Filter by...
Reset all
Publications (218)
![Amelia Santos-Paulino chairing a session at the WIF 2024, blog image. Image: Anna Toppari / UNU-WIDER](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/Amelia-Santos-Paulino-blog-image-062024.jpg?itok=OZ5EvMfG)
– Journeys in development economics
‘What makes UNU-WIDER a unique place for researchers is the sense of community and the combination of academic rigor, policy relevance, and position within the UN system’, says our former Research Fellow Amelia Santos-Paulino. Konstantin M. Wacker, a former PhD intern, echoes this: ‘WIDER always...
Blog
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 Party (BJP), which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is seeking a third term in office. And the polls suggest it will achieve this objective.If one...
![LDC Future Forum in Helsinki 2024. Image: UN-OHRLLS](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/LDC-Future-Forum-2024-blog-cover-image.jpg?itok=MQtu9l2M)
The share of the least developed countries (LDCs) in global foreign investments is less than one percent. But positive developments have taken place—for example, the number of startup companies has increased. This information emerged at a forum held by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and...
![Cash transfer in Zambia. Image: Jean Mandela / UNU-WIDER](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/Blog-image-Zambia-cash-transfers.jpg?itok=1PWXLGZM)
The Zambian government wants to reduce poverty by 20% by 2030. To make this happen, the government reformed their national cash transfer programmes. But what was the potential impact? In 2021, our MicroZAMOD team conducted an assessment—recommendations of which have been adopted at the highest level...
Blog
Improving early child development outcomes in low-income settings requires affordable, sustainable, and easily scalable solutions. The “First Steps” programme in Rwanda has substantial positive effects on child development and offers a blueprint for interventions seeking to improve parental...
Blog
The South African constitution is considered progressive and transformative in intention due to its inclusion of socioeconomic rights, such as the right to education, food, and healthcare. However, some of these rights are qualified by the availability of state resources, which places an imperative...
Blog
– New Projections of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Today, October 17th is the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (you already knew that, right?). In new analysis for UNU-WIDER, we assess progress towards the global poverty-related SDGs, specifically monetary poverty, undernutrition, child and maternal mortality, and access to clean...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/300px-johanneke-kroesbergen-kamps-unsplash.jpg?itok=Dm5dEc5T)
– What Zambia is doing right
Over half of Zambia’s population lived below the national poverty line in 2015. In rural areas, where 89% of households are engaged in agriculture, the poverty rate was even higher, at 77% of the population. The government runs several programmes of financial support for farmers. Some provide...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Events/Image/martin-ravallion.jpg?itok=YZpV7HJ-)
– 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 Professor Martin Ravallion at the age of 70. He was to us a long-time friend and colleague, and a much-valued contributor to our research and conferences...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/jasmin-schreiber-kbLkKpdirg8-unsplash.jpg?itok=AYC9JS3d)
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 development economists? How about a rigorous development economics book, or set of books, you could read in a spare hour or two? A book that provides an...
![](/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...
![](/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...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/VNMOD-blog.jpg?itok=tRMnv86P)
– Meet our tax-benefit microsimulation team in Viet Nam!
How can Vietnamese policymakers improve their policy choices related to social protection and tax policies? Who are the experts providing evidence on different policy scenarios and their pros and cons to local decision makers? Meet our SOUTHMOD national team working in Hanoi who are leading the...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/Erica.png?itok=f89achPa)
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 Global South, Erica was only able to attend school for a few years before having to leave to work and support her family. Initially she was training to...
![](/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/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...
Promoting social mobility is an essential task of development, and a multi-faceted one. Precarious livelihoods are widespread. Containing downward mobility is an important precondition for sustaining upward mobility. Policies of human capital development assist but do not complete the task of...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/publication-image-charles-deluvio-unsplash.jpg?itok=gE5EJy80)
– Taxation in developing countries can be improved through collaboration
Finland aims to raise the amount of its development assistance to 0.7% of GDP, and this goal has good grounds. But how can we make sure that the countries receiving the donor funding will not stay dependent on the external aid for a long time?Just like rich countries, in the long run developing...
![](/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...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/dicson-unsplash-300px.jpg?itok=OhF0R0yV)
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that African tax and social-benefit systems are currently ill-equipped to protect households from sudden income losses. Meaningful progress will require policymakers to reduce the size of the informal sector and improve the design and financing of social-protection...
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...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/muneer-ahmed-ok-uz8HxJeGhwQ-unsplash.jpg?itok=TGUnbOxC)
On the third day of the annual UNU-WIDER Conference on 8 September, RISE presented findings from three studies on COVID-19's impact on education systems. These studies underline the urgent need to remediate learning losses, but they also illustrate how systems can ‘build back better’. RISE’s panel...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/subhakant-mishra-unsplash-300px.jpg?itok=nRInlTlv)
– 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 pandemic hit, which made it particularly exciting to be involved in. The conference introduced science-based solutions for attaining the Sustainable...
