Fortnightly links: worms, inequality, paywalls and happiness

Has inequality started to fall in China? Ravi Kanbur, Yue Wang and Xiaobo Zhang’s analysis suggests it has.

Still on inequality, but now talking globally, Martin Ravallion’s review of new books on global inequality by Francois Bourguignon and Branko Milanovic is fascinating.

Is the world a happy place? Is it becoming more or less happy? What contributes to happiness? The 2017 World Happiness Report is packed with useful learnings.

Surely you haven’t tired of the Worm Wars yet? If you’ve tired of reading of them but not of listening to them being discussed, here’s an interesting podcast interview with David Roodman.

On Monday this week the Trump Administration announced it would stop funding UNFPA (the UN Population Fund) because the organisation allegedly “supports, or participates in the management of, a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization” in China. Guess what? They actually don’t — and activists say that because they are one of few organisations promoting a rights-based approach to family planning in China, their defunding could actually result in more coercion.

Finally, if you’re not based at a university and are struggling to find journal articles because of paywalls, the LSE Impact blog has some good news and an (entirely legal) helpful tool.

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Terence Wood

Terence Wood is a research fellow at the Development Policy Centre. His research focuses on political governance in Western Melanesia, and Australian and New Zealand aid.

Camilla Burkot

Camilla Burkot was a Research Officer at the Development Policy Centre, and Editor of the Devpolicy Blog, from 2015 to 2017. She has a background in social anthropology and holds a Master of Public Health from Columbia University, and has field experience in Eastern and Southern Africa, and PNG. She now works for the Burnet Institute.

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