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April 2021

WIDERAngle blog. Photo by Soundtrap on Unsplash

New release | The new World Income Inequality Database (WIID) version includes companion datasets to improve study of global inequality

WIID provides the most comprehensive set of income inequality statistics available. It is also released alongside a WIID Companion for the first time. The WIID Companion offers a more user-friendly, curated set of inequality statistics. In the WIID Companion, most of the necessary data selection and adjustment needed to analyse, describe, or compare levels of inequality between countries or over time has already been taken care of by UNU-WIDER’s inequality and data experts.

Blogs

New WIID Companion to improve the study of inequality

by Carlos Gradín

There is a growing need to understand income inequality trends and how they interplay with other social, economic, and political outcomes, both at the country level and worldwide.

'Love thy neighbour'? – Evidence from a randomized neighbourhood relocation policy in India

by Shreya Bhattacharya

Caste in India plays an instrumental role in determining access to education, jobs, public spaces, and social networks. Facilitating intercaste contact may help to reduce caste-based prejudice. In a recent paper, I found strong evidence that this may be the case.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking youth in the UK: an interview with an expert – inequalities in access to education

by Timothy Shipp

I recently spoke to Catherine Gladwell, who is the Director and Founder of Refugee Education UK (formerly Refugee Support Network) and one of the researchers who contributed to our special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies on involuntary migration, inequality, and integration.

Good intentions falling short – the case of pension-related tax expenditures in South Africa

by Agustin Redonda

Tax benefits to boost contributions into pension funds are used widely by governments worldwide to address issues related to the aging of population and the sustainability of retirement systems. Although these goals are worth pursuing, PTEs are often highly regressive and can thus be important drivers of inequality trends.

COVID-19 lays bare Cape Town’s social divide, deepens underlying inequalities

by Simone Schotte and Rocco Zizzamia

The COVID-19 pandemic delivered a devastating economic shock to livelihoods across the world. In Cape Town, it has been toughest on those who had just found a way to keep their heads above water, living on the fringes of urban society.

Photo by Alexandros Dimitri Karantges on Unsplash

Adding insult to injury – the impacts of COVID-19 on urban youth in Mozambique

by Eva-Maria Egger, Ivan Manhique, and Finn Tarp

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 vocational schools into the world of work.

Ghana's lockdown hit vulnerable workers hard – what needs to happen next time

by Kunal Sen, Michael Danquah, Robert Darko Osei, and Simone Schotte

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 lockdown regulations.

Ecuador’s social protection system failed during the pandemic – it needs a rethink

by H. Xavier Jara, Lourdes Montesdeoca, and Iva Tasseva

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 social protection plans and consider raising more money through corporate and wealth taxes.

Foreign aid can help stem the decline of democracy, if used in the right way

by Rachel M. Gisselquist and Miguel Niño-Zarazúa

Democracy is having a hard time. In India, once the world’s largest democracy, the pandemic has hastened the country’s slide toward authoritarianism. In the US, the Trump administration’s attacks on democratic norms reached new lows when the former president, backed by the Republican party, refused to accept his loss in the November 2020 elections.

News

No one is safe until everyone is safe: Finland must advance global COVID-19 solidarity

JOINT STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF GLOBAL COVID-19 SOLIDARITY | The UN actors in Finland acknowledge Finland’s support towards multilateral COVID-19 responses, including through the UN system. In the joint statement released on 16 April 2021, several UN organizations and affiliates in Finland and UN organizations with host country agreements with Finland propose measures through which Finland can step up its efforts in support of global solidarity related to COVID-19 pandemic.

Events

Seminar | Arkebe Oqubay on the economic implications of COVID-19 crisis for developing countries

18 May 2021, online, Finland

Arkebe Oqubay will join the WIDER webinar to share insights from his recent research work to discuss the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for developing and emerging economies. He will be presenting the lessons learned and suggestions for policy changes. Tony Addison will follow as discussant.

