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September 2020

WIDER Annual Lecture 24 | UN at 75: slow death or new direction?

by Mark Malloch‐Brown

As the UN celebrates its 75th anniversary this WIDER Annual Lecture discusses whether the UN can reinvent itself, or whether it will sink into irrelevance. Can the UN find the likeminded allies it needs to take up this new agenda? Can the UN build alliances with younger citizens, businesses, and civil society, and challenge these dangerous new national orthodoxies that are threatening all of us?

Blogs

UNU-WIDER at 35 – letter from the Director

by Kunal Sen

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 the year begun, our focus quickly shifted away from celebrations and towards the more pressing concerns of an unprecedented global pandemic.

35 years of knowledge for change (1985-95) – changing IMF orthodoxy

by Timothy Shipp

UNU-WIDER was among the first to challenge IMF orthodoxy on macroeconomic stabilization. The 1985-87 project ‘Stabilization and adjustment policies and programmes’ put out a set of work that stands today as one of the first critical and credible collections calling ...

Decent work and COVID-19 – it’s time for a just deal for all workers

by Kunal Sen

Seven months into the unprecedented crisis of COVID-19, we already see significant effects on employment and earnings worldwide. The fallout could see poverty rise for the first time in over two decades — up to half a billion people could fall into global poverty in ...

Graduating in the shadow of the pandemic – the impact of COVID-19 on the transition of young Mozambicans from school to work

by Ivan Manhique and Gimelgo Xirinda

Since appearing in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the world into an unprecedented health and socioeconomic crisis. In response, during the second half of March 2020, the government ...

Barriers to opportunity for students in Mozambique – in their own words

by Anna Schnupp

Across Mozambique, 1,600 secondary school graduates from technical and vocational (TVET) institutes are being tracked as part of the school-to-work transition survey of the Inclusive growth in Mozambique programme - the country’s first long-term study ...

Why we need a World Financial Authority

by John Eatwell and Lance Taylor

Butcher shops and banks make an interesting contrast, as the late Cuban-American economist Carlos Diaz-Alejandro pointed out. Both may sell tainted products, and both are subject to public inspection and controls. The difference is that the butcher can only poison his customers, while the banker's wares can be based on ...

News

UNU-WIDER joins major new research consortium analysing African cities

A partnership of urban development experts – including UNU-WIDER – has been awarded a contract of £32 million to establish the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC).

Call for participation: Life with Corona survey round two

Life with Corona, a global survey tracking the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 around the world has just been released with updated questions. Take part in the survey here, and share the link with your colleagues, friends and family!

Press Release: Top UN economists warn of crises of our own making if global “megatrends” left unchecked

To avoid future failures, new report calls for overhaul of the way policies are made. New York, 17 September – Five human‑made “megatrends” will continue to dominate and frustrate global efforts to put the world on a more sustainable and prosperous path, unless urgent policy interventions to influence them are taken now, the UN Economist Network warned today in a new report.

Kunal Sen on the podcast 'In Pursuit of Development' with Dan Banik

Dan Banik speaks with Kunal Sen on India’s economic growth since 1991 and its impact on development, informality, inequality, and poverty reduction.

Many workers in India’s informal sector in dead-end jobs – findings of new study featured in national news

In a new WIDER Working Paper Transitions between informal and formal jobs in India – patterns, correlates, and consequences, researchers from UNU-WIDER, Sikkim University, and the University of Manchester show that despite high economic growth over the last decades, most of India’s poorest and low-skilled workers remain 'stuck' in a dead-end work status. The analysis is based on data on over 37,000 workers from the India Human Development Surveys of 2004–05 and 2011–12.

Publications

Book | Varieties of Stabilization Experience – Towards Sensible Macroeconomics in the Third World

by Lance Taylor

OPEN ACCESS | This book is a synthesis on the experiences of developing countries with stabilization programs. Critical of the orthodox "neoclassical" or "monetarist" approach of the IMF and ...

