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12. Adopting a Sustaining Peace Lens to the COVID-19 Response
- Author:
- Céline Monnier
- Publication Date:
- 07-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- COVID-19 is creating a series of crises that increase the risk of conflict worldwide. Beyond the health impact, issues like worsening inequality, food insecurity, human rights abuses, and political tensions can deepen pre-existing social fractures in any country, creating additional layers of grievance. Addressing these risks early on and building resilience to them is key to preventing the potential for violence. But the pandemic also brings new opportunities for peacebuilding. A system-wide implementation of the sustaining peace approach is critical to ensure that United Nations response contributes to decreasing risks for violent conflict in the longer term—including efforts to “build back better.” This report draws on interviews with 25+ individuals across the UN system and member states to highlight some of the key challenges for peacebuilding in the immediate COVID-19 period as well as in the longer term. The report documents how entities across the UN have made positive steps toward implementing a sustaining peace approach, and provides recommendations for deepening these gains across the system.
- Topic:
- Human Rights, Inequality, Peace, Humanitarian Crisis, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
13. The Economic Consequences of Globalisation in the United States
- Author:
- Peter Petri and Meenal Banga
- Publication Date:
- 01-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
- Abstract:
- The unprecedented rise in global interdependence since World War II, especially since the 1970s, has been very productive. World gross domestic product (GDP) growth increased from around 2% per year in the 1970s to 4% per year before the global financial crisis. Globalisation helped to lift a billion people from extreme poverty and improved the lives of billions more. The United States also gained an estimated 11%–19% of its annual GDP. Yet many Americans are concerned about the fairness of these gains. We review evidence of increasing wage inequality and stubborn unemployment effects, even though, on balance, technological change has had a much greater impact on these outcomes than globalisation. Barriers against globalisation do not offer solutions to inequality – they reduce the size of the economic pie without necessarily improving its distribution. Policies should focus on redistributing gains from growth, increasing the productivity of all workers, and helping affected communities adapt socially and economically to rapid change.
- Topic:
- Globalization, Financial Crisis, Inequality, and Economic growth
- Political Geography:
- United States and North America
14. The Poverty-Reducing Effects of Financial Inclusion: Evidence from Cambodia
- Author:
- Kimty Seng
- Publication Date:
- 09-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
- Abstract:
- This study analyses the effects of financial inclusion on poverty in terms of household income per capita in Cambodia, with data from the FinScope Survey carried out in 2015. The analysis describes the effects via financial literacy, accounting for endogenous selection bias resulting from unobserved confounders and for structural differences between users and non-users of financial services in terms of income functions. The findings suggest that the use of financial services is very likely to make a great contribution to reducing household budget deficits and poverty if the users, female in particular, have at least basic financial knowledge.
- Topic:
- Poverty, Inequality, Finance, and Financial Services
- Political Geography:
- Asia and Cambodia
15. Financial Inclusion and Savings in Indonesia
- Author:
- Rashesh Shrestha and Samuel Nursamsu
- Publication Date:
- 09-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
- Abstract:
- This paper discusses the status of financial inclusion in Indonesia and examines the impact of financial inclusion – based on availability of bank branches on household outcomes – in Indonesia. Based on analysis of the World Bank’s Financial Inclusion Survey (FINDEX) data, Indonesia has made some progress on expanding financial inclusion. The share of individuals with bank accounts rose from less than 20% to just under 50% in 2017. Interestingly, while the gain between 2011 and 2014 was greater for individuals in the upper 60 percentile of income, the gains between 2014 and 2017 were more pro-poor. This progress was made possible due to concerted government efforts to expand financial inclusion. In our empirical analysis, we study how financial inclusion enables households with income gains into savings for assets and earnings. Using the Indonesian Family Life Survey data, we find that living in areas with high density of bank branches helps poor households accumulate savings. The marginal effect of financial inclusion on savings is highest amongst the households in the bottom quintile of per capita consumption distribution. Thus, access to formal financial institutions can lead to improvement in household welfare.
