SEPTEMBER 2009

We are pleased to announce news of events, activities, commentaries and publications by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER).

FEATURE ARTICLES

UNU-WIDER: More Needed Than Ever
Finn Tarp. Full article.

Vulnerability in Developing Countries
Wim Naudé, Amelia Santos-Paulino and Mark McGillivray
Full article.

EVENTS

Forthcoming

WIDER Annual Lecture 13: The Trade-Development Nexus in Theory and History by Prof Ronald Findlay. Helsinki. 21 October 2009

UNU-WIDER, UNU-MERIT and UNIDO International Workshop on Pathways to Industrialization in the 21st Century: New Challenges and Emerging Paradigms. 22-23 October 2009

UNU-WIDER and UNU-CRIS International Workshop on South-South and North-South Trade Agreements: Compatibility Issues, Bruges, Belgium. 5-6 November 2009

Recent

WIDER Conference on Reflections on Transition: Twenty Years After The Fall of The Berlin Wall. Helsinki. 18-19 September 2009

Opening statement at the conference by President Václav Havel. Watch here.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

UNU-WIDER is pleased to announce the addition of three new members to its board: Professor Elisabeth Sadoulet, Professor Ravi Kanbur, and Professor Anne Case. link

Call for Papers: UNU-WIDER Project Conference on 'African Development: Myths and Realities'. Accra, Ghana: 10-11 December 2009. The deadline for submissions is 15 October 2009. See News.

Visiting scholars and PhD internship programmes closing date is 30 September 2009. For more information, see Opportunities.

LATEST PUBLICATIONS

Information on all of WIDER’s past and present publications is available on our website at http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/

New Book

Vulnerability in Developing Countries
Edited by Wim Naudé, Amelia U. Santos-Paulino
and Mark McGillivray

Publication date: August 2009, The UNU Press

More than a billion people live in extreme poverty. Many face the risk of never escaping from poverty. These risks are exacerbated by natural hazards, ill-health, and macroeconomic volatility. Consequently, vulnerability has become the defining challenge of our times. Despite this there is a need to better understand vulnerability, particularly in developing countries where people do not have the same bulwarks against risks. This volume addresses this need by pulling together essays from leading scholars in the field. It focuses on critical dimensions of vulnerability in developing countries such as the relationship between poverty and vulnerability, and vulnerability arising from ill-health and external shocks. Reflecting the multi-dimensionality of vulnerability, it showcases a variety of methodologies, which offer new perspectives on the use and relevance of the notion of vulnerability in economic development. 

Please order from your bookseller, library, or the publishers.

Journal Special Issues

Review of Development Economics-Special Issue: Development Aid—Theory, Policies, and Performance
Volume 13 Issue 3 (August 2009)
(in collaboration with UNU-WIDER)
Guest Edited by George Mavrotas
special issue free online at: www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/rde

We are pleased to announce a special issue of the Review of Development Economics on Development Aid—Theory, Policies, and Performance; Most of the papers included were presented at the UNU-WIDER Conference entitled Aid: Principles, Policies and Performance, held in Helsinki in June, 2006.

Oxford Development Studies-Special Issue: Vulnerability in Development: Advances in Concept and Measurement
Volume 37 Issue 3 (September 2009)
Guest Editors Wim Naudé, Amelia U. Santos-Paulino
and Mark McGillivray

We are pleased to announce a special issue of Oxford Development Studies on Vulnerability in Development: Advances in Concept and Measurement. The six papers in this Special Issue to provide insights into advances in conceptualizing and measuring vulnerability, in particularly household vulnerability to poverty and country and regional vulnerability to external shocks.  All of the papers were presented at the WIDER Conference on Fragile States – Fragile Groups, held in Helsinki in June 2007. The aim of the papers collected here is to consolidate the current state of the art as far as the concept and measurement of vulnerability on different levels and outcomes are concerned, and to note directions for future research. The journal issue complements the UNU-WIDER book on ‘Vulnerability in Developing Countries’, which is published in September 2009 by United Nations University Press.
Special issue free online: here on http://www.informaworld.com 

New Research Papers

Economic Reforms and Infrastructure Spending: Evidence from China and India
Pinaki Chakraborty and Yan Zhang - RP2009/43

Trading Inequality? Insights from the Two Globalizations in Latin America
A. Leticia Arroyo Abad and Amelia U. Santos-Paulino - RP2009/44

Entrepreneurship is not a Binding Constraint on Growth and Development in the Poorest Countries
Wim Naudé - RP2009/45

New Discussion Papers

Revisting the Global Food Architecture: Lessons from the 2008 Food Crisis - Luc Christiaensen - DP2009/04

Policy Briefs

The Global Economic Crisis after One Year: Is a New Paradigm for Recovery in Developing Countries Emerging?
Wim Naudé - UNUPB-02-09

Policy Responses to the Global Economic Crisis in Africa
Augustin Kwasi Fosu and Wim Naudé - UNUPB-03-09