Charles Kenny

The Next Decade of ICT Development

The Next Decade of ICT Development: Access, Applications, and the Forces of Convergence was co-authored with Mohsen Khalil.  It was published in Information Technology for International Development 4,3. Developing countries are already driving global innovation in technologies and business models related to information and communications. Ongoing technological change may give new life to business and regulatory models adopted and then abandoned in the era of the dot-com boom in developed countries, and developing countries may take the lead in such changes. As networks and applications spread, catalyzing the impact of ICTs for development will become a challenge of the broader environment for their exploitation

Grand Corruption in Utilities

Grand Corruption in Utilities, co-authored with Tina Soreide, was issued as a working paper in December 2008.  The paper discusses mechanisms of grand corruption in private sector utility provision in developing countries. The paper focuses on decisions made at the government level involving private sector management, ownership, and provision of utility services.  Corruption at that level may influence the pace and nature of private sector involvement and competition in utilities, as well as the level and form of investments, subsidies, and prices.  On the basis of a literature review and interviews with firms and regulating authorities in two countries, Tanzania and the Philippines, this paper discusses the levels and determinants of grand corruption in utilities.  The paper concludes by discussing a research program to extend this knowledge through a cross-country survey instrument.

The Global Spread of Liberty and Democracy

The Global Spread of Liberty and Democracy: A Brief Discussion is a short paper looking at the evidence regarding the level and change in access to liberties and democratic systems worldwide. It briefly discusses the history of the ideas of liberties and rights, long-term evidence regarding their extent, and two centuries of evidence regarding their spread as measured by the Polity dataset.  In particular it looks at potential causes for the spread of liberties and democracy over that time period and suggests an important role for changes in the demand for such liberties which is weakly related to income change.