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February 2021

Sub-Saharan Africa had a manufacturing renaissance in 2010s – it’s a promising sign for the years ahead

by Gaaitzen de Vries, Emmanuel Mensah, Hagen Kruse, and Kunal Sen

The 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 quarter of 2021. Similar to other developing regions, sub-Saharan Africa recorded a 2.6% decline, following strong growth of 3.2% in 2019.

Blogs

From the editor's desk – focus on data

by Timothy Shipp

This month, a partnership between UNU-WIDER and the Groningen Growth and Development Center (GGDC) brings a new database on economic transformation public ... In recognition of the importance of data like this to our work, the WIDERAngle is hosting a selection of articles which have a special focus on data.

A ‘data revolution’ for sustainable development leaves gaps on inequality

by Rachel Gisselquist

Among the many things said about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the description by the President of the UN General Assembly’s 70th session, Mogens Lykketoft, that the SDGs represented ‘an unprecedented statistical challenge’. In addition ...

Detecting global income inequality trends – and why it matters

by Annalena Oppel

More accurate estimates of inequality trends allow us to measure progress towards achieving reductions in inequality within and between countries. Deviations in trend patterns can provide insights for further explorations of the root causes and consequences of varying degrees of economic inequality.

Using tax data to inform economic policy in South Africa

by Amina Ebrahim and Grace Bridgman

Countries need data and evidence to create, amend, and evaluate policy. Indeed, one of the key mandates of policy makers in South Africa is to make evidence-based policy decisions which improve the policy landscape of the country.

Data for better tax policy analysis – introducing the latest version of the Government Revenue Dataset

by Kyle McNabb

Thanks to the updated version of the Government Revenue Dataset (GRD) we are now able to gain a clear picture of tax and other revenue trends in over 190 countries over the past four decades, ...

News

Press Release: New data reveals developing economies are bucking trend of de-industrialization

Researchers from the Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) and the United Nations University World Institute of Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) find many developing countries around the world have reversed the trend of deindustrialization, showing signs of a ‘renaissance’ in manufacturing since the early 2000s.

Life with Corona survey is now available in 27 languages

Life with Corona survey has been tracking the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 around the world for almost a year now. Tens of thousands of people have already contributed their views. The online questionnaire takes just 10 minutes to complete and is available in 27 languages. Take part in the survey here, and share the link with your colleagues, friends, and family! UNU-WIDER is part of the research consortium running the survey.

Rachel Gisselquist featured in Chinese Social Sciences magazine

A Chinese social science publication Chinese Social Science Today has featured a UNU-WIDER expert in their January 2021 issue.

Events

Presentation | Rachel M. Gisselquist and Miguel Niño-Zarazúa on Effectiveness of International & Swedish Democracy Aid for DEval

11 March 2021

On Thursday, 11 March 2021 at 16:00 CET, they will be presenting and discussing the findings of the report Effects of Swedish and international democracy aid at an event organised by DEval – the German Institute for Development Evaluation.

Presentation | Tony Addison at 5th UN Roundtable on Extractives

15 March 2021

Tony Addison will be presenting at a high-level United Nations Roundtable titled 'Extractive industries and sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda in the Arab region'.

Seminar | Sanchita Banerjee Saxena on COVID-19 and garment workers in Bangladesh

23 March 2021

Sanchita Banerjee Saxena joins the WIDER Webinar Series to discuss a recent study on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the garment workers in Bangladesh.

WIDER Working Paper Series

Working Paper

A manufacturing renaissance? Industrialization trends in the developing world

Working Paper

The labour market impact of COVID-19 lockdowns – evidence from Ghana

Working Paper

Premature deindustrialization and income inequality in middle-income countries

Working Paper

Welfare and the depth of informality – evidence from five African countries

Working Paper

On the impact of inequality on growth, human development, and governance

Photo by Himanshu Singh Gurjar on Unsplash

Working Paper

Multigenerational mobility in India

Working Paper

The effects of personal income tax reform on employees’ taxable income in Uganda

Working Paper

Estimating poverty transitions in Mozambique using synthetic panels – a validation exercise and an application to cross-sectional survey data

Working Paper

Does aid support democracy? A systematic review of the literature

Publications

Photo by Devon Janse van Rensburg on Unsplash

Journal Article | Exclusive growth? Rapidly increasing top incomes amid low national growth in South Africa

by Ihsaan Bassier and Ingrid Woolard

ON EARLY VIEW | Despite South Africa’s need for inclusive economic growth, we find that the top income percentiles continue to diverge from the rest of the income distribution.

Journal Article | Digital Technologies and Product Upgrading in Global Value Chains –

Empirical Evidence from Indian Manufacturing Firms

by Karishma Banga

ON EARLY VIEW | This article provides empirical evidence on the impact of digitalisation on product upgrading in global value chains (GVCs). Analysis is done for a sample of Indian manufacturing ...

Research Brief | The role of tax and benefit policies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador

What was the impact on earnings of the economic crisis caused by the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador? To what extent did social assistance programmes compensate household income losses? ECUAMOD, the tax-benefit microsimulation model for Ecuador, ...

Opportunities

Request for research proposals | Detecting and countering illicit financial flows

UNU-WIDER together with Department of Economics at the UCPH invite proposals for papers examining the challenge of illicit financial flows. Submission deadline: 15 March 2021, 23:59 UTC+3

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.

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