Charles Kenny

Books, Papers and Articles

Category: Q. Academic writing

  • An opinion piece for the Journal Governance in which I argue governance matters less than usually thought and can change faster than usually assumed.

  • Where is the Virtue in the Middle Class? is a CGD essay.  It is an extended version of this.

  • Technology and USAID is a CGD essay discussing Raj Shah's efforts to promote technology in development.  It is a great idea, but it carries risks well illustrated by his example of a tablet computer changing farming practices and education in rural West Africa.

  • Bentham from the Crypt Once More  is a CGD essay.  There is a burgeoning academic literature on happiness polls that has used a range of different measures and approaches across countries rich and poor alike to answer the question, “what makes people say they are happy?”  The excitement surrounding this work is well justified. These…

  • The Best Things in Life are (Nearly) Free is a CGD Working Paper. The health of the world’s population—including those in the poorest countries—has improved more in the past 100 years than ever before. The improvement is largely a result of the development and spread of cheap, effective technologies (such as vaccines). Other factors, such as…

  • The latest Optimist column for Foreign Policy suggests the Peace Corps should move towards a grant-making model akin to the Fulbright program.  The extended version, The Peace Corps in a Smaller World: A New Model for the Next 50 Years, is now at CGD.

  • Learning About Schools in Development is a CGD Working Paper.  It is a longer version of this, which itself was a revised version of this.   There has been considerable progress in school construction and enrollment worldwide. Paying kids to go to school can help overcome remaining demand-side barriers to enrollment. Nonetheless, the quality of education appears very…

  • Suerpfast: Is It Worth A Subsidy? is a working paper written with my brother, Robert Kenny, at Communications Chambers.  Governments around the world are investing multiple billions to support the roll-out of fiber. These subsidies are based on the premise that fiber to the home brings substantial externalities.  However, the evidence that basic broadband has…

  • Publishing Construction Contracts and Outcome Details is a World Bank Working Paper.  Construction governance failures can lead to the construction of the wrong infrastructure, poor quality construction, and excessively high prices for work. There is some evidence from both other sectors and the construction sector itself that improved transparency, especially when combined with oversight, can…

  • Red Flags of Corruption in World Bank Projects is a World Bank working paper.  "Red flags" are indicators of potential issues regarding governance failure, collusion or corruption in projects. While some specific red flags can be powerful indicators of issues to be addressed, the hypothesis of this paper is that many proposed red flags are…