Working Paper
The effect of top incomes on inequality in South Africa
South Africa exhibits extreme levels of income inequality and is ranked as one of the most unequal countries in the world. In order to measure these severe levels of inequality, it matters how we account for the different parts of the income...
Working Paper
A macroeconomic perspective on Asian development
Macroeconomic strategies and policies have differed significantly among Asian countries over the last fifty years, and yet some common issues recur despite their immense diversity in inherited historical initial conditions, differences in political...
Working Paper
Measuring multidimensional inequality of opportunity
This paper develops a normative approach to the measurement of ex-ante inequality of opportunity in a multidimensional setting—that is, when the individual outcome is represented by a multidimensional variable. We characterize three classes of social...
Blog
Why is inequality in South Africa higher than in Germany?: Explaining income distributions with ‘decompositions’
by
Carlos Gradín
March 2020
The understanding of inequality requires the analysis of changes in income distributions across countries and over time as well as the identification...
Blog
Virtuous circles and downward spirals: The power of ideas & the limits of technocracy
by
Brian Levy
November 2021
What will it take to shake loose the distemper of our times, and initiate a virtuous spiral of renewal? In a recent UNU-WIDER webinar, Alan Hirsch and...
Journal Article
Promoting education under distortionary taxation
A common claim in the policy discourse is that a government wishing to achieve equality of opportunity should use public provision of education for equalisation of opportunities rather than income taxation, which only equalizes incomes. We develop a...
Journal Article
Snakes and ladders and loaded dice
Longitudinal surveys allow us to understand how markers of (dis)advantage determine present material welfare and economic upward or downward mobility over time. In this paper, we use five waves of panel data to empirically assess the extent and...
Blog
Urban poverty: cities, slums, and the need for policy action
by
Emily Rains, Anirudh Krishna
October 2022
Developing countries will be predominantly urban by 2030. While urbanization is historically associated with development and broad-based social...
Blog
Sunshine, elephants, and boomerangs: Is a dramatic rise in global income inequality looming?
by
Ravi Kanbur, Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez,
Andy Sumner
March 2022
Global Inequality 101: Global inequality is the distribution of income across all people on the planet from the poorest to the richest. It can be...
Blog
Studying COVID-19 through the lens of microsimulation: The role of tax and benefit policies in alleviating poverty and inequality
As the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, developing nations are struggling to deliver economic assistance and public services to their...
Blog
Late development, early adoption – how new technology is reshaping the future of structural change
by
Lukas Schlogl
December 2020
Technological catch-up is bringing new asynchronies to development pathways. What does this mean for employment, globalization, and inequality? A...
Blog
The developer’s dilemma in India – the role of politics and economic ideology
by
Saon Ray, Sabyasachi Kar
December 2020
Policy makers seeking inclusive growth frequently face the developer’s dilemma between prioritizing structural transformation, which is potentially...
Blog
35 years of research for change – what's next?: Building just societies
To celebrate its 35th birthday, UNU-WIDER has looked back at some of its greatest achievements. As the year closes, Armida Alisjahbana, Kunal Sen...
Blog
New WIID Companion to improve the study of inequality
by
Carlos Gradín
April 2021
There is a growing need to understand income inequality trends and how they interplay with other social, economic, and political outcomes, both at the...
Research Brief
Does exchange rate volatility amplify existing inequalities in South Africa?
Even though poverty and inequality have been of overriding concern in South Africa’s development policies and programmes since its democratization in 1994, measures of poverty, inequality, and related phenomena in the country do not show a clear...
Working Paper
The social psychology of economic inequality
In this review, I provide an overview of the literature investigating the social psychology of economic inequality, focusing on individuals’ understandings, perceptions, and reactions to inequality. I begin by describing different ways of measuring...
Blog
35 years of research for change: Bringing inequality to the fore (1998-2020)
UNU-WIDER released the world’s first estimates of the global wealth distribution in 2007 – one result of a 2004–05 project, ‘Personal Assets from a...
Blog
UNU-WIDER at 35: Letter from the Director
2020 promised to be a big year for UNU-WIDER, with the celebration of our 35th anniversary, the 45th birthday of UNU, and 75 years of the UN. But as...
Presentation
Measuring Inequality in the 21st Century
The Human Development Report Office, LIS, the Stone Center at the City University of New York (CUNY), UNU-WIDER and the World Inequality Lab will host a symposium on Measuring Inequality in the 21st Century. The 2-day event will be held 28-29 March...
28 March 2019
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29 March 2019
United Nations Headquarters , New York, United States
Past event
Panel discussion
Open dialogue on inequality in the 21st century
29 March 2019
Ex-Press Bar, Third Floor of the General Assembly, United Nations Headquarters, 1st Avenue at 46th Street, New York, United States
Past event
Seminar
SA-TIED seminar on pension-related tax expenditures
On 03 May the SA-TIED programme will host an online seminar on pension-related tax expenditures. The presentation will be given by Agustin Redonda and Chris Axelson under the SA-TIED project work stream on Public revenue for inclusive development...
3 May 2021
Online, Pretoria, South Africa
Past event
Presentation
SOUTHMOD presented at the IAB seminar series
The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) is hosting an online seminar series "Corona - leveler or amplifier of social and economic inequality?". The weekly seminar series aims to bring together empirically rigorous contributions from the fields of...
19 May 2021
Online, Nuremberg, Germany
Past event
Project workshop
Inequality and governance in unstable democracies – the mediating role of trust: 2nd Annual Workshop
More than 30 participants attended the 2nd annual workshop for ‘Trust and Governance’ project, held virtually on the 16th and 17th April 2020. The workshop was initially set to be held in Colombia but had to be moved to a virtual environment through...
16 April 2020
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17 April 2020
Virtual (Zoom)
Past event