by Kiel Downey | May 1, 2017 | Publication
View Full Report Increasing violence in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador—known collectively as the “Northern Triangle” of Central America—poses a serious challenge to the rule of law and threatens the foundation for lasting prosperity in those countries. Much of...
by Kiel Downey | May 1, 2017 | Publication
View the Full Report While the Maidan protests, which began in late 2013, and the February 2014 Ukrainian revolution paved the way for reforms that could reduce corruption and spur economic development, Ukraine continues to suffer from systemic corruption and weak...
by Kiel Downey | May 1, 2017 | Publication
This article investigates the role of political competition in explaining de facto judicial independence in non‐democratic regimes. It argues that the electoral, political insurance explanation popular in the study of courts in democracies also offers explanatory...
by Kiel Downey | Mar 13, 2017 | Publication
We examine cross‐national variation in the global growth of commercial microfinance from 1998 to 2009 as a natural experiment to analyze the role of national institutions in shaping the ability of commercial enterprises to reach the global poor. Our results...
by Kiel Downey | Mar 13, 2017 | Publication
This article examines a national girls’ education program and its role in addressing gender inequality in the Indian state of Gujarat. In 2004, the Ministry of Education, Government of India, enacted the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyala (KGBV) program. As a...
by Kiel Downey | Mar 13, 2017 | Publication
Comparative findings from girls’ education projects in Gujarat, India, and Shaanxi, China, are used to explore two questions: How and under what conditions does schooling contribute to girls’ instrumental and intrinsic empowerment? What does it mean to become an...
