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October 2021

From summits to solutions: what success means at COP26

by Mahmoud Mohieldin

At the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, world leaders discussed the need to scale-up ambition to address key global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, political extremism, and widening inequality. With less than two weeks to go before the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow, UK, however, the world is not delivering on its promise.

Blogs

Looking ahead to COP26

by Tony Addison

The long-awaited COP26 in Glasgow is about to start. Billed as the most important COP to date, it is widely seen as a last chance to avoid a global temperature rise beyond 1.5°C. This issue of the WIDERAngle focuses on Net Zero’s implications for the developing world as producers of oil, gas and coal both for their own needs and export to the world, together with the metals and materials ...

The zero carbon agenda and metals demand: some major dilemmas

by Alan R. Roe

The transition to net zero over the next few decades will involve a large increase in the global demand for many metals essential to the renewables revolution driving that transition. Recent research by the World Bank has identified a minimum of 17 main metals needed in significant quantities for that purpose: all six of its scenarios indicate significantly increasing demand through 2050.

Reducing wasted gas emissions is an opportunity for clean air and climate

by Kathryn McPhail and Etienne Romsom

COP26 is seen as the last best chance for countries and companies to set out how they will deliver the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) target of no more than 1.5°C. The venting and flaring of natural gas, common in the oil and gas industry, is one important area for action. 5.2% of total global anthropogenic greenhouse gas ...

The value of non-renewable resources in the era of climate change

by Amir Lebdioui

The economic decline of Nauru, an island in the Central Pacific, is a cautionary tale. Nauru was the highest GDP per capita country in the world in the 1970s, due to the value of its phosphate deposits. A few decades later, the country reached the brink of economic collapse when its phosphate deposits ran out. Phosphate extraction ...

In Memoriam: Ron Findlay

25 October 2021

UNU-WIDER was greatly saddened to receive the message about the passing in October 2021 of Ron Findlay, Professor of Economics at Columbia University, New York. Ron was a good friend of UNU-WIDER from the Institute’s earliest days, and contributed to many of our publications and conferences. He was a Board Member from 2001 to 2008 and gave the 13th WIDER Annual Lecture.

How can research help Least Developed Countries achieve sustainable development?

by Kunal Sen

The next decade is a make-or-break for the world’s most vulnerable countries. To tackle the unprecedented confluence of COVID-19, climate, and economic crises, new solutions are desperately needed. Scientific research is one key for finding long-lasting solutions.

I was a visiting PhD fellow at UNU-WIDER — this is my experience

by Virgi Sari

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, she joined the Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank as an economist.

Conflict-prone countries are not doomed to an eternal trap

by Ville Skinnari and Kunal Sen

The situation of Afghanistan has drawn a picture of a poor, conflict-prone, doomed country. But this does not have to be the case. We have examples of several countries able to rise out of poverty, despite conflicts, climate challenges, or large population.

Events

COP26: Are We Ready?

28 October 2021, online

Accelerating climate action implies a fundamental shift away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy and transport. But how ready is the world for the Net Zero transition? At 16:00 (UTC+3), UNU-WIDER organizes an online discussion with an international panel of experts on the role of extractive industries in the transition.

Original photo by Marc Schulte on Unsplash

Brian Levy and Alan Hirsch on the challenge of economic inclusion in South Africa

2 November 2021, online

Brian Levy and Alan Hirsch will join WIDER webinar series to discuss their recent research on the combination of strong institutions and massive inequalities in South Africa.

Filipe R. Campante on the political economy consequences of China’s export slowdown

9 November 2021, Tuesday, online

Filipe speaks about the paper where they studied how adverse economic shocks influence political outcomes in authoritarian regimes in strong states, by examining the 2013-15 export slowdown in China.

Ayu Pratiwi and Milla Nyyssölä on land rights and intergenerational resource allocations in Tanzania

17 November 2021, online, Finland

Turku University researcher Ayu Pratiwi and UNU-WIDER Research Associate Milla Nyyssölä give a presentation at the weekly online seminar of the Labour Institute for Economic Research. The topic of their presentation is A long-term analysis of land rights and inter-generational resource allocations in Tanzania.

Alexander Pick – from protest to progress? Why addressing global discontent is essential to building back better from the COVID-19 pandemic

17 November 2021, online

In this seminar, Alexander Pick discusses the key findings of a new report about the complexities of discontent, what the phenomenon tells us about the world around us, and what needs to be done to address discontent, at a local, national and international level.

Petros Sekeris on theoretical foundation of the modernization hypothesis

24 November 2021, online

The modernization hypothesis proposed by Lipset (1960) posits that as economies develop, this should map into increased democratization. Empirical evidence on the topic that has so far failed to reach unanimous conclusions (e.g. Przeworski and Limongi 1997, Barro 1999, Boix and Stokes 2003), even with the use of state ...

Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi and Joseph Asunka on Afrobarometer and SDG Scorecards

30 November 2021, online

Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi and Joseph Asunka join the WIDER Webinar Series to introduce the Afrobarometer project’s origins, achievements, the change it has contributed to governance in Africa, and the newly developed SDG scorecards.

WIDER Annual Lecture 25 | Women’s struggle for land in South Asia: Can legal reforms trump social norms?

9 December 2021, online

A century has passed since women in Undivided India, now divided into several countries of South Asia, demanded equal rights in property — especially land, the most important means of production in developing economies. The struggle continued after Independence ...

