Jean-Paul Faguet talks to Shahrukh Wani on institutional change

The World Isn't Flat

What motivates leaders to undertake potentially costly actions where there is uncertainty of the identity of winners and losers? The loser could in fact be the leader undertaking the reform itself. In a new working paper, London School of Economics’ Jean-Paul Faguet and Mahvish Shami argue that it might be for unrelated reason. Leaders might be undertaking costly institutional reform for short-term political reasons without factoring in the long-term change in incentive structure. They call this concept “instrumental incoherence.” In this episode of the “The World Isn’t Flat”, Shahrukh Wani talks to Professor Jean-Paul Faguet, on instrumental incoherence and how this intuitive concept can help explain the reform processes in many developing countries, and the potential policy implication of his new paper. About Jean-Paul Faguet: Professor Jean-Paul Faguet is the Professor of the Political Economy of Development at the Department of International Development of the London School of Economics, and Co-Programme Director of the MSc in Development Management. He is also Chair of the Decentralization Task Force at Columbia University’s Initiative for Policy Dialogue. 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. Follow him on Twitter at @jpfaguet About Shahrukh Wani: Shahrukh “Shah” Wani is an Economist at the International Growth Centre (IGC) at the Blavatnik School of Government. He is the co-host of "The World Isn't Flat." Follow him on Twitter at @ShahrukhWani