WIDERAngle

Expert commentary from our network

How India’s economy has fared under ten years of Narendra Modi

More than 960 million Indians will head to the polls in the world’s biggest election between April 19 and early June. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is seeking a third term in office. And the polls suggest it will achieve this objective.If one was to go by economic growth figures alone, the Modi government’s performance has been impressive. When Modi came to power in 2014, economic growth was sluggish. A series of high-profile corruption...

Affirmative action in Brazil’s higher education system

by Rodrigo Oliveira, Edson Severnini, Alei Santos
Evidence from Brazil shows how affirmative action students in the higher education system adjust their behaviour to catch up with initially higher-performing privileged students.Affirmative action (AA) policies, aiming to address historical inequalities and promote social justice, have sparked debates across the world. Brazil, in particular, grapples with the challenges and complexities of AA, notably through Law 12,711/2012, which introduced the quota policy mandating all federal universities...

Decoding development – insights from UNU-WIDER's synthesis process and beyond

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At UNU-WIDER, we undertake our work explicitly within the context of an emergent strategy designed to maximize the impact of our research findings. We operate based on a theory of change that outlines how research eventually translates into improved development outcomes for the world’s most vulnerable populations.In 2023, we published the report Towards peace, decent work, and greater equality to guide policy efforts to achieve the United Nations Agenda 2030. This report synthesizes the key...

125 Blogpost

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The poorest countries attract few foreign investments
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The share of the least developed countries (LDCs) in global foreign investments is less than one percent. But positive developments have taken place...

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How institutions matter in Mozambique

Launched in 2015 and completed in 2022, the Institutional Diagnostic Project aimed at identifying institutional factors that affect development...

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Stuck at the bottom of the job ladder in Africa: The stumbling block to resilient growth and prosperity
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When the question of creating good jobs and decent work in Africa arises, policymakers and development partners often focus on formalization. For...

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How can cities create better jobs in sub-Saharan Africa?

Structural transformation involves the movement of workers from low-productivity sectors to high-productivity sectors. It has historically been...

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Not too long and not too short: Introducing the new UNU-WIDER and Cambridge University Press series in Development Economics

Simon Kuznets’ pipe dream was to have economic inequality data that rarely existed when he was writing. What are the pipe dreams of today’s...

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Indonesia, the developer’s dilemma, and Vision 2045

According to the World Bank, Indonesia has reached the upper-middle income status in 2019 after spending almost two decades in the lower-middle income...

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India’s manufacturing and services value-chains are shifting South: A curse or a blessing?
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Much has been written on India as an outlier in Global Value Chains (GVC). Despite being one of the largest and fastest-growing markets located in...

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Mozambique's difficult decade: Three lessons to inform next steps

At the start of the last decade, Mozambique’s prospects looked stellar. Following from the early 1990s, when peace finally arrived after a devastating...

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Sub-Saharan Africa had a manufacturing renaissance in 2010s – it’s a promising sign for the years ahead

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the global economy, with world output contracting at 3.5% in 2020, and no recovery likely before the fourth...

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Have you heard about the GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database?
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On 17 February 2021 the Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) and UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database (ETD) will be launched. The new...

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Why should I care about economic growth?
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Director of UNU-WIDER, Professor Kunal Sen is a world leading expert in development economics and led on ESID’s research into economic growth. In this...

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The developer’s dilemma in India – the role of politics and economic ideology

Policy makers seeking inclusive growth frequently face the developer’s dilemma between prioritizing structural transformation, which is potentially...

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Late development, early adoption – how new technology is reshaping the future of structural change
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Technological catch-up is bringing new asynchronies to development pathways. What does this mean for employment, globalization, and inequality? A...

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