The Principles of Effective Development Co-operation provide an important reference point for foreign aid and international development assistance. Although the principles-country ownership, focus on results, inclusive partnerships, and transparency and mutual accountability- are framed to...

Supporting state capacity is a priority for the international community, yet the record of internationally supported statebuilding to date has been mixed at best. A key question for continuing research concerns the factors influencing more versus less successful interventions. We show that the...

We expect effective state institutions to matter in a country's ability to respond to crises. Yet notably in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, what has stood out in simple global snapshots is that wealthier countries with stronger institutions have had the highest numbers of cases and...

The growing body of research on the relationship between the state and democracy has remained inconclusive both in terms of causal direction and sign. One key factor contributing to this inconclusiveness is the lack of precision in the conceptualization and measurement of democracy and state...

It is widely accepted that the distribution of power between ethnic groups within a country plays a key role in major social, political, and economic outcomes. Researchers working on the topic have various measures of ethnic dominance and exclusion, and other closely related aspects such as...

This paper investigates the relationship between inequality and redistributive taxation. It provides a review of existing research on the topic and a cross-country empirical analysis of this relationship. Using data from the World Income Inequality Database, Government Revenue Dataset, and other...

Conflict depletes all forms of human and social capital, as well as supporting institutions. The scale of the human damage can overwhelm public action, as there are many competing priorities and resources are often insufficient. What then should be the priorities for 'post-conflict' policy?...

Despite the good intentions behind affirmative action (AA) policies to mediate 'horizontal inequalities' between ethnic groups, the evidence on their effectiveness remains open to debate. In this study, we conduct a systematic review of the literature with global scope, to add new clarity on...

This paper provides a systematic review of quantitative literature investigating the success of affirmative action (AA) policies in addressing socio-economic inequalities between ethnic groups in education and employment. We focus on two of the most influential national experiences: caste-based...

Affirmative action, or positive discrimination favouring the members of marginalized populations, is a key policy approach for addressing group-based inequalities along ethnic, religious, and racial lines (e.g. horizontal inequalities). It is adopted in dozens of countries around the world in...