
35 UNU-WIDER articles, publications, projects, experts...
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Working Paper
Distributional Conflict, the State, and Peacebuilding in BurundiThis paper examines the causes of conflict in Burundi and discusses strategies for building peace. The analysis of the complex relationships between distribution and group dynamics reveals that these relationships are reciprocal, implying that...
Working Paper
The Political Economy of Postwar Reconstruction in LebanonThis paper studies the postwar economic and political reconstruction in Lebanon. The paper shows that the ‘reconstruction boom’ was short-lived. The economy experienced a growth trap early in the reconstruction period, and entered a cyclical crisis...
Working Paper
Estimating Income Inequality in China Using Grouped Data and the Generalized Beta DistributionThere are two main types of data sources of income distributions in China: household survey data and grouped data. Household survey data are typically available for isolated years and individual provinces. In comparison, aggregate or grouped data are...
Working Paper
Convergence Club EmpiricsThis paper documents the convergence of incomes across Indian states over the period 1965 to 1998. It departs from traditional analyses of convergence by tracking the evolution of the entire income distribution, instead of standard regression and...
Working Paper
Halving Poverty in South AfricaThe United Nations Millennium Declaration commits to halving extreme poverty between 2000 and 2015. The South African government has set a goal of halving poverty by 2014, although the meaning of this goal has not yet been defined. This article...
Working Paper
Measuring Pro-Poor Progress towards the Non-Income Millennium Development GoalsIn order to track progress in MDG1 and explicitly link growth, inequality, and poverty reduction, several measures of ‘pro-poor growth’ have been proposed in the literature and used in applied academic and policy work. These measures, particularly...
Working Paper
The Medium- and Long-term Effects of an Expansion of Education on Poverty in Côte d'IvoireI use a dynamic microsimulation model to analyse the distributional effects of an expansion of education in Côte d’Ivoire in the medium and long term. The simulations are performed in order to replicate several policies in force or subject to debate...
Working Paper
Inequalities, Agency, and Well-beingThe capabilities approach has emphasized that inequalities can be analyzed in various dimensions of human functioning. Indicators of these inequalities can be incorporated into assessments of well-being. The capabilities approach also highlights the...
Working Paper
What Money Can't BuyThis paper relates Amartya Sen’s capability approach to the literature on equivalence scales. Synthetic indicators of well-being are constructed by adjusting individual incomes for differences in functionings. An exploratory comparative application...
Journal Article
The (evolving) role of agriculture in poverty reduction—An empirical perspectiveThe role of agriculture in development remains much debated. This paper takes an empirical perspective and focuses on poverty, as opposed to growth alone. The contribution of a sector to poverty reduction is shown to depend on its own growth...
Working Paper
Shifting from deductions to creditsThe recent National Health Insurance White Paper proposes redirection of medical tax credits revenue towards the financing of the national health insurance. This raises critical questions about the impact on affordability for the poor as well as...
Blog
From the Editor's desk (October 2011)
Tony Addison As autumn moves into winter in Helsinki, it is time to bring you the October edition of UNU-WIDER’s newsletter, WIDER Angle. Regular...
Working Paper
Microsimulation of impacts of tax and transfer in VietnamThis paper assesses the feasibility of simulating the distributional impacts produced by various tax and transfer instruments in Vietnam. Vietnam’s system of tax and transfer policies underwent frequent changes, in terms of diversity and adjustment...
Working Paper
Ethnicity is not public service destinyMillions of South Africans in thousands of demonstrations have protested the unequal allocation of public services. Despite the African National Congress’s promise to reduce the disparities generated by apartheid, the level of public services remains...
Working Paper
UK Utility ReformsThe UK was one of the earliest countries to undertake utility reform, which included changes in ownership, in the regulatory regime and in market structure and competition. While most agree that the programme has had beneficial effects on efficiency...