Join the network
Blog
From the Editor's Desk (February 2012)
Tony Addison It’s now February, and Helsinki remains deep in snow. We had an extended blizzard last weekend, with temperatures hovering around minus...
153 UNU-WIDER articles, publications, projects, experts...
Filter by...
Reset all
Blog
The Big Picture: Aid, Growth, and Macroeconomic ManagementLucy Scott and Annett Victorero The ReCom—Research and Communication on Foreign Aid programme held its first results meeting on the topic of ‘Aid...
Blog
From the Editor's Desk (December 2011)
Tony Addison With the end of the year fast approaching, we bring you the last Angle of 2011. Here in Helsinki, the shortest day of the year is nearly...
Working Paper
Education, Skill, and EarningsThis paper provides evidence on the nature of returns to education in Ghana and confirms the emerging empirical literature on the convexity of returns to education in Ghana. Using a basic Mincerian, model we find that returns to education more than...
Working Paper
Capacity Development for the Transformation of AfricaCountries need capacity for a variety of reasons, including sustaining economic growth, generating jobs, reducing poverty, effectively managing development programmes, and transforming societies and economies. A lot of effort has been expended to...
Policy Brief
Mobilizing Talent for Global DevelopmentTalent (combining creativity, education, skills, and knowledge) is associated with human capital and provides a very valuable economic resource. In the past, the emigration of human capital from developing countries raised fears because of the...
Journal Special Issue
Spatial Issues in AfricaMany developing and transition countries have considerable regional variation in average household income, poverty, and in health and educational status. National human development indicators can therefore mislead policy-makers when large regional...
Journal Special Issue
Spatial Inequality and DevelopmentMany developing and transition countries have considerable regional variation in average household income, poverty, and in health and educational status. National human development indicators can therefore mislead policy-makers when large regional...
Working Paper
Health shocks and the intergenerational transmission of inequalityThis paper explores the intergenerational effects of parental health shocks using longitudinal data from the Young Lives project conducted in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is found that health shocks to poorer parents reduce investments in children...
Working Paper
The Practice of Industrial Policy – Lessons for AfricaAfrican countries are facing great opportunities but also formidable challenges in accelerating economic growth and sustaining a high level of economic performance. The experiences of East Asian countries may offer valuable insights for African...
Working Paper
Skills-Biased Labour Demand and the Pursuit of Inclusive Growth in South AfricaThis paper examines the changing nature of occupational labour-market trends in South Africa and the resulting impact on wages. We observe high levels of demand for skilled labour that have intensified a trend already established before 1994. Over...
Working Paper
Public and Private Expenditures on Human Capital Accumulation in IndiaWe study a model of human capital driven growth, where the parent’s human capital serves as a productive input in the child’s human capital production only when that of the former exceeds a minimum level required to intellectually contribute to the...
Blog
Measuring Poverty Over TimeLuc Christiaensen and Lorraine Telfer-Taivainen If a person suddenly becomes poor, for example, due to an unexpected death or illness in the family...
Book Chapter
Mexico’s Oportunidades and the Raise of Social Protection in Latin AmericaFlera länder i Latin- och Sydamerika har under det senaste decenniet infört sociala trygghetssystem för att minska den utbredda fattigdomen. Miguel NiñoZarazúa går här igenom bakgrunden till dessa reformer och vilka effekter de har fått. Fokus ligger...
Blog
What Does it Mean to be in the Middle?: Mobility and Vulnerability in Latin America and the Caribbean
Luis-Felipe Lopez-Calva [1] The concept of social class and specifically middle class, has been widely discussed in sociology and other social...
Working Paper
The Success of Learnerships?Vocational training programmes, like South Africa’s learnership programme, which combine classroom learning and on-the-job training seem like the type of intervention which can create skills, get young people into jobs quicker, and reduce youth...
Working Paper
The long(er)-term impacts of Chile Solidario on human capital and labour incomeThis paper examines Chile Solidario, a social protection programme that provides poor households in Chile with preferential access to a conditional cash transfer programme designed to facilitate investments in children’s health and education. We...
Journal Article
Entrepreneurship and human developmentWe provide a formal model of entrepreneurship in human development. The framework is provided by the capabilities approach (CA). Hence we extend not only the conceptualisation of entrepreneurship in development, but the reach of the CA into...
Working Paper
Dimensions of African InequalityThis paper discusses dimensions of inequality in sub-Saharan Africa and their causes. It starts with a review of the empirical evidence about inequality during the colonial period as well as the post-independence era. Then it discusses the forces...
Working Paper
Information Technology and Economic GrowthThis paper explores the impacts of information technology investment on economic growth in a cross-section of 39 countries in the period 1980-95 by applying an explicit model of economic growth, the augmented version of the neoclassical (Solow)...
Book Chapter
Capacity Development for TransformationFrom the book: Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics, Vol. 2.
Book Chapter
Dimensions of African InequalityFrom the book: Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics, Vol. 1.
Working Paper
Investment in Education and Income InequalityIncome inequality has risen in many parts of the world during the past decades. Rising inequality is no longer a problem of only Latin American and Sub-Saharan African countries. Some OECD countries, and recently also East Asian countries, have...
Working Paper
Role of the Household and Community in Determining Child HealthNutritional status at a young age is positively associated with an individual’s total human capital accumulated. Higher levels of human capital are in turn strongly correlated with an individual’s economic and social well-being. Health is one such...
Working Paper
Globalization and the Human Development TrapThe feeble results of liberalization policies in Latin America are explained in terms of a multiple steady state model including a dynamic human development trap, endogenous technological change, technology transfer and trade. Divergent and...
Working Paper
An Economic Vulnerability IndexIn response to the need expressed by the UN General Assembly, an economic vulnerability index (EVI) has been defined by the Committee for Development Policy. The present paper, which refers to this index, first examines how a structural economic...
Blog
Ending child marriage and closing the education gapWomen in most parts of the developing world are under-represented in the workplace and poorly paid. One reason for this is the gender gap in education...
Working Paper
Export Productivity and Specialization in China, Brazil, India and South AfricaThis paper analyses the patterns of export productivity and trade specialization profiles in the China, Brazil, India and South Africa, and in other regional groupings. In doing so, the investigation calculates a time varying export productivity...
Working Paper
Inter-Country Variations in Digital Technology in AfricaWhile much attention has been focused on the so-called ‘digital divide’ between Africa and the industrialized world, very scant attention has been devoted to the wide variations in the levels of digitalization of African countries. Whereas countries...
Blog
Improving adult health increases children’s schooling - evidence from Zambia
Both health and education are essential for reducing poverty. Unfortunately, the two are often interlinked and in many countries both are severely...
Displaying 32 of 153 results