Political Economy Archives

5 August 2022

Be the Solution: How Bureaucrats can Improve Public Sector Performance Through Mission Management

Dan Honig

Management reform strategies are often steeped in a top-down, command-and-control, incentive-laden theory of change. In my work, I explore when these approaches are useful, and...

22 July 2022

Bureaucracy, State Capacity, and Development

Timothy Besley, Robin Burgess, Adnan Khan, Jonathan Old, and Guo Xu

How does bureaucracy matter for state capacity and development? Over the last years, enormous interest in this question has created a large body of research, mostly focused around...

9 July 2022

A Clash of Institutions?

Mohammad Waseem

What precipitated the political crisis in Pakistan that brought about a change in the government? Will the nation move beyond the crisis any time soon? How can the implicit clash of institutions be avoided?

24 June 2022

Electronic Media Regulation in Pakistan: Possibilities for an Unnatural Experiment

Saher Asad

The regulation of electronic media happens through PEMRA, which is authorized in its watchdog capacity to send notices and directives to channels. But where does PEMRA dedicate most of its time?

10 June 2022

Killing to Multiply? The Consequences of US Drone Strikes in Pakistan

Rafat Mahmood and Michael Jetter

Despite the huge amounts of funds dedicated to the program and the repeated applause of the precision and efficacy of drone strikes from policy circles, evidence on the effectiveness of drone strikes as a counter-terrorism strategy is...

27 May 2022

Leveraging Digitization to Circumvent State Capacity Constraints

Sabrin Beg

What happens when property rights are not secure? In a recent paper, I delve into the role of property rights in explaining the misallocation of land and labor...

23 February 2022

Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policies – The Need for a New Approach

Fizzah Sajjad

On 11 November 2021, Zakia Bibi, a resident of the Gujjar Nala community in Karachi, passed away from a heart attack after her home was demolished by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) on the Supreme Court’s directives. Just a week before...

22 November 2021

Karachi Floods.

Arif Hasan

Karachi floods at the slightest of rains. Karachiites have historically tolerated this because flooding usually lasts for a few days with bearable aftereffects. However, in 2020, the rains were exceptionally heavy...

15 October 2021

The Road to ‘Good’ Teaching in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Schools

Between 2010 and 2018, there appeared to be some very exciting and frenetic reform efforts unfolding across the school education sector in the Punjab. Moving the needle on school access and learning outcomes, it seemed, was as aspiration closest to the hearts...

9 July 2021

Where does Pakistan’s electricity go?

Ayesha Ali, Javed Younas

Electricity is the wheel that drives all facets of our daily lives such as production, consumption, communication, transportation and routine financial transactions. Despite its key role in powering the national economy, Pakistan’s electricity sector continues its struggle with significant challenges. Whether these manifest as costly...

MAHBUB UL HAQ

RESEARCH CENTRE at LUMS

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