Doing Problem Driven Work
We often observe that more successful efforts to establish complex state capabilities are problem driven; focused relentlessly on solving a specific, attention-grabbing problem.
Research
The Challenge of Building (Real) State Capability
Efforts to build state capability often take the form of commonly used, highly designed and engineered best practice solutions that have worked in many other places and that we suspect (and hope) will
Political Leadership and the Urban Poor
Based on survey research and ethnographic interviews, we analyze struggles over housing and access to infrastructure in two low-income "unplanned settlements" in the National Capital Region of Delhi,
Has Sweden Injected Realism into Public Financial Management Reforms in Partner Countries?
In this report Andrews takes a specific look at whether Sweden has contributed to increased realism in poor country reform of ’public finance management’ (PFM) over the last decades.
Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science
Rethinking economics, from the inside out. In the wake of the financial crisis and the Great Recession, economics seems anything but a science.
The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa
This book argues that Africa can feed itself in a generation and help contribute to global food security despite its history of persistent food shortages and the rising threat of climate change.
Why is Chiapas Poor?
No matter which way you look at it, Chiapas is the most backward of any state in Mexico.
Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa: From the Margins to the Centre
A review of "Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa: From the Margins to the Centre."
Recent Declines in Labor’s Share in US Income: A Neoclassical Account
As shown in the 1930s by Hicks and Robinson the elasticity of substitution (s) is a key parameter that captures whether capital and labor are gross complements or substitutes.
Low Quality, Low Returns, Low Adoption: Evidence from the Market for Fertilizer and Hybrid Seed in Uganda
To reduce poverty and food insecurity in Africa requires raising productivity in agriculture. Systematic use of fertilizer and hybrid seed is a pathway to increased productivity, but adoption of these
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