Participatory governance mechanisms have been widely promoted in developing countries.
They are claimed to bring about several public policy benefits, including increased …

This paper focuses on the relationship between public action and access to public goods. It
begins by developing a simple model to capture the various mechanisms that are discussed …

We survey and assess the literature on the positive and negative effects of ethnic diversity
on economic policies and outcomes. Our focus is on communities of different size and …

Productivity risk is pervasive in underdeveloped countries. This paper highlights a way in
which underdevelopment exacerbates productivity risk. Productivity shocks cause larger …

INTRODUCTION DEMOCRACY AND NATURAL RESOURCES determination (Mair 1936,
13). The language of earlier decentralizations included laudable goals that we would be …

The paper analyzes the effect of agricultural tenancy laws offering security of tenure to
tenants and regulating the share of output that is paid as rent on farm productivity …

THE PAST 50 YEARS have seen marked changes in our understanding of development. We
know that development is possible, but not inevitable. We have had a wealth of experiments …

To explore factors underlying growth and poverty reduction in Africa while overcoming some
of the limitations of cross‐country analysis, this article uses micro‐level survey and panel …

This paper investigates the determinants of group membership, and in particular the effect of
income inequality on individual incentives to join economic groups. Drawing on a simple …

C ommon-pool resources play a decisive role in determining the livelihood of the rural poor
(Jodha, 1986, 1990) and local environmental conditions. The past 15 years of research have …