Category: Front Page

Missing Americans: Early Death in the United States, 1933-2021

Studies have quantified excess mortality in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic relative to pre-COVID-19 US death rates. However, even before the pandemic, US residents died at younger ages than people in other wealthy nations, particularly from drug overdoses, suicides and cardiometabolic disorders.  In a new working paper published in medRxiv, Jacob Bor and […]

To End Coal, Adapt to Regional Realities

To achieve the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement, global coal use needs to be cut by 30 to 70 percent by 2030. Action has been slow though, with some industrial countries placing coal phase-out high on their political agendas, while most low- and middle-income countries still regard coal as essential for economic growth.  While […]

The G7 Summit: A Missed Opportunity to Renew Multilateralism Amid Overlapping Crises

By Lara Merling Group of 7 (G7) leaders met in Schloss Elmau, Germany last week from June 26-28 for a key summit amid converging crises: Russia’s war in Ukraine, the consequential severe impacts on food and energy prices, the ongoing pandemic, a looming debt crisis in the Global South and a worsening climate crisis. However, […]

The Potential for Early Coal Plant Retirement: Workshop Summary

To meet the Paris Agreement and avoid catastrophic climate change, all coal-fired power generation should be phased out by 2040. During this transition, discussions must incorporate the need for a just transition that meets the local energy and economic needs of rapidly industrializing countries, especially in South and Southeast Asia.  In a new policy brief, […]

A Disaster Under-(Re)Insurance Puzzle: Home Bias in Disaster Risk-Bearing

International sharing of the risk of disasters through insurance markets lies on a spectrum defined by two ideal types: full risk sharing and autarky. The full risk sharing case features 100 percent insurance coverage for losses within a country and a high degree of international reinsurance to spread the risks globally. Domestic full insurance abstracts […]

Financing Infrastructure – New Normal, New Technologies, New Financing

Fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine have exacerbated a large divergence in development due to the uneven recovery from the health crisis, looming stagflation and the global climate crisis. For emerging markets and developing countries (EMDCs), outlook remains dampened by the lasting legacies of the pandemic, including the erosion of skills […]

Analysis of Land Use and Land Cover Changes through the Lens of SDGs in Semarang, Indonesia

Land Use and Land Cover Changes (LULCC) are occurring rapidly around the globe, particularly in developing island nations and driven mainly by human activities. Over the last 20 years, LULCC in Indonesia has been driven by human drivers, including increasing population, rural to urban migration and economic development resulting in denser and larger urban centers. […]

Bring a Friend: Strengthening Women’s Social Networks and Reproductive Autonomy in India

Social networks are a key ingredient in the process of economic development. A large literature has established that social networks influence individual behavior and outcomes in myriad ways, but the bulk of this literature has focused on social interactions in the context of microfinance groups. To date, little is known about how social networks can […]