Projects Funded

Governance under Authoritarian Rule. Stephen Haber and Beatriz Magaloni, Political Science. Ian Morris, Classics, History and Jennifer Trimble, Classics. Will examine the political economy of authoritarian systems and determine why some authoritarian governments are able to transition to democracy, stable growth and functioning institutions, while others prove predatory and unstable.

Addressing Institutional and Interest Conflicts: Project Governance Structures for Global Infrastructure Development. Raymond Levitt, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Doug McAdam and W. Richard Scott, Sociology. Will analyze the challenges of creating efficient and effective structures for the provision of low cost, distributed and durable infrastructure services in emerging economies.

Combating HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa: The Treatment Revolution and its Impact on Health, Well-Being and Governance. David Katzenstein, Infectious Diseases, and Jeremy Weinstein, Political Science. Based on the 2005 Group of 8 commitment to put 10 million people infected with HIV/AIDS on treatment within five years, will research the impact of this treatment revolution on health, well-being and governance in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Evaluating Institutional Responses to Market Liberalization: Why Latin America Was Left Behind. Judith Goldstein, Political Science, Avner Greif, Economics, Stephen Haber, Political Science, Herb Klein, History, H.Grant Miller, FSI/Medicine, and Barry Weingast, Political Science. Will research the interaction between inequality and Latin American institutions in explaining the poor economic performance of Latin American countries in the past two decades, examining why reforms such as trade liberalization have failed to yield expected results.

Feeding the World in the 21st Century: Exploring the Connections Between Food Production, Health, Environmental Resources, and International Security. Rosamond Naylor, FSI/Economics, Stephen Stedman, FSI/Political Science, Peter Vitousek, Biological Sciences, and Gary Schoolnik, Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology. Launches new research and teaching program on "Food Security and the Environment," with an initial priority on determining linkages between Food Security, Health and International Security, and Globalization, Agricultural Trade and the Environment.

The Political Economy of Cultural Diversity. James D. Fearon, Political Science, and Romain Wacziarg, Graduate School of Business. Will assess the impact of ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity on economic growth, trade and capital flows, governance, development of democracy and political stability.

Female Deficit and Social Stability in China: Implications for International Security. Melissa Brown, anthropological sciences; Marcus Feldman, biological sciences, and Matthew Sommer, history. As the number of surplus, marriage-age men in China approaches 47 million in 2050, this project will study factors that predict men's inability to marry before 30, the availability of social welfare to men and their families, their contribution to the floating population of rural-to- urban migrants, the labor-related migration of unmarried women, and the impact of this migration for domestic stability and international security.

Potential Economic and Social Impacts of Rapid Higher Education Expansion in the World's Largest Developing Economies. Martin Carnoy, education; Amos Nur, geophysics; and Krishna Saraswat, electrical engineering. The development of higher education systems in Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) will have a major impact on their ability to transition to large, developed, knowledge-based economies. Is the way nation states expand and reform higher education in response to global pressures an important indicator of societal capacity to achieve sustained economic growth? This project will examine differing approaches of BRIC governments to higher-education growth and reform, and ask whether these reflect differing levels of state capacity to expand the knowledge base for economic and social development and whether differing approaches result in significant changes in formation of analytical skills in university graduates, particularly scientists and engineers.

Health Care for One Billion: Experimenting with Incentives for the Supply of Health Care in Rural China. Scott Atlas, radiology; Scott Rozelle, the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, FSI. This project examines the effects of existing health policies and institutions in rural areas of China - including rural health insurance, privatization of rural clinics, and investment in township hospitals - and introduces a new experiment to study and realign incentives to address a serious flaw in China's health care system, the practice in which doctors both prescribe and derive significant profits from drugs.

Fighting Malaria with Microfinance. Aprajit Mahajan, Economics; Julie Parsonnet, Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine. Despite powerful public and private advocacy, the adoption and usage rates of anti-malarial Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) remains woefully low. This project seeks to use observational experimental data to examine prominent explanations for this fact as well as propose and implement alternative provision mechanisms using microfinance. The project is collaborating with a non-profit in Orissa (India) to design loan contracts and provide ITNs to poor rural households. The project will increase our understanding of how to improve access to effective health-improving technologies in poor, rural areas.

