I want a "conference" where every academic cooks a dish for everyone and we all talk about our work casually while cooking. People can sous chef for each other. We eat and talk about our work in progress. You submit an abstract and a recipe.
books: the rectangle that can’t send you push notifications. Try: books.
This is so, so well-articulated.
👏 Congratulations, Max!
In his new article with the ILR, Max revisits how we define and measure the informal sector, and the implications for research and policy.
🔔 Out now and #OA via @openlibhums.org with an early view from our Issue 2 for 2026
@ids.ac.uk
New article: why a lot of #informality research has been broken by poor measurements and inappropriate modelling - and what we can do about it. Completely open access in @ilr-rit.bsky.social:
en.ilr-rit.org/article/pubi...
If you're at #ISA2026 (or even if you're not), the good people at Columbia University Presa got you 20% off my book with the code below! (And for a couple of much more interesting books as well..)
It is completely mad that the government is expelling high flying Sudanese students from British universities - from a scheme that is explicitly aimed at the future leaders of countries.
The government's immigration proposals are an obscenity: They needlessly punish refugees, make integration basically impossible, and introduce a sliding system of administrative abuse depending on how wealthy you are iandunt.substack.com/p/can-we-ext...
The paper is from an ongoing @ictdtax.bsky.social project with Umair Javed and Vanessa van den Boogaard, hopefully more to come in the coming months - watch this space!
Every #Ramadan, the people of #Pakistan give over 600 billion rupees in #zakat - more than any state social welfare program. And, as our recent study found, the majority of that goes to women - a good reminder in these days of what people can do.
Full working paper here:
www.ictd.ac/publication/...
🌙As Ramadan begins, attention turns to zakat — one of the five pillars of Islam. As many Muslims choose to pay zakat during Ramadan, this month represents a key period for wealth redistribution.
But how much is actually paid? And to whom?
Find out➡️ https://ow.ly/C9rk50YhJMN
Max Gallien Umair Javed
Wolfram! Thank you for reading the book, and for the kind words! I really need to make it back to Berlin sometime soon to catch up!
Thank you for taking it on, and all the guidance along the way - which made it a much more readable book!
An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’
Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'
Man I long for the day when I get to write opening paragraphs that aren't endless variations on "well, we know that the world is on fire".
Letter of the day (in the Times)
An impromptu panel here at #FfD4...
📝NEW POLICY BRIEF: With tax now the main source of dev't finance, countries are under pressure to raise tax revenue fast. But done poorly, these could have damaging effects. The key is to tax smarter - but how?
➡️ ow.ly/2VCf50Wg8NU
#FfD4 #Tax4Dev #TaxResearch
NEW RESEARCH: Are Pakistanis supportive of wealth taxes? Here is what we found⬇️
1️⃣Support for wealth taxes cuts across class, income and gender
2️⃣It increases when people feel that taxes are spent well and transparently
3️⃣Trust in the state drives support
Find out more: www.ictd.ac/publication/...
If you're coming to #FfD4 in Seville next week and are interested in talking the future of tax & development, get in touch! I'll be there with a wonderful delegation of the @ictdtax.bsky.social - and we have a side event well worth checking out:
www.ictd.ac/event/ffd4-s...
That's some of the graphs - more detail in the full policy brief below - and a lot more questions to be asked!
This is part of a larger project @ictdtax.bsky.social & LUMS project with Vanessa van den Boogaard and Umair Javed - looking forward to continuing this work!
www.ictd.ac/publication/...
...perhaps the most important factor is trust in the state and the government - transparency and concerns about corruption are key drivers of support for new wealth taxes. There are key lessons in this: progressivity and transparency can both be a part of tax design and communication. (4/...)
Interestingly, if we dissect who supports new wealth taxes, people with a higher income are unexpectedly quite supportive! As are people who identify as supporters of the PMLN and the PPP. (3/...) However...
If we look at different tax proposals, we find that support is heterogeneous - with taxes that are structured more progressively being more popular. Notably, if we add more progressive structures to classical wealth taxes (like inheritance), they also become more popular! (2/...)
📰New data: Is there public support for new #progressive and #wealth_taxes in Pakistan?
Our policy brief dissects brand new public opinion data on a range of wealth and progressive tax proposals, based on a survey of 7500 voting-age Pakistanis.
What do we find? (1/...)
www.ictd.ac/publication/...
Really nice to see that the Journal of Borderland Studies considers 'Smugglers and States' a "must-read for scholars of political economy, border studies, and state formation". If that's you, the book is available here:
cup.columbia.edu/book/smuggle...
Your email will not find me.
Despite the expansion of border fences, these barriers 'shift criminal dynamics, destabilize border communities, and have far-reaching implications for regional trade relations.' #humanRights
For those working on border governance:
Centre Experts @maxgallien.bsky.social, Shalaka Thakur & Co-Director @weigand.bsky.social offer a valuable analysis in @foreignpolicy.com on what border walls actually achieve - and what they don’t 👇
Since the end of the Cold War, the number of border walls and fences around the world has sextupled. But do they actually work?
In this piece for @foreignpolicy.com, Shalaka Thakur, @weigand.bsky.social and I draw on our research and share some scepticism
foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/23/b...