The Peace pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development encompasses a diverse range of issues including stability and effective governance. Reforming the public sector is high on the government’s agenda, but involves a number of challenges: the gap between planning and implementation...

This dissertation studies what prevents (or fosters) would-be contemporary nation-builders from building the nation and solidifying the state when challenged by criminal wars. Focusing on Mexico and Colombia -two states rampaged by ongoing criminal wars-, I study the incentives of local...

For public officials, the decision to engage in corruption is embedded into abroader set of career considerations. In contrast to politicians, bureaucrats usuallyenjoy lifelong tenure. As such, bureaucrats may respond differently to punctualevents such as anti-corruption audits. In this paper,...

There are good reasons to expect that citizens will appreciate local government more than central government. Sure enough, previous studies have found support for this assumption. Nevertheless, I will argue that it is theoretically far too simple to think that decentralization and citizen's...

In this essay, I argue that the various institutional settings of fiscal decentralization observed in developing countries are contingent on institutional quality. Other incentives may exist for policymakers to change the degrees of fiscal power. My research is based on a five-year average of...

This research adds to the literature on the nexus between government and corruption by examining further the influence of government decentralization on corruption. Previous research has focused primarily on fiscal decentralization. We bring additional evidence to bear for the United States by...

Some criticism has been raised on the actual capability of corruption perception-based indices to gauge the essence of concepts they aim to measure. One can argue that perceptions about corruption are not matching reality and could be the reflection of distorted truth. Based on this evidence we...