This paper proposes a novel assessment of the Kuznets curve for an underdeveloped country engaging in rapid late development. We mobilize new long-run data for Brazil, combining surveys, administrative records, and national accounts statistics, to compute macro-consistent income shares and other...

This paper examines the state and evolution of the rule of law in Mozambique, focusing on key dimensions such as voice and political participation, judicial independence and accessibility, corruption, access to basic services, personal security, and property rights. Drawing on Afrobarometer...

The study examines Dar es Salaam's potential as a focal point for structural transformation, highlighting its emergence as a significant economic hub. Through a mixed-methods approach, the research investigates how urban development is shaped by institutional, economic, political, and spatial...

This article develops and tests a theory of criminal governance, examining how drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) use bribery and violence to dominate resource-rich regions and counter state interventions. The study draws on data on over 500 political assassinations and 156 lethal attacks on...

We use archaeological data on house sizes to generate estimates for economic inequality and economic growth from near the beginning of the Holocene to about the first millennium AD. At worldwide scales these variables are positively related, but patterns are more divergent at regional levels....

Structural change means a long-term change in the composition of economic output: agriculture, industry, and services. First, we describe this process in the context of Thailand. Second, we analyse its causes using a simple, comparative static computable general equilibrium model of the Thai...

This paper investigates the effect of commodity price shocks in a commodity-exporting small open economy, and the role of fiscal policy in transmitting these shocks to the rest of the economy. Using South African data, we first estimate an empirical model using a Bayesian vector autoregression...

Sin taxes are increasingly being used to discourage the consumption of goods perceived to harm individuals and society. This paper examines the impact of South Africa's Health Promotion Levy (HPL)-the first sugar tax implemented in Africa-on the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in...

We provide annual estimates of inequality in monthly per capita household earnings in India over the period 2017/18 to 2022/23 based on analysis of India's Periodic Labour Force Surveys. Over the six years, the estimate of inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient is in the range of 0.40 to...

South Africa is one of the most unequal economies globally. In this paper, we examine the design of its personal income tax (PIT), with a focus on its redistributive function. We apply the Pfähler decomposition method to analyse the redistributive effects of key components of the South African...