11 December 2023 | Gender | India

Claudia Goldin’s Nobel Prize winning research

On Sunday, December 12, Claudia Goldin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her work on women’s progress in the workforce. In this piece, Farzana Afridi reflects on the significance of Goldin’s win and the contribution of her research to understanding the gender dynamics of labour markets. She also delves into the implications of this research for developing countries like India, where female labour force participation has remained low despite economic growth, and why this matters for economic growth.

16 November 2023

If we miss the context policies may be toothless

Around the world, governments are fighting poverty, environmental degradation, and many other deprivations. Despite lacking resources and limited capacity, they have no choice but to try. Numerous policies and interventions are published every year: subsidies, promotion, social mobilization, and so on. Each policy looks great in writing, but many of them do not move at all. Hardly anyone in government can even answer how many such policies exist. These policies are adapted for the sake of satisfying populism or to show progress.

8 October 2023 | Policy Design, Waste | Central America

Every choice counts: Changing our consumption and production patterns

From an individual perspective, climate change may be perceived as distant or difficult to understand. Its influence is likely to be restricted to conversations about changes in the climate, such as variations in temperature, rainfall patterns, or shifts in the timing of the seasons. However, in seemingly simple choices, such as the selection of food, the clothes we wear, or the means of transportation we use, we rarely pay enough attention to fully understand the environmental impact that such decisions can have. 

Effects of climate shocks on sectoral inequality

Over the last three decades, agricultural and industrial sector workers have suffered consumption losses due to temperature rise while those in the services sector saw consumption increases. This article discusses the broad range of impacts of climate change across sectors and highlights the stark rise in inequality of household consumption due to increased temperature variability. It emphasises the need for social protection schemes, and data on the economic impacts of climate change to aid the design of adaptation policies. 

10 March 2023

Bringing skilling and productive employment closer to women

On International Women’s Day, Farzana Afridi considers a key issue in the creation of good jobs for women – the provision of skilling. She discusses the lack of physical and financial access to skill training, shortage of demand-relevant and high-quality programmes, and inefficient matching with jobs post-training. While highlighting recent government proposals to address these concerns – such as launching a unified Skill India Digital Platform – she contends that a more gender-sensitive approach is needed. 

This is why we travel

The 737 ascends over the green highlands around Addis. Intense sun and green and thousands of little bright square dots. Each is a tin roof – I have been there. Smallholders who grow coffee and beans and some have a cow. There are lakes with the typical rift valley color of muddy mineral-laden waters. Just as I get my phone ready for a pic we break the clouds and then I just get veiled glimpses from below. I am experienced, I know what the clouds are made of and what role they play for the climate. My flight will add another 3 tons of CO2 to the climate.

31 May 2022

Let's talk about wood

When we watch the news or read a newspaper article related to the forests, it often focuses on environmental problems, such as the negative effects of climate change, or the destruction of the forests. However, sustainable forestry is the opposite: it is beneficial for the environment, it contributes to mitigating the impacts of a changing climate, and it offers renewable alternatives to plastic, clothing, buildings, and more.