Blog
Virgi Agita Sari joined UNU-WIDER as a visiting PhD fellow in the summer of 2017. Coming from Indonesia, Virgi joined five other fellows from across the globe. Upon completing the three-month fellowship, she returned to the University of Manchester to finish her PhD in Development Policy. In 2019...
![](/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...
![](/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/Blog%20image%20-%20Helping%20the%20poor%20survive%20lockdown.jpg?itok=_GgLTlyV)
The Hrishipara Daily Diaries Project has been tracking the daily spending of 60 poor households in rural Bangladesh for the last six years. Analysis of the data collected – especially the changes to spending patterns that have occurred during the pandemic – reveals four areas where policymakers...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/UN7833639_1d8_square.jpg?itok=G1d8WuyK)
Stunted growth in early life has serious implications for cognitive development and is a well-established constraint to individual productivity and life expectancy. Vulnerability in childhood is highly correlated with stunted growth in many developing countries and is therefore a pressing concern...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/47953738212_e1471b7a6c_w.jpg?itok=14dI6uw8)
Researchers and policymakers have long asked whether rural households in Africa diversify their income to spread risk or by seizing opportunities to increase their earning potential. Long-term research in Tanzania shows that diversification is more often a choice rather than a necessity, with the...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/sigmund-8ts_MPjebEk-unsplash.jpg?itok=MGJIVZxa)
– 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 and protracted armed conflict, this vast country in Southern Africa could look back proudly on a sustained period of rapid growth and poverty...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/WA2021-04-blog6.jpg?itok=yJcgtXfv)
The negative economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mozambique range from reduced social interaction to business closures, job losses, and increased poverty. Existing evidence already shows significant effects on the transitions of young people graduating from technical and...
Blog
– 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 been closed, and gatherings banned. Almost 2.7 billion workers, representing around 81% the world’s workforce, have been affected by partial or full...
– It needs a rethink
Household incomes in Ecuador were badly hit by the pandemic, despite the government’s emergency grant to families. H Xavier Jara Tamayo (University of Essex), Lourdes Montesdeoca (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Ecuador) and Iva Tasseva (LSE) say the country needs to rethink its...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/COVID-19-conference-blog-publication-image.png?itok=wo1Q5MxX)
– Challenges, but also opportunities
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an exceptional social and economic crisis all over the world, with Africa among the hardest-hit regions. What are the most acute challenges facing the continent during and after the pandemic? What are the emerging opportunities to be seized? A two-day online...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/Publication-image-Aimable-blog-January-2021.jpg?itok=uExplhid)
Economics researcher Aimable Nsabimana shares the relevance and inspiration behind his recent work with UNU-WIDER on climate change and human development in Tanzania. How can research contribute to the wellbeing in Africa? In 2019, I spent some months at UNU-WIDER in Helsinki as a Visiting Scholar...
Blog
– Evidence from Rwanda
Globally, around 250 million children under the age of five do not meet key development milestones, which reduces their ability to reach their full potential. This column explores the evidence on what works to promote positive parenting practices, particularly in low-income contexts. The authors...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/pawel-janiak-4lVHbnofIDk-unsplash%20%281%29.jpg?itok=SNvAPzkG)
Continued lockdown measures are straining the social contract between citizens and governments. As this column explains, in contexts where there are low levels of trust in the state as well as high economic inequality – including some countries in sub-Saharan Africa – this could lead to growing...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/CDCimg2.png?itok=dRnXCxxG)
The most effective way to fight COVID-19 is by vaccinating against infection. But once the vaccine is developed, how can it be distributed across the world’s population? The key will be decoupling the production of the vaccine from its development. The assignment of intellectual property rights to a...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/IMG_20191114_111519.png?itok=JvC01zF_)
– FP2P Podcast and transcript
Duncan Green: I recently skyped Deepak Nayyar, Professor of Economics at India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to discuss his new book, Resurgent Asia. From Poverty to Power · Deepak Nayyar Podcast You start with an economist called Gunnar Myrdal, who 50 years ago wrote a book saying that Asia...
![](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/June-Sumner.png?itok=LNNhMnSl)
As COVID-19 slows in developed countries, the virus’s spread is speeding up in the developing world. Three-quarters of new cases detected each day are now in developing countries. And as the pandemic spreads, governments face juggling the health consequences with economic ones as this shifts to...
Blog
COVID-19 has had a far greater economic impact than health impact on Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Pacific. There has been extensive commentary about the likely macroeconomic effects of lockdowns and travel bans, but less attention has been given to how damaging the current crisis has been on...
Displaying 48 of 218 results