This paper provides evidence that the personalities of policymakers matter for policy. Three results support the relevance of personalities for policy. First, doctors with higher Big Five and Perry Public Sector Motivation scores attend work more and falsify inspection reports less. Second, health inspectors who score higher on these measures exhibit larger treatment responses to […]
Category: International Development
Jennifer Bussell and Asim FayazMay 2017 Overview This case study discusses government capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disasters – floods, earthquakes, and heat waves – in Pakistan. The analysis finds that several hypotheses described at the start of this report are particularly relevant to explaining the extent of disaster preparedness and risk […]
I was invited to deliver a lecture for a Technology for Accountability Lab course being put together by Vivek S. for Stanford University. More details: The Program on Liberation Technology (LibTech) at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) together with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) are proud to launch a free massive […]
This article is an abridged version of a longer historical case study produced by Innovations for Successful Societies, a research program at Princeton University. In early 2008, an irate government official walked into the office of Zubair Bhatti, the district coordination officer (DCO) of Jhang district, in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The official complained that, when he tried to […]
I was hired by the PeaceTech Exchange (PTX), on behalf of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), to train Community Service Organizations (CSO) and public sector managers in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, on using smartphones to collect data using Kobo Toolbox and Open Data Kit. Fellow trainers included Heath Morrison, Tarik Nesh-Nash, and Evanna Hu. The […]
Logged On looks at mobile and smart phone technology through the lens of good government management. How will developing governments deliver goods and services that citizens care about? How will government in these countries leapfrog over traditional public management reforms to help reach out to and collaborate directly with the citizen? This book provides example […]
Interview by IDG WebStudio for TECH-ED.
Reading Robert Chamber’s paper “Poverty and livelihoods: whose reality counts?” reminded me of an incident a friend narrated a couple of years back. At the time, he was working for a development sector think-tank in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. The incident occurred after he had just arrived at a 5-star hotel to attend a USAid-funded conference […]
I sat down with Professor Tapan Parikh from the UC Berkeley I-School to discuss the power of information in international development. Originally published on the MDP blog.
I was invited to a panel discussion titled “Exploring the Current Role and Potential of ICTs for Development” at the USAID Higher Education Solutions Network’s TechCon 2014. The event was co-hosted with the Development Impact Lab (DIL) at the University of California, Berkeley, and that explains my connection. Fellow panelists were Ann Mei Chang and […]