2. Poverty, Public Policy and Inclusive Innovation

Coordinator:  Franziska Gassmann

With 1.2 billion people in the world still living on less than USD 1.25 per day, poverty remains an urgent policy problem. Understanding poverty, what it means, how it can be measured and what policies are effective in reducing poverty, is essential for the economic and social development of countries both in low and high income settings. At the conceptual level, research under this theme contributes to the theoretical and empirical understanding of what different concepts of poverty and well-being mean, and how they can be measured in a given societal context. The analysis of the effectiveness of social protection policies, broadly defined (e.g., also including pensions, labour market policy, public health policy and education policy), also features prominently in the research agenda, both from an ex-ante and ex-post perspective. The focus is not only on a better understanding of which social protection policies function best given a specific economic and social environment, but also on a critical assessment of the potential long-run effects of investments in social protection, both from a socio-economic and public finance perspective. Inclusive innovation not only addresses the needs of the poor through novel ways of (social) service delivery, but also investigates the potential of technical and social innovation to address the key challenges that confront them in different parts of the world.

Research under this theme is often empirical but also develops theoretical models. The focus is often at the micro level, and both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in a complementary way. The research on poverty, public policy and inclusive innovation is strongly interlinked with other research themes at UNU-MERIT, such as institutions and economic growth, and research on migration.

1. The Economics of Knowledge and Innovation
2. Poverty, Public Policy and Inclusive Innovation
3. Economic Development, Innovation, Governance and Institutions
4. Sustainable Development, Innovation and Societal Transitions
5. Innovation Systems Indicators and Policy
6. Migration and Development
7. Governance and Learning in ICT-enabled Communities

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