Enhancing Health Security through Infrastructure and Behavioral Intervention: Water, Sanitation and Child Survival in Africa. Alexandria Boehm and Jenna Davis, Civil & Environmental Engineering; Abby King, Health Research Policy and Medicine; Gary Schoolnik, Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology. Seeks to improve the health and well-being of the 1.2 billion people in low-income countries who lack access to clean water and the 2.6 billion who lack access to sanitation services, with a focus on mortality reduction in children. Project will be carried out in sub-Saharan Africa, where the toll of water- and sanitation-related illness on health is severe. Will investigate the extent to which information and education about water and sanitation at the household level motivates behavior changes that result in reduced morbidity. Results will inform international efforts to design and implement effective water supply and sanitation interventions for more than 400 million Africans currently lacking access.

Why are Indian Firms Poorly Managed? A Survey and Randomized Field Intervention. Nicholas Bloom and Aprajit Mahajan, Economics; Thomas Heller and Erik Jensen, Stanford Law School; John Roberts, Graduate School of Business. The biggest single reduction in poverty in the history of mankind was achieved by the industrialization of China since 1978, which lifted almost 500 million people out of poverty. India has not experienced this level of poverty reduction because its manufacturing firms have not achieved the productivity gains seen in China. Recent evidence suggests one key factor is the poor management practices adopted by Indian firms. This project examines why poor management practices persist in and why they are so much more common in India. It focuses in particular on evaluating the relative importance of informational, legal and development barriers. To do this the project will undertake: (i) a field survey of Indian firms to evaluate their knowledge of modern management techniques, and (ii) a field intervention aimed at upgrading management practices in a randomized sample of Indian firms, and comparing their progress to a control group of untouched firms.

Courts, Politics, and Human Rights. Joshua Cohen, Philosophy, Stanford Law School, and Political Science; Terry Karl, Political Science; Jenny S. Martinez, Stanford Law School. Examines the role of courts as the centerpiece of strategies for promoting human rights, asking if courts should be a preferred human rights venue or if there are other more accessible and effective ways to secure human rights. Addresses three broad themes: the interplay between national, regional and international courts in the protection of human rights; the role of governments and non-governmental organizations in influencing legal proceedings; and how courts construct historical truth, and shape public opinion, memory, attitudes, and discourse about human rights abuses. The multi-disciplinary project will span countries, regions, issue areas, and historical timeframes to ask what reasonably be expected from international, regional, and domestic courts in safeguarding human rights.

The Middle East and the World Economy. Matthew Harding, Economics; Lisa Blaydes, Political Science. Examines why the Middle East has lagged in economic progress compared to much of the developing world and the implications of this underdevelopment for two overarching trends in Middle Eastern politics today: authoritarian government and Islamic fundamentalism. Asks, as well, how political instability originating in the Middle East has impacted world oil prices and world markets by constructing economic models of the world economy. Seeks broadly to understand the macro- and micro- economic determinants of Islamic fundamentalism and authoritarian rule, and the extent to which these two outcomes have impacted the stability and prosperity of the world economy. Measures global factors resulting from the increased globalization of recent decades and quantifies their impact on the development of the economies in the Middle East.

China's Green GDP: Governance, Organization, and Science in China's Environmental Protection Efforts. Xueguang Zhou, Sociology, FSI; Yinyu Ye, Mechanical Science and Engineering; Leonard Ortolano, Civil and Environmental Engineering. In 2007, China surpassed the United States as the world's top producer of carbon dioxide emissions. Stanford researchers will collaborate with Chinese scholars to understand the science, governance, and design of China's environmental protection mechanisms. Their research offers prospects for improving the effectiveness of environmental protection in China through better governing processes, design of incentives, and enforcement of regulations. Successful policy implementation, the authors argue, will not only put a brake on environmental degradation in China but have a demonstration effect on other developing countries.

Climate Change and Conflict: What are the Links and Where is the Evidence? Rosamond Naylor, FSI and Woods Institute for the Environment; Stephen Stedman, FSI and International Policy Studies (IPS); James Jones, Anthropology. The potential impacts of climate change on human migration patterns, social stress, and civil conflict are widely discussed but remain largely unstudied. This project will provide an empirical foundation to the debate by investigating two primary mechanisms by which climate change could affect civil conflict in poor countries: the direct effects of climate-induced agricultural shock on conflict risk and the tensions introduced by climate-induced migration. The goal of this project is to disentangle the complex relationships between climate change and civil conflict by examining how climate change will impact rural livelihood options and push people toward migration as an adaptation strategy.

