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18 UNU-WIDER articles, publications, projects, experts...
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Working Paper
Donors for tax morale: Evidence from 34 African countriesDo aid projects affect citizens’ motivation to pay taxes? We address this question by combining fine-grained data on aid projects from AidData and survey data from the Afrobarometer for 34 African countries...
Foreign aid Tax morale State capacityWorking Paper
No taxation without informational foundation: On the role of legibility in tax state developmentThis paper combines cross-national statistical analysis and in-depth historical case studies of Argentina and Chile to explore the relationship between two crucial dimensions of state capacity...
State capacity Information Fiscal capacityWorking Paper
How clientelism undermines state capacity: Evidence from Mexican municipalitiesDoes clientelism perpetuate the weak state capacity that characterizes many young democracies? Prior work explains that clientelist parties skew public spending to private goods and under-supply public goods...
Clientelism State capacity Bureaucratic capacityBlog
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 capacityWorking Paper
Clientelism and governanceUnlike much of the growing literature on political clientelism, this short paper contains mainly the author’s general reflections on the broad issues of governance (or mis-governance including corruption), democracy, and state capacity that cli...
vote-buying Clientelism PoliticsBlog
Why countries best placed to handle the pandemic appear to have fared the worstDuring the first year of the pandemic, it was wealthier countries, with their comparatively stronger health systems, civil services, legal systems and other public services, that suffered the highest rates of COVID-19...
COVID-19 Pandemic StateWorking Paper
COVID-19 and the stateWe expect effective state institutions to matter in a country’s ability to respond to crises...
COVID-19 Pandemic StateAbout
Sub-national institutional performance across Ghana’s districts and regions – variation and causes
Ghana Institutional performance State capacity Blog
Why should I care about economic growth?
Director of UNU-WIDER, Professor Kunal Sen is a world leading expert in development economics and led on ESID ’s research into economic growth...
Governance State capacity Structural transformationBlog
Headline data suggests low-income states are coping better with the pandemic than high-income states. But is this true?States with fragile state health systems have been commended for effective responses to the COVID-19 pandemic...
COVID-19 Capable states State capacityWorking Paper
The education sector in Mozambique: From access to epistemic quality in primary educationFrom the early days of national independence in 1975, the central aim of the educational policy in Mozambique has been to ensure that all school-age children have access to school and can remain there until they have completed their basic education...
State capacity Dependence EducationWorking Paper
Is there a fiscal resource curse?: Resource rents, fiscal capacity, and political institutions in developing economiesStates’ fiscal capacity plays a pivotal role in developing economies, but it is less clear what its determinants are or what explains cross-country differences. We focus on the impact of natural resources...
State capacity Fiscal capacity Resource curseProject
The state and statebuilding in the Global South – international and local interactions
Theme: Transforming states
Building State Capabilities State capacity Aid effectivenessProject
How do effective states emerge?
Theme: Transforming states
Building State Capabilities State capacity Inclusive growthJournal Article
What determines administrative capacity in developing countries?Part of Journal Special Issue Public economics and development action
State capacity Administrative capacity Public finance management