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Blog post
Mining taxation policy in Zambia: The tyranny of indecision
Instability, massive increases and novel taxes not seen anywhere in the world’. That is the way the outgoing Zambia Chamber of Mines President, Nathan Chishimba, described the new tax measures targeted at the mining sector in the 2019 budget. The Zambian government has charged that these new measures will ensure that the sector is paying its fair share of taxes, but the...
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Blog post
What do surveys and SMS data reveal about Kigali’s unplanned settlements?
Households living in unplanned areas of Kigali make complex trade-offs in terms of where they work and live. We use face-to-face and SMS surveys to understand these trade-offs as well as general patterns in migration, employment, mobility, housing, and access to infrastructure and services. Building an understanding of these dynamics is key for urban upgrading and more...
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Blog post
Women’s mobility and labour force participation in Karachi: Some preliminary observations
Pakistan has the lowest female labour-force participation rate in South Asia[1] and urban areas perform especially poorly[2]. Distinct patriarchal norms interlinked with migrant status can affect women’s autonomy and thus labour-force participation in different ways. Recently the Collective for Social Science Research conducted fieldwork for the IGC supported project...
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Blog post
Adapting to climate change through temporary migration in Bangladesh
With climate change, we are seeing more extreme weather events and increasingly frequent hazards, putting agriculture and rural livelihoods at ever greater risk. Temporary migration can help households withstand these types of short-term hardships and income deficits, and may be a viable mechanism for adapting “in place” to changing environmental conditions. However,...
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Blog post
Getting the right institutions in place to run Africa’s cities efficiently
Over the next 16 years, all of the world’s 10 fastest growing cities are going to be in Africa. If this growth is a process of people voting with their feet, as last year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Paul Romer once put it, these cities are winning. Yet urbanisation in many developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, is not delivering the...
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Blog post
India 2019: Catching the clickbait generation
A group of young people greater than the population of Germany will vote for the first time in India’s 17 Lok Sabha elections. LSE PhD student Tom Wilkinson explains why this segment of the Indian electorate has become such an important demographic during this year’s election campaign. The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a rap video for first-time voters a...
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Blog post
IGC Quick Clicks: DFID’s new leader and what it means for UK aid
On 1 May, UK Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a new Secretary of State for International Development. Rory Stewart, who was previously serving as Minister of State for Prisons, was appointed after a cabinet reshuffle that saw the previous Secretary, Penny Mordaunt, picked to be the country’s first female Defence Secretary. What might this new leadership mean for the...
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Blog post
Urban density and the promises of proximity
As an economist, an end of year tradition is to muse over The Royal Society of Statistics, ‘Statistic of the Year’. In 2018, the singled out stat was: 90.5% - the proportion of plastic waste that has never been recycled. An important statistic, but an area in which the International Growth Centre’s (IGC) ‘Cities that Work’ initiative has limited...
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Blog post
Improving land security through community-based organisations
Researchers and policymakers agree that secure land rights constitute a vital pillar for sustained livelihood improvements among marginalized populations, but existing solutions have been primarily top-down in orientation. Can community-based organisations help to improve land security from the ground up? Bihar state law guarantees each rural household the right to hold...
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Blog post
Don’t shoot the messenger – electricity theft and trust in Karachi, Pakistan
We assume that more information makes markets work better. Information can provide individuals incentives to act better. However, in some situations, information on poor behaviour can lead to mistrust, not just of other people, but of the institution that delivers the message. The Karachi setting Karachi is Pakistan’s largest city and industrial hub, home to 16.6...
Blog post
Humans of policy research: Personal stories from implementing and government partners of the Ethiopia Industrial Park Community impact evaluation
Policymakers, government partners, and local stakeholders play a critical role in the success (or failure) of an impact evaluation. Often motivated by a desire to have better evidence for decision making, policymakers engage with research teams on the development, design, and implementation of these impact evaluations. By working together, researchers can make sure that...