsplash.jpg?itok=PJW47AZX)
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 been largely absent. This column uses a new time series of global profit shifting covering the 1975–19 period to estimate that the fraction of...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/Publication-image-RWAMOD-team.jpg?itok=jXFl1PYD)
– Meet our tax-benefit microsimulation team in Rwanda!
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 different policies. Rwanda is the latest country to join the SOUTHMOD collaboration, which will enable UNU-WIDER and Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) to...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/sebastian-leon-prado-dBiIcdxMWfE-unsplash.jpg?itok=xyZQknHl)
– Rethinking how much parents’ influence children’s human capital in low- and middle-income countries
The measure of human capital —the economic value of one’s skills and experience— acknowledges that investments in people’s cognitive and emotional skills, and health and nutrition, increase their productivity. Beyond economic gains, human capital is widely considered critical for many dimensions of...
Blog
Early in October 2022, international and Colombian researchers gathered together for three days at the UNIANDES campus, located at the foot of the impressive Monserrate in Bogotá, Colombia. They were there to discuss their latest advances in inequality research. This was the second WIDER Development...
Blog
For several decades, UNU-WIDER has actively worked on pathfinding and groundbreaking research on inequalities. We host one of the most extensive collections of income inequality statistics in the world freely available and updated annually. I have written previously about how the institute was...
Blog
Developing countries will be predominantly urban by 2030. While urbanization is historically associated with development and broad-based social mobility, its effects on social mobility in cities of the Global South are more variable and less uniformly optimistic. Improving lives for the urban poor...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Publications/Policy-brief/Image/policy-brief-Developers-Dilemma-pic3.png?itok=stk0_ugE)
– Overcoming the developer’s dilemma
There are multiple pathways of structural transformation and different inequality dynamics of each. Rising inequality is not inevitable — policies make a difference. Broad-based economic development requires public policies to address any upward pressure on inequality. A different policy agenda for...
Blog
In this blog, the managing editor of the WIDERAngle shares his personal view on some of the most important —and potentially overlooked— work recently released in the WIDER Working Paper Series. We just passed the halfway point of 2022 and, as of this writing, UNU-WIDER has already released 70...
Background Note
pdf
Introduction Only recently has the importance and potential of behavioural sciences been recognized as a critical tool to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This long-awaited recognition comes from the highest levels of the United Nations, with the Secretary-General recently issuing a...
Blog
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 measured with the ‘Gini’ which ranges from 1 (a totally unequal planet or one person gets everything) to 0 (a totally equal planet). Global inequality...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Publications/Research-brief/Image/RB2022-6.jpg?itok=bQRN9_gz)
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 this joint effort: identifying important knowledge...
Blog
Innovation in academic investigation and policy response is critical to addressing global challenges. That is why the most recent Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded for methodological contributions that advanced new areas of inquiry in labour economics. This rationale recognizes the key role of...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/jon-tyson-r9T0LZv8xWQ-unsplash_thumbnail.jpg?itok=07chzUoq)
– And how to deal with them
Children from poorer families in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda face a double disadvantage in their opportunity to access learning: not only is the overall quality of education low in these countries, but they also attend relatively poorer-quality schools. This column reports new evidence on how...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/fringer-cat-hddmXlPaFGo-unsplash_reduced.jpg?itok=2jiYJgdA)
The following is an excerpt: mRNA vaccines, asteroid missions and collaborative robots: what to watch in science in 2022 – podcast Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Gemma Ware, The Conversation From new mRNA vaccines to space missions and developments in robotic automation, in this episode of The...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/Publication-image-SOUTHMOD-COVID-19-Kehitys-tai-s-captures-unsplash.jpg?itok=2Z9VJgit)
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 their income.This is the conclusion of a study conducted by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, UNU...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/pexels-micah-boerma-1008743%20%281%29.jpg?itok=BQgH4AEe)
– 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, here, and here). The world’s poor hadn’t moved of course, but the countries that are home to large numbers of poor people had got better off on...
