Ok, it’s a bit late, but if you’re stumped for a Christmas present for an intellectually curious friend or relative, I’ve got a top recommendation. Ha-Joon Chang’s latest book, Edible Economics, is a (Christmas) cracker. Full disclosure: Ha-Joon is an old and good friend. Since we first met in the late 1990s, when he was writing Kicking Away the Ladder,

Harry Potter’s characters, if written by Dostoevsky ht Andrey Mir Calling all social change leaders! Start your journey now by applying to the fully-funded Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme at LSE Inequalities Institute. Applications by 5pm GMT on 12 January 2023. Unhinged and disturbing ad for roller skating, c/o Hayley Clarkin Believing the risks of mismanagement, corruption,

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Dante Dalabajan and Ruth Mayne introduce a new Oxfam research report – produced by staff and partners from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, US and Europe. The paper investigates the implications of the clean energy transition for lower-income countries and communities and asks how the world can achieve a truly just, as well as fast, transition. As acknowledged at the recent

Guest post from Laura Adams, Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning at CSM-STAND, a USAID-funded global civil society and media program, led by Pact. When international development programs want people to get vaccinated, the behavior they are targeting is clear, even if the complex set of things that influence that behavior take time and effort to address. Social and

My former student Christopher Liberty got in touch and asked to post this piece. Debates about the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and the EU’s move to halt the project dominated headlines in the lead-up to COP 27. Most discussions have focused on the future macroeconomic and environmental effects of the project, in addition to the EU’s meddling in

Saleemul Huq, one of the most persistent long-term advocates of a ‘loss and damage’ fund on climate change, explores the origins and potential of the breakthrough at the recent COP. For thirty years the vulnerable developing countries led by the small island states had been demanding under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) the creation of a fund

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To mark this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, Oxfam’s Dana Abed introduces its new report: The Assault of Austerity: How prevailing economic policy choices are a form of gender-based violence, (here’s the online summary with graphics).This post first appeared on Oxfam’s Views and Voices blog Feminist economists have warned for years that the global economic system is violent

Spoke about the future of aid to an enquiry by Foreign Affairs Policy Committee of the Conservative Party 1922 Committee last week (apologies for too many committees in one sentence – that’s parliament for you). I was intrigued because I didn’t know the 1922 did this sort of thing – all you ever see of them on the news is

Ran a little poll while we still have twitter Heads up inequality peeps. Applications now open for Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) programme. Fully-funded fellowship for mid-career policymakers, activists, practitioners, and researchers. Application deadline 12 January 2023. UK government announcement that aid funding is again open to Oxfam. Next question – should we take it? If Adam

Powerful piece in the Economist earlier this month stressing a link that is sometimes lost in the coverage of hunger crises – the link to ‘men with guns’ as they put it. Some excerpts: ‘At first glance, Vladimir Putin has little in common with an Ethiopian foot-soldier. One man has palaces and nuclear weapons, the other a shack and an