“Worldwide about a billion people defecate in the open — including 600,000 in India. So when Sikkim in the far northeast of India was declared ‘Open Defecation Free’ in 2016, we were curious. How did this small state, capped by Himalayan peaks and dotted with Buddhist monasteries, manage it? How did Sikkim turn the tide?” asks PhD fellow Rushva Parihar. His supervisor, Prof. Shyama V. Ramani, is an expert on (the evolution of) development economics. In her usual transpare...
Is innovation destroying jobs across Europe? Do authoritarian regimes gain “extra” development funding from the Chinese? And why are so many South Africans still malnourished, despite social grants? These are just a few of the questions tackled by our researchers in February 2017 — in three journal articles and eight working papers, among many others. Click here for the full list of our most recent publications. Journal articles ‘Raising the international poverty line – a...
How much do remittances promote growth in Sub-Saharan Africa? How big is the citation-impact gap between the Global South and North? How much should users be able to shape ICT innovation policy? These are just a few of the questions tackled by our researchers in January 2017 — in six working papers, six journal articles, and two research reports, among many others. Click here for the full list of our most recent publications. Book chapters ‘India: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment G...
What are the best safeguards against hunger and poverty in rural Sub-Saharan Africa? What are the latest strategies to support innovation policy in developing countries? And how can migrant workers be guaranteed protection in the Middle East? These are just a few of the questions tackled by our researchers in December 2016 — in eight working papers, seven journal articles, and six PhD theses, among many others. Click here for the full list of our most recent publications. Book chapters ‘Me...
Shyama V. Ramani, Professor of Development Economics at UNU-MERIT, has been working on the issue of sanitation since the tsunami of December 2004. It all started as a charity project to build toilets for women in a small coastal village in Tamil Nadu, her home state in the southernmost part of India. “The tsunami had destroyed the vegetal cover around the village and the women could no longer relieve themselves in the bushes as they used to. They needed toilets.” But the project failed, and so S...
Many countries with large reserves of natural resources have failed to achieve higher living standards – countries like Brazil, Chile, South Africa and Peru. Can too much of a good thing be somehow ‘bad’ for the wealth and welfare of countries? The debate has raged on for decades. On the one hand, the ‘pessimistic’ view says that a relative abundance of resources is a ‘curse’ for development: since it produces incentives to rent-seeking behaviour and lack of knowledge linkages with the rest of t...
How do Brazilian firms approach technology transfer and patent licensing? How can new storage technologies improve food security, especially in the context of climate change? And how can Europe turn around its asylum policy, in terms of fair identification, distribution and access to jobs? These are just a few of the questions tackled by our researchers in November 2016 — in 12 journal articles, five working papers, one discussion paper and five PhD defences, among many others. Click here ...
How does corruption affect the innovation of firms in Tunisia and Egypt? How does foreign aid affect conflicts, in terms of escalation or de-escalation? And how can new urban agendas help internally displaced people? These are just a few of the questions tackled by our researchers in October 2016 — in nine working papers and two journal articles, among many others. Click here for the full list. Working papers ‘Corruption, innovation and firm growth: Firm-level evidence from Egypt and Tunis...
Hans-Erik Edsand from Sweden has won the Best PhD Student Paper Award at the 2016 ‘Globelics’ Conference in Indonesia, for his work on ‘Technological Innovation Systems and the Wider Context: A Framework for Developing Countries’. “The Technological Innovation System (TIS) framework is a systems approach for understanding the adoption and impact of technologies,” explains Edsand. This approach was taken because it is “important to find a balance between ...
Can better internet help close regional income gaps in Turkey? How important are social media for informal learning among teachers? And how important is immigrant health for domestic policies? These are just a few of the questions tackled by our researchers in September 2016 — in four working papers and seven journal articles, among many others. Click here for the full list. Working papers ‘River deep, mountain high: Of long-run knowledge trajectories within and between innovation cl...