Nation-building has long been seen as an important focus of post-colonial African governments. However, up until now there has been no empirical analysis of the consequences of nation-building policies. Here we compile an original dataset measuring nine different types of nation-building...

Do targeted aid programs have unintended consequences outside of the target issue area? We investigate this question with an examination of one of the largest targeted aid programs in the world: the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Critics of PEPFAR worry that a targeted...

“Selling success” is crucial in conservation and development. Solutions, ideas, projects, and people must actively be constructed as valuable to get donors and policy-makers to buy (into) them. Exactly how success “travels” and becomes capital, however, is not often explicated. Using a...