Extractives for Development (E4D) – risks and opportunities
This project aims to help policymakers deal with the risks and opportunities in oil & gas and mining for development, poverty reduction, and the environment.
The extractive industries provide substantial government revenues in many low-income and middle-income countries, but efforts to diversify economies have been disappointing. Moreover, there are major revenue shortfalls due to ineffective regulation, under-reporting by producers, poor transparency, and badly designed tax systems. Incentives are still badly titled towards extraction, and away from protecting renewable resources such as biodiversity, forests and water as well as ending greenhouse gas emissions. The COVID-19 pandemic has also caused an unprecedented shock that has exposed the vulnerability of economies dependent on extractive revenues, and the project examines how to manage the revenue risks.
This project builds on the Extractives for Development (E4D) project undertaken by UNU-WIDER from 2014-18. The new project aims to further enhance the links established to senior policy makers, international organizations and the oil, gas and mining industries themselves to share lessons across regions, and to identify opportunities as well as risks (and ways of mitigating those risks), and to chart the future of the global extractives industries and the consequences for both low and middle income countries.
The project will deliver research papers, to be published in the WIDER working paper series. The first set of papers focus on identifying critical issues for the sector, in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as climate change. A monograph will be finalized in 2020, for publication in 2021, building on a book published by Oxford University Press from the previous UNU-WIDER project.
Key questions
How to ensure that the extractives sector contributes to poverty reduction?
How to ensure that the extractive sector has a minimal environmental impact?
How to ensure that revenues for development from extractives are maximized?
Watch this space
All papers, events, briefs, blog posts, and opportunities to engage relating to the project will be available on this webpage.
The research will address SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. In addition, it will support the attainment of SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy), SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production, as well as SDG 13 (Climate action).
The EUROMOD Research Workshop is an annual event that serves as a key platform for the microsimulation research community to exchange knowledge and research findings. The 2024 edition focuses on significant developments in microsimulation models and...
Thu, 26 September 2024 10:00
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Fri, 27 September 2024 16:00
UNU-WIDER Research Fellow Pia Rattenhuber presents at a meeting of the Community of Practice on Tax and Gender (CoP). Together with Laura Abramovsky from ODI/IFS, Pia Rattenhuber will provide an overview of methodologies and discuss implications for...
Technical assistance and increased use of ICT in tax administrations hold promise for greater revenue collection. Yet, the evidence on how these activities work in the real-world circumstances of developing countries is scant. The paper attempts to...
The BOLMOD training, which is delivered in Spanish, is designed for current and prospective users of the BOLMOD simulation tool, including individuals from government offices, universities, and research institutes. The participants are expected to...
UNU-WIDER Research Associate Kwabena Adu-Ababio defends his doctoral thesis on 13 September 2024. His dissertation, titled 'Essays on Social Assistance and Tax Administration in Selected Developing Economies', explores critical issues in tax policy...
From 7–8 August 2024, participants from seven timezones gather for a two-day virtual SOUTHMOD workshop to exchange experiences and knowledge on tax-benefit microsimulation modeling in Global South countries.The annual workshop brings together...
BOOK IN PRODUCTION: SCHEDULED PUBLICATION DECEMBER 2024 Almost everything that is essential to modern society — transport and power systems, buildings, machinery, and medical devices — depends upon metals, minerals, and stone as well as oil and...
Companies in the oil, gas, and mining sectors face ever intensifying scrutiny over their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices and impacts: from civil society but also from investment funds and other stakeholders with ESG mandates...
While market mechanisms and private initiatives can deliver much for development, public action is also necessary to: maximize the economic benefits of the extractive industries; manage potentially large capital and revenues flows; minimize adverse...
This paper analyses the roles that states, civil society, and international actors can play in tackling the weak governance that sometimes leads to resources being used for private rather than public benefit. It discusses the corruption that bedevils...
This paper argues for a change in government attitudes to their extractive industries: as enclaves useful primarily as revenue sources. This is too narrow a perspective: it fails to recognize the broader economic linkages that are invariably possible...
This paper analyses the risks facing resource-dependent countries. These include: (i) economic mismanagement (the ‘resource curse’); (ii) political mismanagement; (iii) environmental damage (climate change and the destruction of natural capital). It...
The extractives industries are highly controversial but remain vitally important in much of the developing world. This paper considers their role in reducing energy poverty and discusses scenarios for the future of the global markets for oil, gas...
In a world where lower-income countries face financing challenges exacerbated by climate change, the Sustainable Development Goals, and recent global health crises, the question of optimizing tax revenue is more pressing than ever. This panel...
Offshore tax havens cause large losses of government revenue by facilitating tax evasion by wealthy individuals. This paper focuses on offshore tax evasion in developing countries and documents two empirical regularities. First, there is no clear...