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: identifying important knowledge gaps; bringing...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Publications/Annual-lecture/Image/PB-2021-10-website-image.jpg?itok=hZd8YNXY)
Moçambique reportou o seu primeiro caso da COVID-19 em 22 de Março de 2020. As estimativas do PIB sugerem um forte efeito da pandemia, com uma redução de sete dos nove dos sectores de actividade analisados. No entanto, o sector agrícola – um dos mais importantes – registou um aumento de 9%, que pode...
Blog
– The power of ideas & the limits of technocracy
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 I explored why a narrow focus on growth and good governance will not be enough to get South Africa (and, by analogy, other countries similarly...
Blog
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 in Crises”. In an interview, we got up close and personal with our keynote speaker Dr Pia Rattenhuber (UNU-WIDER), an expert in development economics...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Publications/Policy-brief/Image/PB2021-6.jpg?itok=mq7JCBkf)
Tanzania, similar to most sub-Saharan countries, reported its first COVID-19 cases in March 2020. While GDP estimates suggest that the economy was less hard hit than in other African countries, some sectors have nevertheless experienced negative growth. Even with contained GDP contractions in 2020...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/UNU_WIDER_conf21_square_globe.jpg?itok=N0CzAVsE)
Around the world, the pandemic, and the measures taken to address it, have had far reaching effects on poverty, inequality, and governance. And even as the need for global action has increased, many wealthy countries have turned inwards — with closed borders, stockpiling of vaccines, and...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Publications/Policy-brief/Image/PB2021-5.jpg?itok=BflEqMj1)
In 2020, the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic caused an economic crisis that disrupted the Ugandan labour market. How large were the associated income losses across different industries and population groups? To what extent did the general tax-benefit system mitigate the adverse effects of the...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Publications/Policy-brief/Image/PB2021-4-distributional-effects-covid-19-pandemic-ghana.jpg?itok=njGa6cK3)
The first cases of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa were reported in March 2020, and the impact of the pandemic has since rippled through the world and Africa. In response to the crisis and similarly to many of its peers, Ghana has enacted a variety of containment measures to confront the pandemic...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Publications/Policy-brief/Image/PB2021-3-role-tax-banfit-policies-covid-19-pandemic-2020-mozambique1.jpg?itok=QUlYAAXF)
Mozambique reported its first case of COVID-19 on 22 March 2020. GDP estimates suggest a strong pandemic effect, with a reduction in seven of nine business sectors analysed. However, the agriculture sector, one of the most important, experienced a 9% increase, which may have cushioned the pandemic...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/SOUTHMOD-COVID-19-blog-tim-mossholder-unsplash.jpg?itok=Q6GHH11r)
In summer 2020 the SOUTHMOD team set out, with partners, to analyse the impact of government policies on protecting households from getting poorer and avoiding societies from becoming more unequal. Now we are releasing a cross-country comparative study that analyses the distributional effects of the...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Publications/Policy-brief/Image/PB2021-2-covid-19-zambia.jpg?itok=7ExAwq87)
Zambia’s economic growth has been flattening over the past decade. In 2020 economic prospects further worsened, following the onset of the pandemic, rising debt, and the Eurobond default. In this unprecedented scenario, there is the need to examine impacts on welfare and the mitigation role taxes...
Blog
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 the International Economic Association (IEA). Kanika Mahajan is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Ashoka University, India and the author of a...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/blog-image-Oriana-keynote.png?itok=eOaemMhr)
The opening keynote of the recent WIDER Development Conference, COVID-19 and development – effects and new realities for the Global South, was given by Oriana Bandiera, Sir Anthony Atkinson Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, an accomplished economist with several awards under...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/vernon-raineil-cenzon-knpOI2Tg2nE-unsplash_thumbnail_square.jpg?itok=xSOzhz8S)
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 comparable incomes for the richest 10% are more than US$39,000 per person – nearly 40 times higher than those of the bottom 40%. Those numbers, which are...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/Pub%20image%20photo_social%20protection%20blog.jpg?itok=rckeunsq)
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 the pandemic still ongoing? I recently had the opportunity to participate as a lead discussant at the UN DESA expert group meeting with many...
Displaying 48 of 213 results