This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary...

This policy brief summarizes the results of a UNU-WIDER project on war and reconstruction in Africa directed by Tony Addison, which is now published as From Conflict to Recovery in Africa. As this study makes clear, peace is often elusive and economic policy can play a major role in supporting...

We examine aid-induced Dutch Disease — after controlling for the effects of remittances and FDI flows — in the context of two North African countries, Morocco and Tunisia. We do so by performing a multivariate time series analysis of aggregated annual data over the period 1980-2009. Aid...

The Nordic countries have a long-standing commitment to development, and their work in peace-building has taken Nordic peacemakers into some of the toughest places in the world. The Nordic countries have been firm supporters of the United Nations system, when other countries have wavered....

In August 1986, the year after UNU-WIDER began its work, the Institute hosted a conference to honour the memory of Carlos Díaz-Alejandro. Nearly 20 years on it is instructive to look over the resulting conference volume, Debt, Stabilization and Development (Calvo et al. 1989) to see how the...

The Elgar Handbook of Civil War and Fragile States brings together contributions from a multidisciplinary group of internationally renowned scholars on such important issues as the causes of violent conflicts and state fragility, the challenges of conflict resolution and mediation, and the...

Over the last five years, in an era of unprecedented global wealth creation, the number of people living in chronic poverty has increased. Between 320 and 443 million people are now trapped in poverty that lasts for many years, often for their entire lifetime. Their children frequently inherit...

As one of globalisation's most visible dimensions, foreign direct investment (FDI) is central to the prospects for developing countries in the world economy. Key issues include the direction of causation between FDI and growth, the potential role of the new information and communication...

This paper reports an empirical study of the factors affecting burden sharing among OECD's 22 DAC members in 'bankrolling' the multilateral aid agencies. Annual data over 1970-2000, pooled across the donor countries, form the basis for the empirical estimation of each donor's share in the ODA...