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This project acts as an instrument for UNU-WIDER to conduct small-scale projects or studies on topics of immediate policy importance that deserve a swift and critical response; to experiment with the application of new analytical techniques to development issues, and to build new research ideas that may then constitute the basis of larger projects in the main programme. Small projects may include empirical evaluation of development insights; trade reform and employment; development economics and public policy; poverty measurement and inequality.
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Professor Tarp has four decades of experience in academic and applied development economics research and teaching. His field experience covers more than two decades of in-country work in 35 countries across Africa and the developing world more...
Journal Article
Labor-use efficiency in Tunisian manufacturing industriesThis paper investigates the process of adjustment in employment. A dynamic model is applied to a panel of six Tunisian manufacturing industries observed over a period of 25 years, from 1971 to 1996...
Commercial policy Labour demand Manufacturing industriesJournal Article
Estimating labour supply elasticities based on cross-country micro data: A bridge between micro and macro estimates?The Nordic model relies on high tax rates to finance an extensive welfare state...
Labour market Labour supply TaxationJournal Article
How should commodities be taxed?: A counter-argument to the recommendation in the Mirrlees ReviewThe Mirrlees Review recommends that commodity taxation should in general be uniform, but with some goods consumed in conjunction with labour supply (such as child care) left untaxed...
Public goods TaxationJournal Article
The Welfare Effects of Health-based Food Tax PolicyThis paper examines the effects of health-oriented food tax reforms on the distribution of tax payments, food demand and health outcomes...
Health TaxationJournal Article
Can Cities or Towns Drive African Development?: Economywide Analysis for Ethiopia and UgandaRapid urbanization is an important characteristic of African development and yet the structural transformation debate focuses on agriculture’s relative merits without also considering the benefits from urban agglomeration...
Economic development Gross national product PovertyJournal Article
Technology Adoption and Food Security in Subsistence Agriculture: Evidence from a Group-Based Aid Project in MozambiqueThis paper evaluates the impact of an intervention to improve farming techniques and food security in the Gaza area of rural Mozambique...
Agriculture Food security Technological innovationsJournal Article
Optimum Reserve Size, Fishing Induced Change in Carrying Capacity, and Phenotypic DiversityFish stocks around the world are heavily overexploited in spite of fishing policies in several parts of the world designed to limit overfishing...
Aquaculture Natural resourcesJournal Article
Public Provision, Commodity Demand, and Hours of Work: An Empirical AnalysisThe theoretical analysis of optimal commodity taxation is advanced, but there is only limited empirical evidence to guide commodity tax policies...
Children Public goods TaxationWorking Paper
The Idea of Economic Development: Views from AfricaAlthough development generally refers to a broad concept, the quest for development in Sub-Saharan Africa has been biased by ideological considerations which made abstraction of local conditions and people’s aspirations...
Economic developmentWorking Paper
Regulatory Reform for Closing Africa’s Competitiveness GapOver the past decade, Africa has been experiencing an economic resurgence. Yet, the continent is facing several difficult challenges and many economies of the region continue to be among the least competitive in the world...
Competition Industrial policy International economic relationsWorking Paper
Social Transfers and Growth: The Missing Evidence from Luminosity DataThe effects of social transfers on growth are still unclear. The limitations of aggregated data at sub-national levels have confined the analysis to the use of simulation models and household surveys...
Economic development Government policy (Poor) Public welfareBlog
Africa’s Low Hanging Fruits23 April 2014 Justin Yifu Lin and Yan Wang At the onset of its miraculous rise in 1979, China had been trapped in poverty for centuries and was poorer than most sub-Saharan African countries...
Economic assistance and foreign aid Economic development Economic growthWorking Paper
The Economics of Marriage in North AfricaMarriage is the single most important economic transaction and social transition in the lives of young people. Yet little is known about the economics of marriage in much of the developing world...
Families Game theory Economic powerWorking Paper
Innovation Capabilities for Sustainable Development in AfricaA sustainable pathway for Africa in the twenty-first century is laid out in the setting of the development of innovation capabilities and the capture of latecomer advantages...
Economic development Industrial policy IndustrializationWorking Paper
The Theory and Practice of Agriculture, Growth, and Development in AfricaAfrica’s improved growth performance over the last 15 years provides an opportunity for the continent to transit from recovery to structural transformation...
Agriculture Economic development Economic policyContext
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Theme: Past, 2010-11