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.

Inferring the economic standard of living and health from cohort height : Evidence from modern populations in developing countries

Abstract: Average adult height is a physical measure of the biological standard of living of a population While the biological and economic standards of living of a population are very different concepts, they are linked and may empirically move together If this is so, then cohort heights can also be used to make inferences about the economic standard of living and health of a population when other data are not available We investigate how informative this approach is in terms of inferring income, nutrition, and mortality using data on heights from developing countries over the last 50 years for female cohorts born 1951–1992 We find no evidence that the absolute differences in adult height across countries are associated with different economic living standards Within countries, however, faster increases in adult cohort height over time are associated with more rapid growth of GDP per capita, life expectancy, and nutritional intake Using our instrumental variable approach, each centimeter gain in height is associated with a 6% increase in income per capita, a reduction in infant mortality of 7 per thousand (or an 125 year increase in life expectancy), and an increase in nutrition of 64 calories and 2 grams of protein per person per day relative to the global trend We find that increases in cohort height can predict increases in income even for countries not used in the estimation of the relationship This suggests our approach has predictive power out of sample for countries where we lack income and health data

Aid, Social Policy and Development

Abstract: This paper discusses past and current social policy strategies in the international aid architecture as an introduction to the UNU-WIDER Special Issue. Beginning in the 1990s, aid strategy and policy shifted to put a stronger emphasis on human development. This accelerated with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and will continue under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which have even more ambitious targets. The paper also assesses some of the concerns associated with the ‘Paris-style’ aid modalities, and discusses major challenges for the future global development agenda. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. © 2015 UNU-WIDER. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

COVID-19 and Employment: Insights from the Sub-Saharan African Experience

Abstract: From the Abstract: "This note discusses the impact of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] on employment and the policy responses that developing countries have taken, drawing from the sub-Saharan African experience The limited evidence so far suggests that the negative effect of the pandemic has been large for informal workers, who constitute the majority of the working poor in the region The policy measures enacted by governments in sub-Sahara have been varied, ranging from cash transfers for the poor to loans for small enterprise However, the precarious state of public finances in the region have limited the ability of governments in the region to implement expansionary fiscal stimulus packages It remains to be seen what the overall effect of the pandemic may be on employment and livelihoods in the region, and whether the policy responses enacted so far are enough to combat the adverse effects of the pandemic on the working poor "

Specific versus Ad Valorem Taxation and Externalities

Abstract: This studyexamines the choice between specific and ad valorem taxes when the production of a good, produced under imperfect competition, creates harmful externalities. The optimal tax system is shown to rely on wholly ad valorem (specific) taxation if the valuation of the distortion arising from the harmful externalityis smaller (larger) than that of the imperfect competition

Social spending and aggregate welfare in developing and transition economies

Abstract: Notwithstanding the unprecedented attention devoted to reducing poverty and fostering human development via scaling up social sector spending, there is surprisingly little rigorous empirical work on the question of whether social spending is effective in