Publications
BSC faculty, fellows, and affiliates regularly publish research in a wide range of academic and policy venues. These include books, book chapters, working papers, articles, cases, and reports. In addition, we have hundreds of blog posts that you can read.
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Featured BookBuilding State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action
This book provides evidence of the capability shortfalls that currently exist in many countries, identifies capability traps that hold many governments back, and describes a process that can be used to escape these traps called PDIA (Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation).
Featured Publications
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Tackling Learning Poverty in Sierra Leone’s Education System through the Lens of the PDIA
Guest blog by Irina Bilyalova, Orlando Carvajal, Vaiba Flomo, and Sonali Verma We were four students brought together by a shared interest in solving real-world problems. Three from the Harvard Kennedy School and one from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. One of us was from the United States; three of us were…
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Case: Using PDIA to Transform Waste Management in Amman
In early 2022, the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) faced a growing waste crisis. Given its population of 4.5 million people generating approximately 3,000 tons of solid municipal waste daily, half of Jordan’s total, the city’s rapid growth had significantly outpaced its waste management infrastructure. In response to this challenge, a remarkable two-year transformation using Problem-Driven…
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Can Outsiders Help Build State Capability? Lessons from Ted Lasso
Gaps between potential and performance are common in states across the globe. This paper argues that these gaps represent differences in state capability, and compares Ted Lasso to how outside actors can impact that capability.
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National Development Delivers: And How! And How?
National development has proven to improve wellbeing across the board. This paper proves that underestimating the importance of economic development in the scheme of national wellbeing is not wise.
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Incentivising Pro-Labour Reforms
In Vietnam and Bangladesh, governments allowed pro-labor reforms to develop as they helped the nations break into the international economic markets. This paper proves that countries will reduce labor repression if they perceive this as conducive to export growth.
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Who Wins in the World Economy and English Football?
The global economy is compared to English football in this work to illustrate the ways in which policy makers in developing countries strive to catch up on the international stage.
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Learning to Engage New Investors for Economic Diversification: PDIA in Action in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka used a Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation process to build government capacity for attracting investors and foreign expertise into new economic sectors. The paper shows that empowered, committed officials can develop an effective investor-engagement strategy within six months.
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Learning to Target for Economic Diversification: PDIA in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka used a Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation process to build government capacity for selecting sectors to support economic diversification. The paper shows that committed, empowered officials can develop an effective targeting system relatively quickly.