LEARNING

MOOC | Industrial Policy in the 21st Century – the Challenge for Africa

UNU-WIDER is running its popular Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), Industrial Policy in the 21st Century – the Challenge for Africa, as a self-paced course, with an instructor and regular opportunities to interact. Launching on 1 September, the 4-part course with John Page, senior researcher at UNU-WIDER, outlines how industrial policy designed for the 21st century could support a broader set of economic activities and provide the growth, jobs and industrialization needed in Africa.

Enrol

News

Understanding taxpayer behaviour better – New data research collaboration in Zambia

UNU-WIDER has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the revenue authorities in Zambia, to support collecting and analysing national administrative tax data. With the help of the data, the aim is to find policy solutions to increase tax compliance and domestic revenues. Enhancing tax collection will facilitate the provision of better basic services for citizens.

New UN study reveals limited impact of tax and social protection policies in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa

In the first study of its kind on Africa, researchers found that tax and benefit policies provided limited income protection to poorest households but failed to offset the increase in poverty.

Pia Rattenhuber at UNU-FLORES United Nations Day 2021 commemorative event

United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and Resources (UNU-FLORES) organizes a commemorative event in Dresden on the occasion of the UN day 2021. The topic of the event is Inequalities in crises. UNU-WIDER Research Fellow Pia Rattenhuber gives the keynote speech at the event.

WIDER Working Paper Series

Working Paper

The mitigating role of tax and benefit rescue packages for poverty and inequality in Africa amid the COVID-19 pandemic

by Jesse Lastunen et al.

Working Paper

Climate shocks, agriculture, and migration in Nepal – disentangling the interdependencies

by Aslihan Arslan, Eva-Maria Egger, Erdgin Mane, and Vanya Slavchevska

Working Paper

The changing nature of work and inequality in Brazil (2003–19) – a descriptive analysis

by Sergio Firpo, Alysson Portella, Flavio Riva, and Giovanna Úbida

Working Paper

What are the drivers of tax capacity in sub-Saharan Africa?

by Abrams M.E. Tagem and Oliver Morrissey

Photo by Frida Aguilar Estrada on Unsplash

Working Paper

Gender and vulnerable employment in the developing world – evidence from global microdata

by Maria C. Lo Bue, Tu Thi Ngoc Le, Manuel Santos Silva, and Kunal Sen

Working Paper

An exploration of the association between fuel subsidies and fuel riots

by Neil McCulloch, Davide Natalini, Naomi Hossain, and Patricia Justino

Working Paper

The afterlife of industrial work – urban-to-rural labour transitions from the factory to the informal economy

by Alessandra Mezzadri and Kaustav Banerjee

Working Paper

Contract clientelism – how infrastructure contracts fund vote-buying

by Alisha Holland and Will Freeman

Photo by Barthelemy de Mazenod on Unsplash

Working Paper

Glimpses of fiscal states in sub-Saharan Africa

by Mick Moore

Working Paper

The welfare effects of financial inclusion in Ghana – an exploration based on a multidimensional measure of financial inclusion

by Abdul Malik Iddrisu and Michael Danquah

Working Paper

The effects of a risk-based approach to tax examinations – evidence from Tanzania

by Amina Ebrahim et al.

Photo by Moonstarious Project on Unsplash

Working Paper

Labour conditions in regional versus global value chains – insights from apparel firms in Lesotho and Eswatini

by Giovanni Pasquali

Publications

Book | Social mobility in developing countries – concepts, methods, and determinants

edited by Vegard Iversen, Anirudh Krishna, and Kunal Sen

Social mobility — defined as the ability to move from a lower to a higher level of education or occupational status, or from a lower to a higher social class or income group — is the hope of economic development and the mantra of a good society.

Journal Article | The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the poor – insights from the Hrishipara diaries

by Risto Rönkkö, Stuart Rutherford, and Kunal Sen

OPEN ACCESS | We examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the livelihoods of the poor in a semi-rural setting in Bangladesh. We use an unusually rich dataset which tracks the economic and financial transactions of sixty poor and very poor individuals and ...

Journal Article | Normalizing necessity? Support networks and racial inequality in Namibia

by Annalena Oppel

OPEN ACCESS | Community support is a critical source to sustain livelihoods in the Global South. At the same time, these practices can exhibit unequal dynamics such as disincentives, hierarchies, or adverse inclusion of individuals.

Journal Article | The political economy of the resource curse – a development perspective

by Antonio Savoia and Kunal Sen

OPEN ACCESS | This article reviews the recent literature on the developmental effects of resource abundance, assessing likely effects and channels with respect to key development outcomes. To date, this area has received less analysis, although it is relevant to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals agenda, as a significant number of the world's poor live in African resource-rich economies.

Journal Article | Fiscal decentralization and efficiency of public services delivery by local governments in Ghana

by Isaac Otoo and Michael Danquah

OPEN ACCESS | We estimate the efficiency of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana, and investigate the impact of fiscal decentralization on the efficiency of local public goods and services delivery by MMDAs.

Journal Article | Digital technologies and product upgrading in Global Value Chains –
empirical evidence from Indian manufacturing firms

by Karishma Banga

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 GVC firms in the period ...

Journal Article | Occupational gender segregation in post-apartheid South Africa

by Carlos Gradín

OPEN ACCESS | This study shows that occupations in South Africa are segregated and stratified by gender. While some women (mostly Black and 'Coloured') overwhelmingly fill low-paying jobs, others (mostly White and Indian/Asian, but also Coloured) tend to fill higher-paying professional positions.

Opportunities

Vacancy | Research Associate

UNU-WIDER is looking for a postdoctoral fellow to serve as a Research Associate for the project on ‘Institutional Legacies of Violent Conflict’. Closing date: 6 December 2021, 23:59 UTC+2

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