Invitation Open for Social Protection, Taxation, and Crises

Deadline: 31-Jan-22

Under its Domestic Revenue Mobilization programme, the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics (UNU-WIDER), with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), is requesting research proposals to improve the understanding of social protection and taxation in times of crises in the developing world.

Against this backdrop, UNU-WIDER announces a Request for Research Proposals (RFRP) on social protection and taxation in times of crises in developing countries.

They welcome research proposals that promote better understanding about proper crisis response, and the way social protection and tax systems can be made more sustainable. The research topics may include (but are not restricted to):

How can tax-benefit systems support countries’ paths through and out of economic crises?
How can tax-benefit systems act as (automatic) stabilizers in crises in a developing country context?
How can tax systems be and how have tax systems been levered in times of crisis to provide fiscal space necessary to buffer (at least the most) detrimental developments in terms of poverty and inequality?
How can the benefit system support the most vulnerable groups through crises and beyond?
What are the relevant merits of different targeting criteria and the extent of universalism in times of crises? How do proxies currently used to target benefits reflect changes in households’ conditions in times of crises?
Which political economy frameworks are beneficial for the development of stress resistant tax and social protection systems?

Offer and expectations

UNU-WIDER invites proposals from qualified researchers for papers examining the questions as outlined above. Papers that pass initial screening will be considered for publication under UNU-WIDER copyright in the WIDER Working Paper Series. In addition, papers further selected by the editorial team will subsequently culminate in a book proposal for an edited volume with a world-class academic publisher. The working papers need to be written in English and limited to 10,000 words or less (inclusive of text, tables, figures, footnotes, references, etc as this is likely to be the chapter specification of the planned book volume.
Papers may use either theoretical or empirical approaches with a focus on policies affecting households. Suitable empirical methods also include tax-benefit microsimulation, and UNU-WIDER has made microsimulation models available for selected countries via its SOUTHMOD programme.
Note that the topic of the request is not short-run humanitarian relief measures and analysis or evaluation thereof.
Proposals from individuals (or groups of individuals) as well as non-profit organizations are welcome. Applications from women and developing country researchers are particularly encouraged. Proposals may address one or more of the research questions.

Other considerations

For successful proposals:
- Researchers or their institutions (non-profit) will sign a consultant contract or an institutional contractual agreement with UNU-WIDER that follows the UNU conditions of service for Consultant Contracts (CTC), or Institutional Contractual Agreements (ICA).
- Researchers/institutions will transfer copyright of research produced under the contract to UNU-WIDER. The purpose of this copyright transfer is to allow UNUWIDER to effectively negotiate with top academic publishers in order to seek the most desirable possible publication outlet for a related set of papers/studies, and to allow UNU-WIDER to license the planned book on full open access. If no (further) publication is to be expected by UNU-WIDER, the copyright can be transferred to the author(s). Any material published externally thereafter resulting from this body of work should carry due acknowledgement of UNU-WIDER as the original commissioning institute.