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Vacancies
Administrative AssistantUNU-WIDER is looking for a professional Administration Team Assistant to provide front-desk and administrative services to our Helsinki office.
Vacancies
Research AssociateUNU-WIDER is looking for a postdoctoral fellow to serve as a Research Associate for the project on ‘Institutional legacies of violent conflict’. Closing date: 6 December 2021, 23:59 UTC+2
Request for research proposals
Economic Transformation DatabaseUNU-WIDER is seeking proposals for original research on the Economic Transformation Database (ETD) project. Proposals from individuals (or groups of individuals) as well as non-profit organizations are welcome. Submission deadline: 31 January 2022,...
Annual Lecture
WIDER Annual Lecture 25 - Women’s struggle for land in South Asia: Can legal reforms trump social norms?A century has passed since women in Undivided India, now divided into several countries of South Asia, demanded equal rights in property — especially land, the most important means of production in developing economies. The struggle continued...
Request for research proposals
Social protection, taxation, and crisesUNU-WIDER is seeking proposals for original research on social protection and taxation in times of crises in developing countries. Proposals from individuals (or groups of individuals) as well as non-profit organizations are welcome. Submission...
Blog
Virtuous circles and downward spirals: The power of ideas & the limits of technocracy
What will it take to shake loose the distemper of our times, and initiate a virtuous spiral of renewal?...
Sustainable development Institutional quality DemocracyBlog
Conflict-prone countries are not doomed to an eternal trapThe situation of Afghanistan has drawn a picture of a poor, conflict-prone, doomed country. But this does not have to be the case...
Least Developed Countries Productivity Sustainable developmentWorking Paper
Towards greater poverty reduction in Zambia: Simulating potential Cash Plus reforms using MicroZAMODA large share of the population in Zambia is living below the national poverty line...
Poverty Zambia Social protectionPanel discussion
Developing Fiscal States in AfricaA central aspect of institutional development in developing economies is building tax systems capable of raising revenues from broad tax bases; i.e., acquiring fiscal capacity. Improved fiscal capacity allows countries to generate much-needed...
Blog
The zero carbon agenda and metals demand: some major dilemmas
The transition to net zero over the next few decades will involve a large increase in the global demand for many metals essential to the renewables revolution driving that transition...
COP26 Climate change Extractive industries
Working Paper
The changing nature of work and inequality in Brazil (2003–19): A descriptive analysisIn this paper we use different sources of data on job task content to investigate the importance of occupations and the intensity of routine tasks embodied in them in explaining changes in employment and earnings in Brazil, in particular their relati...
Brazil Inequality PolarizationBlog
The value of non-renewable resources in the era of climate change
The economic decline of Nauru, an island in the Central Pacific, is a cautionary tale. Nauru was the highest GDP per capita country in the world in the 1970s, due to the value of its phosphate deposits...
COP26 Climate change Extractive industriesArticle
UNU-WIDER ongoing work on the effect of COVID-19 on the economies, states, and societies of the Global SouthIt is clear that COVID-19 will have serious implications for economies, states, and societies of the Global South. At UNU-WIDER we are reorienting our work to think through what those implications are and possible mitigation and adaptation measures...
COVID-19
Working Paper
An assessment of presumptive tax in Uganda: Evaluating the 2020 reform and four alternative reform scenarios using UGAMOD, a tax-benefit microsimulation model for UgandaPresumptive tax, a final tax on business income, was introduced in Uganda in 1997. The latest reform to the regime in July 2020 sought to make the system more progressive, simpler, and fairer to small firms...
presumptive tax Tax administration Small businessWorking Paper
Improving young women’s working conditions in Tanzania’s urban food vending sectorIn this paper, we investigate the working conditions of the young women working as assistants in the food vending sector in Tanzania using interviews and focus group discussions which are supplemented with quantitative survey...
Tanzania Working conditions Food retailingBlog
Reducing wasted gas emissions is an opportunity for clean air and climateThe 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) is seen as the last best chance for countries and companies to set out how they are actually going to deliver the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) target of no more tha...
COP26 Climate change Extractive industriesBlog
Dr Pia Rattenhuber on inequality in crises — An interviewHow do crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic influence inequality and the other way around? This year’s UN Day Dresden put a spotlight on “ Inequalities in Crises ”...
Inequality COVID-19 CrisisBlog
Global inequality may be falling, but the gap between haves and have-nots is growingIn one of the most unequal countries in the world, South Africa, the poorest 40% have annual incomes of less than US$1,000 (£727) per person...
Working Paper
What works to mitigate and reduce relative (and absolute) inequality?: A systematic reviewOver the past two decades, research on the impacts of a diverse range of public policies and income inequality has seen rapid growth...
Income inequality Systematic review Tax policyBlog
Afghanistan 2021: A quickly made long tragedy
The tragedy for the Afghan people of the Taliban re-taking control of the country in August 2021 is the denouement of a process 20 years in the making...
Problem Driven Iterative Adaption State capacityPolicy Brief
Conference
COVID-19 and development - effects and new realities for the Global SouthThe COVID-19 pandemic has presented new challenges, and undone hard-earned progress on the pathway to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Blog
Unlocking the mystery of domestic savings: What difference do they make?The socioeconomic fallout from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore discussions on domestic resource mobilization (hereafter DRM)...
Domestic revenue mobilization Domestic savings InvestmentsBlog
Helping the poor to survive lockdownThe Hrishipara Daily Diaries Project has been tracking the daily spending of 60 poor households in rural Bangladesh for the last six years...
COVID-19 Lockdown LivelihoodsWorking Paper
Norms that matter: Exploring the distribution of women’s work between income generation, expenditure-saving, and unpaid domestic responsibilities in IndiaBased on primary data from India, this paper analyses the reasons underlying women’s low labour force participation. In developing countries, women engaged in unpaid economic work in family enterprises are often not counted as workers...
Female labour force participation India Social normsWorking Paper
The regulation of interconnection and regulatory alignment in the Southern African Development CommunityThis paper analyses interconnection in telecommunications markets in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, focusing on cross-border roaming as well as international interconnection...
Southern African Development Community Competition Regulation