World Institute for Development Economics Research

About: World Institute for Development Economics Research is a facility organization based out in Helsinki, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Poverty & Population. The organization has 110 authors who have published 525 publications receiving 17316 citations.

Publicly Provided Private Goods and Redistribution: A General Equilibrium Analysis

Abstract: Public provision of private goods is examined within a self-selection framework where production depends on labour supply of different households and the level of public provision. It is shown that productivity and wage-structure effects can create a role for public provision, even if preferences are weakly separable between goods and leisure. Public provision of education may offer an intuitively appealing case for the production-side impacts. We also address the reasons for public provision in a dynamic, overlapping generations economy, whereby public provision may affect efficiency and social costs of redistribution of future generations as well.

Does Social Spending Improve Welfare in Low‐income and Middle‐income Countries?

Abstract: Over the past two decades, there has been unprecedented attention to the promotion of human development via government spending in the social sectors as a conditio sine qua non for economic growth and improved aggregate welfare. Yet the existing evidence on the subject remains limited and contested. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the causal effect of government spending on the social sectors (health, education and social protection) on three measures of aggregate welfare: the Human Development Index, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index and child mortality rates, using longitudinal data from 55 low-income and middle-income countries from 1990 to 2009. We find strong evidence to support the proposition that government social spending has played a significant role in improving aggregate welfare in the developing world. Our results are fairly robust to, inter alia, the method of estimation, the set of control variables and the use of alternative samples and instruments. © 2017 UNU-WIDER. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Are biofuels good for African development? An analytical framework with evidence from Mozambique and Tanzania.

Abstract: Many low-income countries in Africa are optimistic that producing biofuels will both reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels and stimulate economic development, particularly in poorer rural areas. Conversely, skeptics view biofuels as a threat to food security in the region and as a ‘land-grabbing’ opportunity for foreign investors. As a result of this ongoing debate, national Biofuels Task Forces have been asked to evaluate both the viability of domestic biofuel production and its broader implications for economic development. To guide these complex evaluations, this article presents an analytical framework that prioritizes different aspects of a comprehensive national assessment and identifies suitable evaluation methods. The findings from recent assessments for Mozambique and Tanzania are used to illustrate the framework. While from these two countries studies found that biofuels investments could enhance development, their experiences highlight potential trade-offs, especially at the macroeconomic ...

Tax Structures and Economic Growth: New Evidence from the Government Revenue Dataset

Abstract: This study uses the ICTD UNU-WIDER Government Revenue Dataset in order to challenge and extend existing findings on the relationship between tax structures and economic growth, in a panel of 100 countries. The results suggest that, broadly, revenue-neutral increases in income taxes are associated with lower long-run GDP growth and that revenue-neutral reductions in trade taxes have not always had positive effects. Crucially, many of the results presented differ according to income level, calling into question the validity of existing findings for developing countries and suggesting that policy advice on this issue in developing countries should be viewed through a more cautious lens. © 2018 UNU-WIDER. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.