To get a good sense of a country’s level of development, you need to look at the items people have in their homes, according to economists Rutger Schilpzand and Jeroen Smits from Radboud University. Research on low- and middle-income countries often focuses on income, health or education, but that doesn’t tell you the full story of a country’s situation. ‘That’s why, for the first time, we are mapping out how the material wealth of households is developing,’ Schilpzand explains. The researchers coin this material wealth growth for households the 'domestic transition'. Their research is published today in the Journal of International Development.

A central issue at the UN Climate Change Conference, set to start on November 11, will be the negotiations on new payments from industrialized nations to poorer countries. However, the question of whether and how these payments will be financed remains highly controversial. The study by an international team of researchers, with participation by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has now revealed: The windfall profits alone taken in by oil and gas companies due to the 2022 energy crisis would have been sufficient to cover the existing commitments of the industrialized nations for nearly five years. The researchers therefore recommend collecting taxes on these so-called windfall profits from fossil fuels.

Friends and distinguished alumni of the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin inducted four alumni into the school’s Hall of Fame on Nov. 7 at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center. This year’s honorees are Christopher Bake, BBA ’88; Ray Brimble, B.A. ’74; Bennett Glazer, BBA ’68; and Brien Smith, BBA ’79, MPA '81. McCombs Dean Lillian Mills also recognized 2024 Rising Stars Simeon Bochev, MSF ’13; Michael Ginnings, BBA ’09; and Gerardo Guardado, MBA ’10.