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February-March 2023

Compilation of conference exhibition photos.

UNU-WIDER exhibition at the LDC5 conference

On 5–9 March 2023, world leaders, parliamentarians, CSOs, the private sector, and youth representatives gathered in Doha, Qatar, to the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The conference discussed how to help LDCs graduate from the category and reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNU-WIDER contributed to the conference by presenting its research and capacity development collaboration in LDCs through an in-person and online exhibition.

Blogs

The developing world is facing a new debt crisis – what can we do about it?

by Iikka Korhonen and Kunal Sen

The recently concluded COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh had one important outcome for developing countries: the announcement of a loss and damage fund to help address climate injustice. While the developed world finally faces the climate crisis, we must recognize another interlinked crisis in the developing world: a debt crisis, the likes of which we have not seen since the 1980s.

From Monterrey to Addis Ababa, and what has happened since?

by Finn Tarp

The importance of domestic revenue mobilization and taxation for sustainable development is widely acknowledged in global development discussions, but for real change to happen the amounts of development aid and political engagement need to live up to commitments.

$1 trillion in the shade – the annual profits multinational corporations shift to tax havens continues to climb and climb

by Ludvig Wier and Gabriel Zucman

About a decade ago, the world’s biggest economies agreed to crack down on multinational corporations’ abusive use of tax havens. This resulted in a 15-point action plan that aimed to curb practices that shielded a large chunk of corporate profits from tax authorities.

In pictures: Household surveys and behavioural games in rural Mozambique

by Eeva Nyyssönen

Over the past few months, we have been carrying out extensive research in Mozambique as part of the Inequality and governance in unstable democracies – the mediating role of trust project.

Photo by Oleksandr Rupeta on Getty Images

Direct support to small scale farmers reduces poverty – what Zambia is doing right

by Jukka Pirttilä and Mari Kangasniemi

Over half of Zambia’s population lived below the national poverty line in 2015. In rural areas, where 89% of households are engaged in agriculture, the poverty rate was even higher, at 77% of the population.

Winston Dookeran. Photo by Fernanda LeMarie - Cancillería del Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0

Building connections that matter – UNU-WIDER Visiting PhD and Scholar programmes

by Leeni Varis

Every year about 20 visitors come to Helsinki to find a new home at UNU-WIDER in our Visiting Scholars and PhD Fellowship programmes. Although their stay is only three months, the connections they make last much longer, with past visitors’ continued engagement through our research opportunities, conferences, and more.

How can cities create better jobs in sub-Saharan Africa?

by Michael Danquah and Kunal Sen

Structural transformation involves the movement of workers from low-productivity sectors to high-productivity sectors. It has historically been associated with a shift from agrarian economies to more industrial economies based around urban areas, as seen in many Western nations as well as the Southeast Asian giants.

EVENTS

Corruption and theft in the global oil and gas sector

Think WIDER Webinar | 18 April 2023

Etienne Romsom speaks on estimates of global foreign bribery suggest that 20% of transnational bribes are linked to the extractive sector. Corruption is prevalent in the oil, gas, and mining industries. Another often overlooked issue in the extractives sector is organized theft. At USD 133 billion annually, oil is the largest stolen natural resource globally, while fuel is the most smuggled natural resource.

Working Papers

Working Paper

The institutions and policies of aid-recipient countries and aid effectiveness – the case of Afghanistan

by Nematullah Bizhan

Working Paper

India’s development cooperation in Africa – the case of ‘Solar Mamas’ who bring light

by Veda Vaidyanathan

Working Paper

European aid to the MENA region after the Arab uprisings – a window of opportunity missed

by Thilo Bodenstein and Mark Furness

Working Paper

Income inequality and household debt – examining the impact of relative income on formal and informal debt in South Africa

by Shakeba Foster

Working Paper

The end of Londongrad? The impact of beneficial ownership transparency on offshore investment in UK property

by Matthew Collin, Florian M. Hollenbach, and David Szakonyi

Working Paper

Fiscal dependence on extractive revenues – measurement and concepts

by Kyle McNabb

Working Paper

Inequality configurations

by Letícia Barbabela, Miquel Pellicer, and Eva Wegner

Working Paper

Inequality of opportunity and intergenerational persistence in Latin America

by Paolo Brunori, Francisco H.G. Ferreira, and Guido Neidhöfer

Working Paper

The South African personal income tax base, 2011–2018 – income and taxable income, adjusted for retirement fund and medical expense reporting changes

by Andrew R. Donaldson

Working Paper

The family as a cultural nexus

by Raquel Fernández

Working Paper

International migration and income inequality

by Nicola Daniele Coniglio, Vitorocco Peragine, and Davide Vurchio

Working Paper

Windows of peace: the effect of ceasefires on economic recovery

by Alex Armand, Myriam Marending, and Galina Vysotskaya

Publications

Book | The Job Ladder – transforming informal work and livelihoods in developing countries

edited by Gary S. Fields et al.

OPEN ACCESS | 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.

Cambridge Elements in Development Economics: Great Gatsby and the Global South

Book | Great Gatsby and the Global South

by Diding Sakri, Andy Sumner, and Arief Anshory Yusuf

OPEN ACCESS | In the Global South, economic mobility across generations or intergenerational economic mobility is in and of itself an important topic for research with consequences for policy. It concerns the 'stickiness' or otherwise of inequality because mobility is concerned with the extent to which children's economic outcomes are dependent on their parents' economic outcomes.

Journal Article | Improving parenting practices for early child development –
experimental evidence from Rwanda

by Patricia Justino, Marinella Leone,Pierfrancesco Rolla. and Monique Abimpaye

OPEN ACCESS ON EARLY VIEW | This study investigates the short- and medium-term impact of a randomized group-based early child development program targeting parents of children aged 6–24 months in a poor, rural district of Rwanda.

Journal Article | Educational expansion and shifting private returns to education – evidence from Mozambique

by Sam Jones, Thomas Pave Sohnesen, and Neda Trifković

OPEN ACCESS ON EARLY VIEW | We examine how returns to education have evolved in the context of post-conflict reconstruction and economic growth in Mozambique over the period 1996–2015. We show that private rates of return to education have declined at lower levels of schooling, but remained stable and possibly even increased at the highest levels.

Research Brief | Did withholding value-added tax improve revenue collection in Zambia?

by UNU-WIDER

Along with several other African countries, Zambia has introduced a withholding system for value-added tax (VAT) to improve revenue collection and compliance. Even though VAT withholding policies are applied in several countries in Africa and similar industry-specific policies in Europe, empirical evidence on the impacts has been scarce.

Research Brief | New estimates on the share of tax evasion in Zambia

by UNU-WIDER

Zambia is putting in place fiscal measures to improve the efficient collection of domestic revenue to finance social and public infrastructure. This analysis shows how much more revenue can be accumulated if tax evasion was at the bare minimum.

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