Non-Resident Fellow
Education: PhD in Economics from UC Berkeley (2007)
MPA/ID from Harvard Kennedy School (2002)
BA in Economics from the University of Waterloo (1998)
Chris Blattman is an assistant professor of political science and Economics at Yale University. In addition to being a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development, Chris is a Research Affiliate with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a board member of the Journal of Globalization and Development (JGD), and a member of the International Growth Center (IGC). He also acts as a consultant and adviser to the World Bank, UNICEF, the UN Peacebuilding Fund, Uganda’s Office of the Prime Minister, and Liberia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Chris’ research focuses on poverty alleviation, political participation, the causes and consequences of violence and war, with a particular focus on East and West Africa. He uses surveys, impact evaluations, and behavioral experiments to study the dynamics of poverty and participation, and to study what development programs work and why. A number of impact evaluations are presently underway in Uganda and Liberia, studying the impacts of training and job creation on poverty and social and political life of war-affected youth.
His development research site and blog is http://chrisblattman.com. He has also published articles in the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of Economic Literature, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. Blattman obtained a BA with high honors from University of Waterloo, and an MPA/ID from Harvard’s Kennedy School.
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Why is Africa poor? What, if anything, can the West do about it? No course can answer these questions in full, but one can get started on the (hopefully lifelong) learning. Students will be exposed to the major and the not‐so-major debates in aid and development. They will discuss the conventional and less conventional theories of poverty, growth, war, and good governance, and why there is so much or so little of it in Africa. The aim is to help students think critically about these debates and their possible role in the problem and solutions.
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p>The goal of this course is to familiarize the student with approaches to the study of war and terror: economic, historical, analytical, formal theoretical, and statistical. Most of all, the course is designed to get students to think critically about traditional explanations and approaches. The focus of the course will be on civil war and the use of violence and terror in civil wars. 'Conventional' terrorism is covered as well, albeit less so.
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Over the past two decades tens of thousands of children were forcibly recruited or abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. What happens to these former child soldiers when they return to civilian life? This new working paper by CGD post-doctoral fellow Chris Blattman shows that the popular perception of former child soldiers as social misfits and possible threats to society is generally contrary to the facts. His research shows that the experience of forced recruitment generally leads to greater political participation, more than doubling the likelihood that a young person will become a community leader.
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Why is Africa poor? What, if anything, can the West do about it? No course can answer these questions in full, but one can get started on the (hopefully lifelong) learning. Students will be exposed to the major and the not‐so-major debates in aid and development. They will discuss the conventional and less conventional theories of poverty, growth, war, and good governance, and why there is so much or so little of it in Africa. The aim is to help students think critically about these debates and their possible role in the problem and solutions.
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Over the past two decades tens of thousands of children were forcibly recruited or abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. What happens to these former child soldiers when they return to civilian life? This new working paper by CGD post-doctoral fellow Chris Blattman shows that the popular perception of former child soldiers as social misfits and possible threats to society is generally contrary to the facts. His research shows that the experience of forced recruitment generally leads to greater political participation, more than doubling the likelihood that a young person will become a community leader.
Learn More
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p>The goal of this course is to familiarize the student with approaches to the study of war and terror: economic, historical, analytical, formal theoretical, and statistical. Most of all, the course is designed to get students to think critically about traditional explanations and approaches. The focus of the course will be on civil war and the use of violence and terror in civil wars. 'Conventional' terrorism is covered as well, albeit less so.
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African Poverty and Western Aid (Syllabus)
- Jan 14, 2009
Why is Africa poor? What, if anything, can the West do about it? No course can answer these questions in full, but one can get started on the (hopefully lifelong) learning. Students will be exposed to the major and the not‐so-major debates in aid and development. They will discuss the conventional and less conventional theories of poverty, growth, war, and good governance, and why there is so much or so little of it in Africa. The aim is to help students think critically about these debates and their possible role in the problem and solutions.
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The Political Economy of Civil War and Terror (Syllabus)
- Oct 16, 2008
p>The goal of this course is to familiarize the student with approaches to the study of war and terror: economic, historical, analytical, formal theoretical, and statistical. Most of all, the course is designed to get students to think critically about traditional explanations and approaches. The focus of the course will be on civil war and the use of violence and terror in civil wars. 'Conventional' terrorism is covered as well, albeit less so.
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From Violence to Voting: War and Political Participation in Uganda - Working Paper 138
- Jan 23, 2008
Over the past two decades tens of thousands of children were forcibly recruited or abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. What happens to these former child soldiers when they return to civilian life? This new working paper by CGD post-doctoral fellow Chris Blattman shows that the popular perception of former child soldiers as social misfits and possible threats to society is generally contrary to the facts. His research shows that the experience of forced recruitment generally leads to greater political participation, more than doubling the likelihood that a young person will become a community leader.
Learn More
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