"Paying for Performance" in China's Battle Against Anemia. Jennifer Adams, Education, and Grant Miller, Medicine and Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research. This study conducts a large-scale policy experiment in rural, northwest China by strengthening the incentives of Chinese primary schools to combat anemia, which debilitates millions of Chinese children and severely constrains their ability to learn and progress through school. The overarching goal of the research is to understand if improving supply-side incentives (Paying for Performance) is an effective way to implement health interventions in developing countries. Health assistance is a major category of development aid and holds potential to alleviate large-scale human suffering, but incentives must be aligned with actual population health improvement, the authors maintain.

Stanford Education for Global HIV/AIDS, Infectious Diseases, and Epidemics. David Katzenstein, Infectious Diseases; Shelley Goldman, Education; Richard Roberts, History; and Robert Siegel, Microbiology and Immunology. Under the leadership of faculty from medicine, education, and humanities and sciences, the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) at FSI will develop three secondary school curriculum units on pandemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The educational units will examine the epidemiology of pandemic diseases; science, economics, and politics in infectious diseases; and public and personal health. Key objectives are to help students understand the import of infectious diseases, become familiar with scientific, social and economic responses, and understand the personal and policy implications of pandemic diseases in a global, interdependent world. 

Human Well-Being and International Migration: Issues and Ideas about Ethnicity, Race, and Language.  Guadalupe Valdés, Education; Al Camarillo, History; Tomás Jimenez, Sociology; Fernando Mendoza, Pediatrics; Miguel Méndez, Law; and Matthew Snipp, Sociology. The movement of peoples across borders is a fundamental aspect of domestic and international affairs but has received little academic attention. This project seeks to examine the effects of international migration on human well-being. It has two distinct parts: community-building and model research projects. The community-building endeavor will convene Stanford faculty, bring the community of international migration scholars to Stanford in a new speaker series, and launch a graduate student workshop to review research in progress. Model research projects will study circular migration, examining how ideas and attitudes about ethnic, racial, and cultural differences flow across borders, influencing both "sending" and "receiving" countries, and the communications barriers arising from domestic and international migration.

Planning Grants Awarded

Global Health by Design. Geoffrey Gurtner, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, David Kelley, Mechanical Engineering, Thomas Krummel, Surgery, Julie Parsonnet, Medicine, Health Research & Policy, and Paul Yock, Medicine, Bioengineering. Will design a project to examine how new technology can be used to develop effective, affordable and sustainable methods and devices to prevent disease in the world's poorest countries.

Ecological Sanitation in Rural Haiti: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Sanitation & Soil Fertility. Ralph Greco, Surgery, and Rodolfo Dirzo, Biological Sciences. Will develop a plan to test the efficacy of ecological sanitation in decreasing disease and enhancing soil fertility in rural Haiti.

Stanford International Health and Society Initiative: Proposal to Plan for an Initial Program in the Indian Subcontinent. Vinod K. Bhutani, Pediatrics; Nihar Nayak, Obstetrics and Gynecology. This project seeks to improve unacceptably high maternal and childhood morbidity and mortality rates in the Indian subcontinent by devising innovative strategies to bridge existing social and access barriers in the micro- and macro- health environment. Includes leadership training and cooperative work on practice and policy strategies with experts from Stanford and the subcontinent.

Psychosocial Treatment of Children Orphaned by the Asian Tsunami in Indonesia. Hugh Solvason, psychiatry; Donald Barr, sociology. This project's goal is to develop and implement changes to reduce the sense of dislocation, anxiety, and behavioral problems among tsunami orphans at the As-Syafi`iyah Orphanage in Jakarta. By arranging the children into more cohesive groups that can operate like "families" rather than their current state of random associations typically found in orphanages, the project will create a new and ordered social system. In addition, Solvason and Barr plan to develop a system of counseling interventions for the most severely symptomatic children (supervised by Stanford Psychiatry faculty). Translated measures of depression, anxiety, and PTSD will be used to assess the success of the intervention.

Improving Outcomes for Children in Jeopardy in Zimbabwe.  Brent Solvason and Cheryl Koopman, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Richard Roberts, History. Ninety percent of all children worldwide infected with HIV are found in sub-Saharan Africa, as are 90 percent of all children orphaned due to AIDS. The research team is working on strategies to define and communicate best care practices for orphaned and vulnerable children in Zimbabwe. The overall project goal is to develop an assessment tool that can be used to assess the level of distress children are experiencing and to assess the positive impact a program delivering services and resources to vulnerable children may have.