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Why are frontiers and borderlands more conflict prone—and what have institutions got to do with this?According to a recent OECD Report, borderlands experience a greater intensity of violence, especially violence targeted against the state. While there...
Blog
Development aid cuts will hit fragile countries hard, could fuel violent conflictFragile and least developed countries have had their development assistance cut drastically, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation...
Research Brief
The prolonged effects of terrorismTerrorist violence has a profound influence on social attitudes, including trust in governmental institutions and attitudes towards migration and civil freedoms. Acts of terrorism cause citizens to experience a complex range of negative emotions...
Blog
Pre-colonial politics affects tax compliance in modern day UgandaParts of Uganda that had centralised political systems before colonial rule are more likely to have higher rates of voluntary tax compliance. Merima...
Policy Brief
Tasks, skills, and institutionsConcerns about widening income inequality within countries continue to gain prominence in public debate worldwide. In the last decade, attention to the concentration of income at the very top of the distribution (top 1%) has increased. This...
Blog
On the road to fairer societies in Asia and the Pacific region: Four focus areas on center stageA recent panel discussion at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok set out to identify policy...
Blog
Will growth be enough to end poverty?: New Projections of the UN Sustainable Development GoalsToday, October 17th is the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (you already knew that, right?). In new analysis for UNU-WIDER, we...
Blog
Overcoming the challenge of illicit financial flows: Four pieces of advice for policymakers
From profit shifting to sanction evasion, illicit financial flows divert funds away from essential poverty-fighting and infrastructure programs. A...
Working Paper
Wage inequality, firm characteristics, and firm wage premia in South AfricaThis paper investigates the role of firm characteristics in driving wage inequality and firm wage premia in the South African labour market. The Abowd, Kramarz, and Margolis (AKM) and Kline, Saggio, and Sølvsten (KSS) regression-based decomposition...
Journal Article
Are the effects of terrorism short-lived?ARTICLE ON EARLY VIEW | Terrorism elicits strong public reactions immediately after the attack, with important implications for democratic institutions and individual well-being. Are these effects short-lived? We answer this question using a natural...
Working Paper
Construction productivity and global inequalityTwo well established stylized facts of economic development are a strong correlation between investment and income, and large differences in investment rates across countries. Construction is the largest component of investment. This paper examines...
Book
Economic Transformation and Income Distribution in China over Three DecadesIt is arguable that the most important event in the world economy in recent decades has been the rise of China, from being on a par with sub-Sahara Africa at the start of economic reform to being an economic superpower today. That rise remains under...
Working Paper
Aid and violence reductionAlthough the provision of security to all their citizens is a state’s fundamental duty, over 50 countries experienced armed conflict in 2021. The international development community has identified armed conflict as an impediment to development and...
Working Paper
Compliance rates with local and national business taxesThis paper investigates business tax compliance in a multilevel tax structure with limited coordination. We study the case of Kampala, where firms are taxed at national and local levels—by the Uganda Revenue Authority and the Kampala Capital City...
Journal Article
Acting like a stateThis article examines the complex local dynamics of armed violence in post-war Abkhazia. Drawing on in-depth interviews with the Abkhaz participants and non-participants in this violence and a range of secondary materials, it adapts the conceptual...
Policy Brief
How to support the emergence of effective tax systemsThere has been a revival of interest in the state’s role in economic development. Recent research argues that the most successful economies are those where effective states provide crucial public goods and services. The historical emergence of...
Working Paper
Youth, violence, and sustaining peaceViolent conflicts affect the lives and livelihoods of almost one quarter of the world’s population. But the effects of violent conflict are not uniform. This study assesses the differential effects of violent conflict on young people’s education, job...
Working Paper
The legacy of Mexico’s Drug War on youth political attitudesWe investigate the impact of childhood exposure to organized criminal violence on sociopolitical attitudes in Mexico, where an entire generation of youths has been raised amid the country’s most violent conflict over the past century. We fielded an...
Blog
Why the Aid Effectiveness Principles are important for developmentDemonstrating empirically the Aid Effectiveness Principles' global impact on development is a challenge. But according to Rachel M. Gisselquist...
Blog
Will a revenue boom support development in resource-rich economies?The post-COVID-19 economic recovery and Russia’s war with Ukraine have caused some natural resource prices to reach new highs. Although forecasting...