It has been almost exactly a year since I last posted. As one can probably guess, it’s been a busy year… But now that I’ve begun a semester-long research leave I am determined to resume my online activity. To begin with, I hope to receive additional comments on my co-authored article in World Development which I wrote together with Kara Keating Bench. The Stanford Social Innovation Review recently posted some encouraging commentary on it and it would be great to get more feedback, especially since I am pondering a funding proposal in support of a research project focusing on intra-organizational decision-making.
I also hope to use this website to solicit feedback on ongoing research projects as well. Aafreen Kidwai and I have a working paper on funding patterns of multilateral aid agencies toward urban poverty reduction projects which we plan to submit for formal review soon. There are still some kinks in it so I’ll post the revised draft in a couple of weeks.
I also recently gave a talk on Chinese investments in African cities. The data are shaky (the usual challenge confronting research on Chinese foreign affairs) not only because of murky sources but also because it is tough to pin down what exactly is an urban project… but the presentation triggered such an enthusiastic reaction that I’ve decided to share the slides here. Any comments on the findings, as well as suggestions on how to solidify the data, are most welcome.
I am going to post additional working papers in the coming weeks.
