Anirudh Krishna, Associate Professor of Public Policy Studies and Political Science
Office Location: 212 Sanford Inst Bldg
Office Phone: 919.613.7337
Email Address: ak30@duke.edu
Web Page:http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/krishna/
Note:On sabbatical during the 2007-2008 academic year.
Areas of Expertise:
International Development
International
Social Policy
Education:
PhD, Cornell University, 2000
M.P.S., Cornell University, 1995
M.A., Delhi School of Economics, 1980
B.A. (Honors), St. Stephens College, Delhi University, India, 1978
Research Categories: Poverty and Democracy in Developing Countries
Research Description: Research: Poverty; democracy; social capital; international development; South Asian politics; community organization; civil society; governance; empowerment tertiary: public-private partnerships; aid targeting and aid coordination
Recent Publications (More Publications)
- A. Krishna. "For Reducing Poverty Faster: Target Reasons before People.." World Development 35.11 (November, 2007): 1947-60.
- A. Krishna. "The Dynamics of Poverty: Why Don’t “the Poor” Act Collectively?." 2020 Focus Brief on the World's Poor and Hungry People. Washington, DC: IFPRI (2007).
- A. Krishna and Jan Nederveen Pieterse. "Hierarchical Integration: The Dollar Economy and the Rupee Economy." Development and Change (revised and resubmitted) (Submitted, 2007).
- A. Krishna. "Poverty and Health: Defeating Poverty by Reducing Its Creation." Development 50.2 (2007).
- A. Krishna. "The Conundrum of Services: Why Services are Crucial for Making Service Provision Better." Shantayanan Devarajan and Ingrid Widlund, eds., The Politics of Service Delivery in Democracies: Better Access for the Poor. Stockholm: Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2007
Bio/Profile
ANIRUDH KRISHNA (Ph.D. in Government, Cornell 2000; Masters in Economics, Delhi 1980) is Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Duke University. His research investigates how poor communities and individuals in developing countries cope with the structural and personal constraints that result in poverty and powerlessness.
Most recently, Krishna has been examining poverty dynamics at the household level, tracking movements into and out of poverty of over 25,000 households in a varied group of 225 communities of India, Kenya, Uganda, Peru and North Carolina, USA. In each community he found that while some households have escaped from poverty, other households have simultaneously fallen into poverty.
Escape and descent are concurrent everywhere – and they are asymmetric in terms of reasons. One set of reasons accounts for descents into poverty, but another and different set of reasons is associated with escapes. Two parallel policies are required to be in place. Policies to promote escapes are commonly considered, but policies to prevent descents have been largely overlooked.
Articles on these subjects published in Economic and Political Weekly, Development and Change, Foreign Policy, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Human Development, World Development, and elsewhere can be viewed at www.pubpol.duke.edu/krishna. One article, published in Journal of Development Studies in October 2005, won the annual Dudley Seers Memorial Prize.
Earlier, Krishna examined how poor community groups interact with states and markets. Publications include Active Social Capital: Tracing the Roots of Development and Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2002); Reasons for Success: Learning From Instructive Experiences in Rural Development (Kumarian Press, 1998), with Norman Uphoff and Milton Esman; Changing Policy and Practice From Below: Community Experiences in Poverty Reduction (United Nations Press, 2000); and Reasons for Hope: Instructive Experiences in Rural Development (Kumarian Press, 1997) with Norman Uphoff and Milton Esman. An article on social capital and political participation published in Comparative Political Studies (May 2002) won the best article award of the American Political Science Association.
Other articles published in Agricultural Systems, Comparative Politics, Journal of Asian Studies, and World Development.
New integrative methodologies were developed for these investigations, including a Social Capital Assessment Tool and the Stages-of-Progress Method for tracking household poverty dynamics. Both methods have been adapted and used by other researchers.
Before turning to academia, Krishna worked for 14 years in the Indian Administrative Service, where he managed diverse initiatives related to rural and urban development. He has consulted with FAO, UNDP, the World Bank, and other international development agencies.
Krishna is married and has two children.
