About me

Jean-Paul Faguet is Professor of the Political Economy of Development at the London School of Economics. He is also Chair of the Decentralization Task Force at Columbia University’s Initiative for Policy Dialogue. He works at the frontier between economics and political science, using quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the institutions and organizational forms that underpin development transformations. He has published in the economics, political science, and development literatures, including Is Decentralization Good for Development? Perspectives from Academics and Policymakers (Oxford, 2015), and Governance from Below: Decentralization and Popular Democracy in Bolivia (Michigan), which won the W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize for best political science book of 2012.

Professor Faguet’s current work focuses on historical institutions, inequality and long-term, divergent development outcomes in Colombia and Latin America. More broadly, his fields include political economy, comparative politics, institutional economics, economic development and economic history. Before coming to the LSE he worked for the World Bank in La Paz, Bolivia on health, education, early childhood development and the environment. He trained in both politics and economics at Princeton, Harvard and the LSE, where his dissertation won the William Robson Memorial Prize.

Professor Faguet is also:
Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Government
Faculty Associate in the International Inequalities Institute
Faculty Associate in the Latin America and Caribbean Centre
Research Associate in STICERD.

Books and Journal Special Issues

Faguet, J.P. and C. Pöschl (eds.). 2015. Is Decentralization Good for Development? Perspectives from Academics and Policy Makers. Edited volume written with leading lights in the field, including Nobel laureates Roger Myerson and Joseph Stiglitz, ex-President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, and ex-Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Faguet, J.P. (ed.). 2014. “Decentralization and Governance.” Special Issue of World Development I guest edited. 53: 1-112.

Khan, Q., J.P. Faguet, C. Gaukler and W. Mekasha. 2014. Improving Basic Services for the Bottom Forty Percent: Lessons from Ethiopia. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

Faguet, J.P. 2012. Decentralization and Popular Democracy: Governance from Below in Bolivia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Awarded the Political Studies Association’s W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize for best book published in 2012.
Published in Spanish as Faguet, J.P. 2016. Descentralización y Democracia Popular: Gobernabilidad Desde Abajo en Bolivia. La Paz: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

Zuazo, M., J.P. Faguet, and G. Bonifaz (eds.). 2012. Descentralización y democratización en Bolivia: La historia del Estado débil, la sociedad rebelde y el anhelo de democracia. La Paz: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

Journal Articles

Faguet, J.P., Q. Khan and D.P. Kanth. 2021. “Decentralization’s Effects on Education and Health: Evidence from Ethiopia.”Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 51 (1): 79-103.

Faguet, J.P., F. Sánchez and J. Villaveces. 2020. “The Perversion of Public Land Distribution by Landed Elites: Power, Inequality and Development in Colombia.” World Development, 136: 1-23.

Faguet, J.P. 2019. “Revolution From Below: Cleavage Displacement and the Collapse of Elite Politics in Bolivia.” Politics & Society, 47 (2): 205–250.

Eaton, K., J.P. Faguet, I. Harbers, A.H. Schakel, L. Hooghe, G. Marks, S. Niedzwiecki, S. Chapman Osterkatz and S. Shair-Rosenfield. 2018. “Measuring and theorizing regional governance.” Territory, Politics, Governance, 7 (2): 265-283.

Faguet, J.P. 2018. “The Lessons of Bolivia.” Journal of Democracy, 29 (4): 89-101.

Faguet, J.P. 2018. “Scale Meets Community: Hooghe and Marks’ Theory of Multilevel Governance.” Territory, Politics, Government, 7 (2): 270-274.

Faguet, J.P. 2017. “Transformation from Below in Bangladesh: Decentralization, Local Governance, and Systemic Change.” Modern Asian Studies, 51 (6): 1668–1694. doi:10.1017/S0026749X16000378.

Khan, Q., J.P. Faguet, and A. Ambel. 2017. “Blending Top-Down Federalism with Bottom-Up Engagement to Reduce Inequality in Ethiopia.”World Development, 96: 326–342.

Working Papers

Bednar, J., J.P. Faguet and S.E. Page. 2025. “Three Models of Institutional Incongruity: Multidimensionality, Networks and Culture.” Under review at World Development.

Faguet, J.P. Forthcoming. “Complexity in Institutional Reform.” World Development.

Public Panels and Conversations

Expertise Details

Historical institutions; Inequality; State capacity; Identity; Political cleavage; Choice; Revolution and development; Decentralisation; Federalism; Latin America