- Topic:
- Inequality, Finance, Banks, and Domestic Policy
- Political Geography:
- Indonesia, Asia-Pacific, and Indo-Pacific
16. Measuring the Pro-Poorness of Urban and Rural Economic Growth in Indonesia, 2004–2014
- Author:
- Takahiro Akita and Sachiko Miyata
- Publication Date:
- 11-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
- Abstract:
- This study measures the pro-poorness of urban and rural economic growth by region from 2004 to 2014 in Indonesia using pro-poor growth indexes, with data from the National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas). It also conducts a probit analysis to explore the determinants of poverty. All regions (Sumatra, Java–Bali, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and East Indonesia) experienced a substantial increase in expenditure inequality in both urban and rural areas; thus, the change in poverty incidence due to redistribution effects is positive. Apart from East Indonesia, they reduced the incidence of poverty in both areas, but their growth was not pro-poor in the strict sense. According to the pro-poor growth indexes, urban areas performed better than rural areas; in most regions, the growth of urban areas was moderately pro-poor, while that of rural areas was weakly pro-poor or anti-poor. The government needs to take urban–rural and regional differences into account when formulating poverty alleviation policies and programs since these differences would affect economic growth and changes in inequality.
- Topic:
- Poverty, Inequality, Economic growth, Urban, and Rural
- Political Geography:
- Indonesia, Asia-Pacific, and Indo-Pacific
17. Education and wage inequalities in Greece: access to higher education and its effects on income
- Author:
- Pery Bazoti
- Publication Date:
- 02-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
- Abstract:
- The educational system in Greece has always been at the center of public discourse, not only for the shortcomings of its design, but also for the quality of the education offered. In this context, during the last decades, the rise in wage inequalities had led the literature to investigate the existence of a possible causal relationship between the level of education and income inequality. The present paper by Pery Bazoti examines the relationship between tertiary education and economic inequality. Taking into consideration the fact that potential inequalities in access to education can hinder the redistributive role of education, the starting point of the study is the access to tertiary education. The design and flaws of the Greek education system prevent university candidates from equal opportunities since the entrance to tertiary education institutions relies heavily on the economic background of their families. The economic crisis highlighted these inequalities mainly through the decline of the disposable household income and exacerbated the already crippled abilities of the education system due to the extensive cuts that took place during this time. Nevertheless, the data reveals that private expenditure -typically related to students’ preparation for exams for entrance into university, despite its decrease, continues to have the larger share of the households’ education budget.
- Topic:
- Education, Reform, Inequality, and Public Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Greece
18. Expanding Opportunity for Lower-Income Students: Three Years of the American Talent Initiative
- Author:
- Aspen Institute
- Publication Date:
- 02-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Aspen Institute
- Abstract:
- This is the second annual report for the American Talent Initiative, highlighting it has achieved more than 40 percent of the progress needed to realize its goal to enroll 50,000 additional lower-income students at high-graduation rate institutions across the country. This report also centers on the impact that an equity-focused, comprehensive strategy can have on institutions’ ability to enroll and graduate more of these talented students.
- Topic:
- Education, Inequality, Income Inequality, and Higher Education
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America
19. ADVANCING GENDER INTEGRATION INTO GLOBAL FRAGILITY ACT COUNTRY STRATEGIES
- Author:
- Liz Hume, Megan Schleicher, Sahana Dharmapuri, and Erin Cooper
- Publication Date:
- 11-2020
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Our Secure Future
- Abstract:
- This brief provides a summary of key recommendations from civil society on how to integrate gender into the GFS. It is critical that the GFA country and regional plans go beyond the individual empowerment of women in a society and aim to transform the societal power structures that fuel instability and inequality.
- Topic:
- Security, Civil Society, Gender Issues, Women, Inequality, Peace, and WPS
- Political Geography:
- United States and Global Focus
20. Horrible Trade-offs in a Pandemic: Lockdowns, Transfers, Fiscal Space, and Compliance
- Author:
- Ricardo Hausmann and Ulrich Schetter
- Publication Date:
- 07-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- In this paper, we develop a heterogeneous agent general equilibrium framework to analyze optimal joint policies of a lockdown and transfer payments in times of a pandemic. In our model, the effectiveness of a lockdown in mitigating the pandemic depends on endogenous compliance. A more stringent lockdown deepens the recession which implies that poorer parts of society find it harder to subsist. This reduces their compliance with the lockdown, and may cause deprivation of the very poor, giving rise to an excruciating trade-off between saving lives from the pandemic and from deprivation. Lump-sum transfers help mitigate this trade-off. We identify and discuss key trade-offs involved and provide comparative statics for optimal policy. We show that, ceteris paribus, the optimal lockdown is stricter for more severe pandemics and in richer countries. We then consider a government borrowing constraint and show that limited fiscal space lowers the optimal lockdown and welfare, and increases the aggregate death burden during the pandemic. We finally discuss distributional consequences and the political economy of fighting a pandemic.
- Topic:
- Development, Government, Political Economy, Inequality, Economic growth, Fiscal Policy, Pandemic, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus