Blog
Energy subsidies are bigger than aid in more than half of poor countries … but we spend very little trying to reduce them
by
Neil McCulloch
October 2017
Which of the following do you think is the most important need in developing countries? Free health services for all to reduce child and maternal...
Working Paper
Energy subsidies, international aid, and the politics of reform
Energy subsidy reform is critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and tackling climate change. This paper sets out the evidence on the scale of subsidies and their impact. It then reviews the actions of donors in encouraging and...
Working Paper
How do voters respond to information on self-serving elite behaviour?
Does self-serving elite behaviour make citizens more politically active? This paper presents the results of a randomized field experiment where voters in Tanzania were given information about elite use of tax havens. Information provided in a neutral...
Working Paper
Intergovernmental fiscal transfers and tactical political maneuverings
This paper examines the influence of political considerations on intergovernmental fiscal transfers in Ghana. The two-step system GMM approach was used to estimate transfers and elections data for 167 districts from 1994 to 2014. The analysis was...
Working Paper
Trust as state capacity
This paper explores the link between trust in government, policy-making, and compliance. It focuses on a specific channel whereby citizens who are convinced that a policy is worthwhile are more motivated to comply with it. This in turn reduces the...
Journal Article
When the Lewisian dream sours
The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated processes of labour transition from industrial work to the informal economy, which have always characterized the life of the working poor. This study explores this kind of reverse transition, that is, when the...
Working Paper
War violence, nationalism, and party support
Under what conditions can legacies of past violence shape political behaviour? We propose a theory of how war victimization defines attitudes over the long run, and how these can be activated by changes in the political environment. We argue that...
Working Paper
The political economy of women’s empowerment policies in India
This paper analyses the political economy of women’s-empowerment-related policy-making in India through a re-examination of the context of both the genesis and closure of a major programme, Mahila Samakhya. Mahila Samakhya, which embodied feminist...
Working Paper
The afterlife of industrial work
The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated processes of labour transition from industrial work to the informal economy, which have always characterized the life of the working poor. Exploring urban-to-rural labour transitions through a feminist political...
Blog
Our project on the institutional legacies of violent conflict
One of the most critical challenges in international development today is to understand how best to support peace, security, economic recovery, and...
Blog
Why do we see boom-and-bust growth in fragile and conflict-affected states?
One of the most pressing challenges in development policy is to bring about rapid, sustained, and inclusive growth in developing countries. Apart from...
Working Paper
The dynamics of state–business relations between the Ethiopian state and Chinese private firms
Despite the Ethiopian government’s commitment to attracting foreign direct investment to its emerging manufacturing sector and its shared interests with Chinese private businesses in building profitable investments, relations between Chinese private...
Blog
A summer reading list of our latest papers, articles, and books
At the UNU-WIDER offices here in Helsinki, Finland, the summer holidays are almost upon us. Looking at the list of new UNU-WIDER publications, it is...
Working Paper
Worker retraining and transfer payments
We conduct an incentive-theoretical analysis of political economy considerations in the design of social protection programmes in developing countries to accompany economic reforms. We focus on two aspects of social protection—the provision of...
Working Paper
The political economy of ‘linked’ progressive taxation in Africa and Latin America
One key element in the reduction of poverty and (in Latin America) inequality has been the achievement of greater fiscal equity; we analyse one key part of this process, which is the earmarking of portions of tax revenue to be spent on progressive...
Working Paper
A short history of India's economy
This paper is a short history of the Indian economy since 1968. India today is a changed country from what it was half a century ago, when Myrdal published his Asian Drama. The stranglehold of low growth has been broken, its population below the...
Book Chapter
India
Part of Book
Asian Transformations
Blog
India’s General Elections 2019: The potential electoral consequences of demonetisation
In the campaign leading up to the Lok Sabha elections in spring 2014, one of the more important promises that Narendra Modi made was to ‘clean up’ the...
Blog
Narendra Modi’s performance on the Indian economy: Five key policies assessed
When Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister in spring 2014 the Indian economy was in the doldrums. There was a clear policy paralysis in India’s...
Seminar
The political economy of green growth
Finn Tarp, Director of UNU-WIDER delivered a seminar on 'The Political Economy of Green Growth' as part of the TCD/UCD Development Research Seminar Series 2012 organised by the Trinity International Development Initiative (TIDI) at Trinity College...
23 March 2012
Dublin,
Ireland
Past event
Working Paper
The political economy of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador
This paper provides a contextual analysis of the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador. First, we outline the historical context and the political situation of the period 2019–24 that serve as context for the passage and implementation...
In the media
Vox article on the political hurdles facing a carbon tax — and how to overcome them
Based partially on the WIDER Working Paper by Jesse Jenkins and Valerie Karplus, David Roberts from the news website Vox discusses the complex relationship between carbon pricing and binding political constraints.
Policy seminar
Political economy of ethnic inequalities and exclusion: Implications for development policy
The Chief Economist Team at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) will host a policy seminar with UNU-WIDER Senior Research Fellow Rachel Gisselquist as a part of the SIDA Evidence for Action Seminar Series. The seminar...
6 February 2020
SIDA headquarters,
Valhallavägen 199,
Stockholm,
Sweden
Past event
Working Paper
Political economy and governance
This paper reviews the political economy of extractive resources and the associated resources sector governance agenda. The consensus that good sector governance improves the developmental impacts of extractive resources exploitation is premised on...
Presentation
Kunal Sen on politicians and their promises in an uncertain world
15 August 2019
UNU-WIDER,
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B,
Helsinki,
Finland
Past event
About
Presentation - AL18
The WIDER Annual Lecture 18 was delivered on 18 November at the UN Headquarters in New York. The lecture, given by Professor Emeritus C. Peter Timmer of Harvard University, focused on the topic of structural transformation, especially within the...
About
Photos - AL18
Selection of images from the WIDER Annual Lecture 18.
Video
WIDER Annual Lecture by C. Peter Timmer
View the WIDER Annual Lecture on Managing structural transformation post-2015.
About
Contributors - AL18
Short biographies of those who contributed to the event.