Have COVID-19 measures affected food prices in low to middle-income countries? A new paper finds that stricter lockdowns increased food prices among major urban markets, although impacts were also linked to mobility and previous reliance on trade. Read the full working paper here. Is artificial intelligence starting to have an effect on the economy? A new article finds clear evidence of improved labour productivity, especially among small and medium-sized enterprises and the services industries....

How can Artificial Intelligence help rural entrepreneurs succeed in business? A new article applies five machine learning techniques, providing new insights into factors related to trust, awareness of current trends, use of media tools, etc. How can private sector initiatives, including venture start-ups and social impact funds, best contribute to the 2030 Agenda? The key, according to a new paper, is to ensure innovations are aligned with public policy impact. How can firms in developing countr...

Climate change is already impacting water resources across Africa. But what should African policymakers prioritise: water security or societal challenges linked to water? And how much influence should local communities and the private sector have on decision-making? A new article takes a social innovation perspective in a bid to reinforce the knowledge base for policymaking. The service sector plays a growing role in economies worldwide, despite claims of stagnation. But what is the relationship...

The Sustainable Development Goals Report (2020) notes that we are far from being an open-defecation free world. Since 2015, around 500 million low-cost toilets have been diffused, but still about 2 billion people do not have access to a functioning toilet and about 4.2 billion people are using toilets that cannot be considered to be safely managed. These challenges must be addressed because diarrhoeal diseases are among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide, especially among yo...

“The results for 2019 reinforce UNU-MERIT’s reputation in academic and policy circles as a leading institute undertaking societally and policy relevant research — particularly in the economics of innovation and technological change, including the governance of science and technology and on factors limiting the access to knowledge; in policy analysis and evaluation; in the social aspects of growth and development, in particular the policy challenges posed by low levels of development including th...

What are the links between migration, remittances and sustainable development in Africa? A new book considers how they relate to economic transformation, knowledge generation, corruption and conflict. It concludes with evidence-based policy recommendations in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. Would a greater focus on human security improve the planning and roll out of the 2030 Agenda? A new paper argues that this lens draws together many disparate tools, while also increasing human r...

In October 2020, a team led by Stanford University’s John Ioannidis published an update of their ranking of the top 2% scientists in the world in the journal PLOS Biology. High up the ranking are several researchers from Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics, with the innovation-related research at UNU-MERIT strongly represented. MERIT researchers René Kemp (also of the Maastricht Sustainability Institute) and Bart Verspagen rank in the top 0.5% of the career-spanning li...

How will artificial intelligence, big data, and open source technologies impact society? What are the opportunities and challenges posed by new technologies and digitisation? A new EU report shows that automation is creating new opportunities for the social economy, mainly in terms of increased reach and effectiveness. When the pandemic finally recedes, how should we rebuild our societies? How can we ensure a less divided and more sustainable world? Drawing inspiration from the Bauhaus movement,...

We are very happy to announce that Prof Kristof de Witte, our chair in Effectiveness and Efficiency of Educational Innovations, has been named Laureate of the Academy – Humanities 2020 by the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. This is the academy’s most prestigious award and is only the second time that the award has gone to an economist. Kristof, who is based at KU Leuven across the border in Belgium, explains how: “As an educational economist, I examin...

The current pandemic is a fork in the road, highlighting the need for more sustainable economies and more resilient societies – a fact reflected in pledges made by the European Commission, the G20 group of nations, and various national governments to ‘build back something better’. In the policy brief below, we explain how a Bauhaus initiative can help build socially stronger and fairer societies when combined with a low-carbon economy. We were inspired by the plea for ‘a new European Bauhaus for...