ABOUT PROFESSOR PAUL LAGUNES
Paul Lagunes is Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. His research on the political economy of development examines the issue of corruption, especially as it affects subnational governments in the Americas.
Two questions motivate Lagunes’s scholarship. First, how does corruption actually work in practice? And second, what tools are available for limiting corruption’s harmful effects? Mainly through the execution of randomized control trials in diverse contexts, such as Peru and Mexico, Lagunes offers insights on corruption’s regressive impact on society, the factors maintaining a corrupt status quo, and the conditions under which anti-corruption monitoring is most effective.
He serves as a voting member of Evidence in Governance and Politics, the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity, and the Museum of Political Corruption. He also teaches three master’s-level courses: Local and Global Corruption: Maneuvering Toward Good Governance; Comparative Urban Policy: Cities Beyond the Western Core; and Methods in Development Practice.