Season's Greetings from colleagues and friends at UNU-WIDER
On behalf of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), we wish you a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year!
2022 is already a record-breaker in the number of climate change-related events, and developing countries must now pay for the repairs and remediation needed to combat the consequences. Although the international community pledged support at the UN Climate Conference (COP27), the costs of shoring up economies for the reality of a changing climate also fall on developing countries themselves and require supportive fiscal policies.
New country on the SOUTHMOD map – meet our tax-benefit microsimulation team in Rwanda!
by Anna Toppari
How can developing countries improve their tax and social protection systems? One way is to take advantage of tools that help assess the impact of different policies. Rwanda is the latest country to join the SOUTHMOD collaboration, which will enable UNU-WIDER and Rwanda Revenue Authority to take advantage of each others’ expertise in tax and benefits research. Meet the national team behind the RWAMOD model!
Teamwork and capacity strengthening to promote development – the case of Mozambique
by Rodrigo C. Oliveira and Gemma Wright
In developing countries, designing and implementing public policies requires caution to guarantee the best use of scarce resources. One of the ways to achieve this goal is to simulate the potential tax and benefit impacts of different policies that are under consideration.
Fintech and domestic savings – a perfect match coming true in sub-Saharan Africa
by Josphat Machagua
FinTech is a major force disrupting the structure of financial services in sub-Saharan Africa and enabling access of unbanked people to financial services. This will likely have a deep, positive impact on the volume of savings in African countries. In this blog, I explain the current status of FinTech and its potential on the continent.
Empirical research is crucial for better tax enforcement in the developing world
by Nadine Riedel
I had the privilege to participate in the UNU-WIDER Winter School as one of the lecturers. In this blog, I explain my main takeaways for students and why I found this capacity development initiative important and urgent. Having more data, particularly on tax avoidance in African countries, brings great opportunities for tax revenue mobilization.
In memory of Ela Ramesh Bhatt — The gentle revolutionary
by Marty Chen
Ela Ramesh Bhatt, the founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India, passed away on 2 November 2022. Known as the ‘gentle revolutionary’, Ela-ben (as she is affectionately known) is recognized around the world for her Gandhian values, visionary ideals, pioneering work, and quiet, centered humanity.
UNU-WIDER launches new series: Cambridge Elements in Development Economics
We are excited to publish the first titles in a new series of peer-reviewed, original, authoritative, and succinct publications combining the best features of books and journals, made especially for digital access.
Book | Parental investments and children’s human capital in low-to-middle-income countries
by Jere R. Behrman
OPEN ACCESS | This study reviews what we know about parental investments and children's human capital in low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs). First, it presents definitions and a simple analytical framework. Then discusses determinants of children's human capital in the form of cognitive skills, socioemotional skills and physical and mental health.
Book | The 1918–20 influenza pandemic
A retrospective in the time of COVID-19
by Prema-chandra Athukorala and Chaturica Athukorala
OPEN ACCESS | The pandemic of 1918–20 — commonly known as the Spanish flu — infected over a quarter of the world's population and killed over fifty million people. It is by far the greatest humanitarian disaster caused by an infectious disease in modern history.
Book | The Job Ladder – transforming informal work and livelihoods in developing countries
edited by Gary S. Fields, T.H. Gindling, Kunal Sen, Michael Danquah, and Simone Schotte
IN PRODUCTION | Using a range of countries from the Global South, this book examines heterogeneity within informal work by applying a common conceptual framework and empirical methodology. The country studies use panel data to study the dynamics of worker transitions between formal and heterogeneous informal work.
Journal Article | Illicit financial flows and developing countries – a review of methods and evidence
by Kasper Brandt
OPEN ACCESS | Illicit financial flows (IFFs) constitute a major challenge for development in low-income countries, as domestic resource mobilization is imperative for providing crucial public services. This study focuses exclusively on the economic dimension of IFFs, thereby excluding topics as drugs trade, money laundering, and human trafficking.
Journal Article | The dynamic effects of aid and taxes on government spending
by Abrams M.E. Tagem
OPEN ACCESS ON EARLY VIEW | This article examines the impact of foreign aid and taxes on government spending for 67 developing countries during 1980–2013 using dynamic heterogeneous (panel) time-series techniques. We find that spending, aid and tax ratios comprise an equilibrium (cointegrated) relation.
Journal Article | The role of automatic stabilizers and emergency tax–beneft policies during the COVID‑19 pandemic – evidence from Ecuador
by H. Xavier Jara, Lourdes Montesdeoca, and Iva V. Tasseva
OPEN ACCESS | By combining household survey data before and during the COVID-19 pandemic with detailed tax-benefit simulations, this paper quantifies the distributional effects of COVID-19 in Ecuador and the role of tax-benefit policies in mitigating the immediate impact of the economic shocks.
Journal Article | Doing business in a deals world – the doubly false premise of rules reform
by Sabyasachi Kar, Lant Pritchett, Spandan Roy, and Kunal Sen
OPEN ACCESS | The Doing Business reports have evoked an intense policy debate about whether countries should simplify regulatory rules or make them more stringent. We argue that doing business in developing countries is based on deals struck between firms and the state, rather than rules.
