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April 2022

The puzzle of peace – towards inclusive development in fragile contexts

16-17 May 2022, Helsinki, Finland

In 2022, UNU-WIDER hosts two WIDER Development Conferences, the first of which takes place in Helsinki on 16–17 May 2022. Across the two days, sessions cover a range of topics on the themes of peace, security, unrest, and the humanitarian fallout of conflict in different regions across the world.

Blogs

Do elites capture foreign aid?

by Jørgen Juel Andersen, Niels Johannesen, and Bob Rijkers

Does foreign aid end up in the pockets of elites instead of contributing to inclusive economic development? A recently published journal article offers new evidence of elite capture of World Bank loans by analysing data on bank accounts and shell companies in offshore financial centers.

From offshore oil to offshore finance – how tax havens facilitate corruption in the extractive industries

by Giovanna Marcolongo and Diego Zambiasi

In many countries, news of an oil discovery or the award of an exploration license is rarely greeted with enthusiasm by the general public. Any hopes of widespread development quickly vanish once people realize only a small elite group stands to benefit.

Could the war in Ukraine encourage Western leaders to finally deal with shadow finance?

by Johnny Flentø

'I say to the Russian oligarchs and the corrupt leaders who bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime: no more… We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.' - Joe Biden at the 1 March 2022, State of the Union Address

The war in Ukraine: Civilian vulnerability, resilience, and resistance

by Patricia Justino

The current and future civilian impacts of the war in Ukraine are immense. This column argues that the levels of vulnerability and resistance of civilians in wartime depend on three factors: the nature of violence during the war causing economic, psychological, ...

The 2022 energy shock

by Tony Addison

The price and availability of energy is fundamental to the health of the global economy. The Russia–Ukraine war is intensifying an energy shock that began unfolding as the prices for oil, natural gas and coal started to recover from a COVID-19-induced slump.

Seeking asylum from nowhere — how origin shapes the context of reception

by Sarah Dean and Phi Hong Su

Afghanistan is the world’s newest nowhere, a predicament that will shape the evacuation and resettlement prospects for millions of people for the foreseeable future.

Project in focus | Detecting and countering illicit financial flows

Working Paper

Hide–seek–hide? The effects of financial secrecy on cross-border financial assets

by Petr Janský, Tereza Palanská, Miroslav Palanský

Working Paper

The indirect costs of corporate tax avoidance exacerbate cross-country inequality

by Javier Garcia-Bernardo et al.

Working Paper

Measuring illicit financial flows – a gravity model approach to estimate international trade misinvoicing

by Lourenço S. Paz

Working Paper

Profit shifting by multinational corporations – evidence from transaction-level data in Nigeria

by Bathusi Gabanatlhong, Javier Garcia-Bernardo, Paulinus Iyika and Miroslav Palanský

Working Paper

Profit shifting by multinational corporations in Kenya –
the role of internal debt

by Roseline Misati, Kethi Ngoka, Anne Kamau, and Maureen Odongo

Working Paper

Profit-shifting behaviour of emerging multinationals from India

by Khanindra Ch. Das

Working Paper

The tax-price elasticity of offshore tax avoidance – evidence from Ecuadorian transaction data

by Jakob Brounstein

Working Paper

Incorporation of offshore shell companies as an indicator of corruption risk in the extractive industries

by Giovanna Marcolongo, Diego Zambiasi

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

Working Paper

Legal opacity, narcotics laws, and drug seizures

by Ninon Moreau-Kastler and Farid Toubal

Events

Original photo by Marc Schulte on Unsplash

WIDER Seminar | Mark Gradstein on soft skills, parenting styles, and persistent income inequality

11 May 2022, Helsinki, Finland

Persistence of income inequality is accounted for by incorporating in the process of human capital formation, soft skills, instilled in children by their parents. The mental cost associated with this process affects – and is affected by – income growth, implying a bidirectional relationship that leads to a propagation mechanism.

Project Workshop | Workshop on Institutional legacies of violent conflict

12-13 May 2022, Helsinki, Finland

The workshop brings together around 40 experts working in conflict analysis, peacebuilding, and related fields to present working papers they are currently completing as part of the project. The meeting is an opportunity for the project contributors to share, receive comments on, discuss, and debate their work in progress.

WIDER Webinar Series | K.A.S. Murshid on The Odds Revisited: Overcoming Underdevelopment - Lessons from the Bangladesh Journey

24 May 2022, online

K. A. S. Murshid joins WIDER Webinar Series to investigate ways to overcome vulnerabilities through the example of the Bangladesh development story. The webinar will be joined by Darlene K. Mutalemwa as a discussant.

WIDER Seminar | Jari Eloranta presents at the WIDER Seminar Series

8 June 2022, Helsinki, Finland

Topic to be confirmed later. Jari Eloranta is a professor of economic history at the University of Helsinki.

News

Above or below the poverty line – research on shifts in global poverty picked up by development media

New research from Andy Sumner, Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez, and Chris Hoy, has piqued the interest of the development community. The recent journal article, ‘Measuring global poverty before and during the pandemic: A political economy of overoptimism’, analyses and brings into question the ‘official’ estimates of global monetary poverty up to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Publications

Report | UNU-WIDER Annual Report 2021

by UNU-WIDER

The year 2021 marked the mid-point of UNU-WIDER’s 2019-2023 work programme addressing the three challenges of transforming economies, states, and societies. The COVID-19 pandemic meant that UNU-WIDER, along with most of the world, had to drastically change its ways of working. However, the Institute took on the challenge and embraced the opportunities this presented.

Journal Article | Elite capture of foreign aid –
evidence from offshore bank accounts

by Jørgen Juel Andersen, Niels Johannesen, and Bob Rijkers

Do elites capture foreign aid? This study documents that aid disbursements to highly aid-dependent countries coincide with sharp increases in bank deposits in offshore financial centers known for bank secrecy and private wealth management but not in other financial centers.

Journal Article | The social profitability of rural roads in a small open economy
Do urban agglomeration economies matter?

by Clive Bell

OPEN ACCESS ON EARLY VIEW | The effects of a rural roads programme depend on labour mobility, how the programme is financed, and agglomera-tion economies.

WORKING PAPER

Does the adoption of peer-to-government mobile payments improve tax revenue mobilization in developing countries?
by Abdoul-Akim Wandaogo, Fayçal Sawadogo, and Jesse Lastunen

Developing countries need to raise sufficient tax revenue to finance development. Revenue mobilization is often hampered by limited tax compliance, weak institutions, and technical problems with tax collection.

WORKING PAPER

Affirmative action: meaning, intentions, and impacts in the big picture
by Satu Kuitunen

This paper provides a broad overview of the meaning of affirmative action and its intended and unintended impacts. The paper is a literature review and does not make any arguments specifically for or against affirmative action but describes the broad arguments and findings in the existing literature.

Background note

Expanding a wage subsidy during lockdown
by Amina Ebrahim and Sibusiso Gumbi

The South African youth wage subsidy started in 2014 to increase employment and create jobs for low-wage youth. The subsidy was temporarily raised in value and expanded to reach more workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the lockdown period, the government used the subsidy to curb unemployment and, in turn, social fallout.

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