Contributor : Profile

Chris Blattman is a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), and the Ramalee E Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at The University of Chicago, in the Harris School of Public Policy. Blattman holds a Ph.D. in economics from University of California, Berkeley, and a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from Harvard’s Kennedy School. His research focusses 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 behavioural experiments to study the dynamics of poverty and participation and to study what development programmes work and why. A number of studies are presently underway in Uganda and Liberia, studying new strategies for poverty alleviation and the impacts of poverty alleviation on violence, unrest, and other social and political behaviour.

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, International Organization, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, and the Review of Economics and Statistics.

In addition to being a non-resident fellow at the CGD, Blattman is a Research Affiliate with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), and a member of the International Growth Centre (IGC). He has acted as a consultant and adviser to the World Bank, UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund), the United Nation's Peacebuilding Fund, Uganda’s Office of the Prime Minister, and Liberia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.