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Blog post
Should I stay or should I go? Managing populations with urban to rural migration incentives
Sydney you’ve got to let me know, should they stay or should they go. In 2011, Sydney, the largest city in Australia, asked its residents, should they stay or should they go? Despite regularly rated as one of the world’s top ten liveable cities, the government was offering residents AUD$7,000 (£4,500 or ~one month’s average wage) to move to the country’s rural...
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Replenishing the rice bowl: Productivity and quality in Myanmar’s rice export industry
Myanmar’s rice industry can be reignited by reforms. However, key challenges need to be addressed for the country to re-establish itself in the international market. Myanmar once held the distinction of being the world’s largest exporter of rice, accounting for one-third of the global rice trade in 1934-1935. Post-independence nationalisation of the industry was...
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What can we learn from the market for skilled workers in Sierra Leone?
Many developing countries focus on education to produce a productive workforce. Human capital models in economics support this. But what we can learn from the Sierra Leonean context is that a push for education and skills development is just one component on the supply side. Most of the world’s population, and therefore labour force, live in developing countries. Yet...
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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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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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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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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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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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Environmental personhood in India: A greener democratic approach
The genesis of the idea The world has witnessed different forms of government evolve in different countries over several centuries. These forms have changed from one to another with the changing needs of a particular society. Of the varied forms, democracy is largely considered the best due to a plethora of reasons, including freedom and representation of people,...