Book | The Rocky Road to Reform – Adjustment, Income Distribution, and Growth in the Developing World

edited by Lance Taylor

These case studies by an international roster of development economists provide valuable insights into the difficulty of establishing answers to the fundamental question of why nations grow at ...

Book | Governing Globalization – Issues and Institutions

edited by Deepak Nayyar

It is now more than fifty years since the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods institutions were created. The world has changed since then, and so have its governance needs in terms of institutions and rules. It is time to think about the governance needs in terms of ...

Journal Article | The individual poverty incidence of growth

by Maria C. Lo Bue and Flaviana Palmisano

OPEN ACCESS | The canonical approach to analyse the poverty impact of growth is based on the comparison of poverty before and after growth. Measurement tools endorsing this approach fail to capture the different experiences of poverty dynamic in the ...

Journal Article | Vulnerability to natural shocks – assessing the short-term impact on consumption and poverty of the 2015 flood in Mozambique

by Vincenzo Salvucci and Ricardo Santos

OPEN ACCESS | Mozambique is among the most disaster-prone countries in the world. A bigger than usual, and mostly unexpected ...

Journal Article | Multidimensional poverty of children in Mozambique

by Kristi Mahrt, Andrea Rossi, Vincenzo Salvucci, and Finn Tarp

OPEN ACCESS | We analyse the multidimensional wellbeing of children aged 0–17 in Mozambique and find that 46.3% can be considered multidimensionally poor. A substantial divide exists between urban and rural areas and between northern and ...

Journal Article | Infrastructure improvements and maize market integration – Bridging the Zambezi in Mozambique

by Sam Jones and César Salazar

OPEN ACCESS EARLY VIEW | Historically, transport infrastructure connecting the most agriculturally productive areas of Mozambique and the richer southern region has been poor. A primary ....

Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images/Images of Empowerment

Policy Brief | Migration governance in the Global South

by Rachel M. Gisselquist and Finn Tarp

Building knowledge about migration governance and policy in the Global South is a priority for research and policy. Migration is a defining feature of our time and one closely linked with processes of economic and political development. Sustainable Development ...

Research Brief | Tackling poverty and inequality in Southern Africa – transnational growth corridors as a solution

Comprehensive harmonization is crucial to eliminate inefficiencies that hamper free movement of goods and services in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Territorial collaboration between metropolitan clusters and rural areas ...

WIDER Working Paper Series

Working Paper

From fiscal stabilization to economic diversification – a developmental approach to managing resource revenues

Working Paper

Development Questions for 25 Years

Working Paper

Roots of dissent – trade liberalization and the rise of populism in Brazil

Working Paper

Data, global development, and COVID-19 – lessons and consequences

Working Paper

Character or context – what explains behavioural dishonesty in low-income countries?

Working Paper

Agro-industry, exports, and income distribution – a multiplier decomposition analysis for Myanmar

Working Paper

Public debt sustainability and debt dynamics – the case of Tanzania

Working Paper

Is there a gender bias in intergenerational mobility? – evidence from Cameroon

Working Paper

Discerning trends in international metal prices in the presence of non-stationary volatility

Events

WIDER Seminar | Funda Ustek-Spilda on fair work in the gig economy after COVID-19

29 September 2020

In this seminar, Funda Ustek-Spilda will introduce the Fairwork Foundation, an action-research project at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. Fairwork conducts action research into the working conditions in the platform economy, in order to ...

Opportunity

Vacancy | Web Developer

UNU-WIDER is looking for an outstanding individual with strong web and systems development skills to join the institute’s ICT Team. Closing date: open until the position is filled

From the network

AERC calls for research proposals

The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) calls for research proposals to undertake research in the following five thematic areas: Poverty, labour markets, and income distribution; Macroeconomic policy and growth; Finance and resource mobilization; Production, trade, and economic integration; and Agriculture, climate change, and natural resource management.

	UNU-WIDER
	Finland