Wolfgang Stojetz

Workshop report “Children on the Move: Building Migration Data Capacities” published

The report of the expert workshop “Children on the Move: Building Migration Data Capacities” has been published, including the input by Wolfgang Stojetz (ISDC) on the measurement of exposure to extreme adversity, carried out through the administration of household surveys. The study specifycally measured displaced persons’ experiences, behavior and welfare under situations of violent conflict, […]

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New Publication on Gender Earnings Inequality and Wage Policy in Kyrgyzstan published in Comparative Economic Studies

New paper by Damir Esenaliev and Kathryn H. Anderson on gender earnings inequality and wage policy in Kyrgyzstan has been published in Comparative Economic Studies. The findings show that the policy reform conducted in 2011 to increase the wages for teachers, health and social workers not only reduced wage gap in these sectors compared to non-reformed sectors, but also had a pronounced gender gap narrowing effect in the reform sectors and economy-wide.

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ISDC Research Featured in 2019 Rural Development Report

New research on how rural youth experience political violence, conducted by Ghassan Baliki (Senior Researcher at ISDC), Tilman Brück (Director at ISDC), Neil Ferguson (Senior Researcher at ISDC) and Wolfgang Stojetz (Senior Researcher at ISDC) has been highlighted in the 2019 edition of IFAD’s Rural Development Report, “Creating Opportunities for Rural Youth”. The research shows […]

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Tilman Brück speaking at the Colombia Day at ZALF

Tilman Brück delivered a keynote speech on 24 May 2019 at the Colombia Day at ZALF (Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research). The workshop brought together Colombian and German experts for economic development, land use and peacebuilding. Tilman stressed the role of inequality in the postwar period, which can contribute to a resurgence of grievances and violence. […]

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New ISDC-led Research on Jobs for Peace and Stability Published

Neil Ferguson, Senior Researcher at ISDC, Eleonora Nillesen, Research Affiliate at ISDC and Professor of Economics at UNU-MERIT, and Tilman Brück, Director of ISDC, have published new research on the relationships between jobs programmes and peace in the journal Economics Letters. The research, titled “Can employment build peace? A pseudo-meta-analysis of employment programmes in Africa” critically evaluates the […]

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Special Section at World Development: Food Security and Violent Conflict

A special section on quantitative analysis of conflict and food security has been published at World Development: Vol 119, Pages 1-234 (July 2019). In an open access introduction to the section, titled Food security and violent conflict: Introduction to the special issue, Tilman Brück and Marco d’Errico highlight the following points: Food insecurity and violent conflict are global […]

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ISDC delivers a mixed research methods course in Kyrgyzstan  

Damir Esenaliev, Senior Researcher at ISDC, and Philipp Schröder, Research Affiliate at ISDC and lecturer at the University of Freiburg, conducted a research module on mixed methods research for the M.A. program ‘Economic Governance’ at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan). The module covered impact evaluation methods from the quantitative side and introduced students to […]

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Call for Papers: 15th Annual HiCN Workshop “New Methods in Empirical Conflict Research”

In the last 15 years, civil conflict has gradually become an important subject of study for empirical economists. As a result, conflict research has adopted many empirical methods from mainstream economics. Furthermore, there is now a broad consensus that violent political conflict and economic development are intertwined, and a fast-growing literature studies this relationship with micro-data. At the same time, applied research on conflict is increasingly embracing new empirical methods, such as RCTs, geospatial analysis using high-resolution satellite imagery, machine learning methods, big data applications, and the large-scale digitization of archival resources. Each of these research tools has strengths and limitations and is the subject of ongoing methodological debates.

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Call for Papers: Workshop on Home Gardens as a Coping Strategy in Crises and Humanitarian Emergencies

Tilman Brück will host the workshop titled “Home Gardens as a Coping Strategy in Crises and Humanitarian Emergencies: An International, Interdisciplinary Research Workshop” on 2-3 April 2019 in Bonn, Germany. The objective of the workshop is to advance our knowledge of home and school gardens, resilience, food security, and related interventions. The workshop aims to […]

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Damir Esenaliev joins ISDC

Dr Damir Esenaliev joined ISDC as a Senior Researcher in January 2019. He brings topical expertise on peace-building, social cohesion, human development, labor markets, inequality, and rural development, and regional expertise in Central Asian and transition economies. Damir also has extensive experience designing and conducting panel data collection and impact evaluations. He will continue his […]

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Third Workshop on Measuring Violent Conflict in Household Surveys

ISDC researchers provided training at the third “Measuring Violent Conflict in Household Surveys” workshop, held on 26-30 November in Perugia, Italy, as part of a workshop series organized by the World Bank. The participants included staff from National Statistical Offices (NSOs) in sub-Saharan Africa, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. The instructors included staff from […]

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Simple statistical tools fail to describe jobs well in developing countries, new research by Damir Esenaliev and Neil Ferguson shows

In November 2018, Social Indicators Research published an original research article by Damir Esenaliev and Neil Ferguson on the relationship between good jobs and personal wellbeing. This study is one of the first conducted in a development context that looks beyond simple measures of job quality suggested by the classical labour supply model. This research […]

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ISDC co-hosts the Fourth Annual Life in Kyrgyzstan conference in Bishkek

The Fourth Annual Life in Kyrgyzstan (LiK) conference took place in Bishkek on 17-18 October 2018. The academic event was attended by over 150 participants from 11 countries. The conference was organised by the University of Central Asia’s (UCA) Institute of Public Policy and Administration (IPPA), Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ), and ISDC – International Security and Development Center. […]

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Evaluator training for the project “Seeds of Resilience”

In October, Ghassan Baliki conducted a baseline training for enumerators as part of the project “Seeds of Resilience: Quasi-Experimental Impact Analysis of an FAO Emergency Intervention in Syria”. The training took place at the Ministry of Agriculture, where about 30 enumerators from 9 Governorates in Syria participated. The data collection took place in November 2018. […]

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Second Workshop in Measuring Violent Conflict in Household Surveys

ISDC researchers provided training at the second “Measuring Violent Conflict in Household Surveys” workshop, on 10-14 September in Perugia, Italy, as part of a workshop series organised by the World Bank. The participants included staff from National Statistical Offices (NSOs) in Africa and Middle East. The instructors included staff from the World Bank, the International […]

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3ie Policy Brief: What works to improve nutrition and food security in the Sahel?

ISDC researchers contributed to the 3ie Policy Brief “What works to improve nutrition and food security in the Sahel?” This brief summarises the main findings and lessons from a synthesis of four 3ie-supported impact evaluations of the World Food Programme’s interventions to improve nutrition and food security outcomes. It offers recommendations to improve operational efficiency […]

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New paper on the relationship between food security and violent conflict

Charles Martin-Shields and Wolfgang Stojetz published an article in World Development on the interlinkages between food security and violent conflict. This article emphasizes the endogeneity that characterizes the coupling between food (in)security and violent conflict. The authors make three contributions. First, they define conflict and food security using the standard Uppsala Conflict Data Program and the FAO databases, and illustrate […]

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UNICEF Blog on administrative data: Missed opportunity for learning and research in humanitarian emergencies?

Tilman Brück contributed to a blog discussing the strengths and weaknesses of using administrative data collected during emergencies for research on children. The blog was written by researchers from the recent UNICEF Social Protection Workshop. Source: Administrative Data: Missed opportunity for learning and research in humanitarian emergencies? – Evidence for Action

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