Presentation | Kunal Sen will give the Keynote Address at the IRSA 16th Annual Conference

12 July 2021, online, Indonesia

Kunal Sen has been invited to give the Keynote Address at this year's Indonesian Regional Science Association's (IRSA) Annual Conference on 12 July. Professor Sen will speak on the main lessons from UNU-WIDER's project on 'The changing nature of work and inequality'.

Conference | Achieving Sustainable Development in the Least Developed Countries – LDC Future Forum

30 August – 1 September 2021, online, Finland

The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are low-income countries that face severe structural impediments to sustainable development. These countries are highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks and have low levels of human assets. To help the LDCs address these specific challenges, the United Nations convenes a dedicated conference every ten years.

WIDER Development Conference | COVID-19 and development – effects and new realities for the Global South

6-8 September 2021, online

The 2021 WIDER Development Conference will take place online during 6-8 September 2021, with the aim of connecting research and policy communities around the world to discuss the effects of COVID-19 on development in the Global South, and how to move forward.

WIDER Working Paper Series

Working Paper

What might explain today’s conflicting narratives on global inequality?

Working Paper

Trends in global inequality using a new integrated dataset

Working Paper

The social psychology of economic inequality

Working Paper

Material barriers, cultural boundaries – a mixed-methods analysis of gender and labour market segmentation in Bangladesh

Working Paper

The livelihood impacts of COVID-19 in urban South Africa – a view from below

Working Paper

Dynastic measures of inter-generational mobility with empirical evidence from Indonesia

Working Paper

What sustains informality? A study of the interactions between formal- and informal-sector firms

Working Paper

Analysis of the distributional effects of COVID-19 and state-led remedial measures in South Africa

Working Paper

The gendered crisis: livelihoods and mental well-being in India during COVID-19

Publications

Book | Inequality in the Developing World

edited by Carlos Gradín, Murray Leibbrandt, and Finn Tarp

OPEN ACCESS | Inequality has emerged as a key development challenge. It holds implications for economic growth and redistribution and translates into power asymmetries that can endanger human rights, create conflict, and embed social exclusion and chronic poverty.

Journal Special Issue | Involuntary Migration, Inequality, and Integration – Vietnamese and Afghan migrants in Canada, Germany, the UK, and the US

edited by Rachel M. Gisselquist

OPEN ACCESS ON EARLY VIEW | Migration is an inherent feature of human history. This special issue explores such experiences with a focus on inequality between migrants and host populations in countries of settlement.

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).

Policy Brief | Better livelihoods through income diversification in Tanzania

by Oliver Morrissey, Milla Nyyssölä, and Ralitza Dimova

Diversifying income sources is an important livelihood strategy for households in low-income countries. Having several sources of income helps in increasing total income, and in spreading the risks.

Research Brief | Trends in global inequality – a comprehensive approach

Recent analysis of inequality trends — which relies on the World Income Inequality Database (WIID) Companion, a pair of rich new datasets — assesses the extent to which inequality trends depend on certain views about inequality, including whether absolute or relative income changes matter more and which changes in the performance of income growth in different parts of the distribution we should care more about.

Background Note | Review of sub-national institutional performance in Ghana

The literature on the concept, measurement, causes, and correlates of sub-national institutional governance is not new. A major challenge for conducting these types of studies relate to the limitations of available data. Developing countries typically lack data that covers a broad range of governance and development indicators at the sub-national level.

Opportunities

Request for research proposals | Addressing ethnic inequality – experiences of reform

United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) is now requesting research proposals on a core theme of the Addressing group-based inequalities project: ‘Experiences of Reform’. Proposals for research that speak to the core questions of this research stream and draw on focused analysis of one or more government policies, programmes, or other reform efforts to address ethnic inequality will be considered. Submission deadline: 31 May 2021, 23:59 UTC+3

Vacancy | Wellbeing Programme Consultant

UNU-WIDER is seeking a home-based external consultant to develop the institutional wellbeing programme. Submission deadline: 7 May 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. Open until position is filled.

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