Robert Klitgaard is a University Professor at CGU, where he served as President from 2005–2009. Before coming to CGU, he was Dean and Ford Distinguished Professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, America’s leading PhD program in policy analysis.
He has served as Li Ka-shing Distinguished Chair Professor at the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore; professor of economics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; Lester Crown Visiting Professor of Economics at the Yale School of Management; and associate professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has participated in the World Economic Forum as a faculty member and is a member of the Forum’s Impact Circles on (a) Artificial Intelligence and (b) Strategic Foresight.
He has worked and done research in more than 40 countries around the world, working with governments, civil society organizations, and international institutions.
Klitgaard’s fourteen books include Controlling Corruption, which helped launch the global anti-corruption movement; Choosing Elites, listed in The Harvard Guide to Influential Books; and Tropical Gangsters, named one of the New York Times’ Books of the Century.
Policy Analysis for Big Issues: Confronting Corruption, Elitism, Development, and Despair (2023). “There is no better guide to policies that seek to make life better and more just for everyone.” —Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University.
Read an excerpt here: https://www.cambridgescholars.com/resources/pdfs/978-1-5275-2528-3-sample.pdf.
Bold and Humble: How to Lead Public-Private-Citizen Collaboration, with Five Success Stories (Royal Institute for Governance and Strategic Studies, 2023; open access around the world at https://rigss.bt/publications). “I never leave an interaction with Bob Klitgaard without at least one actionable insight that is both elegantly simple and piercingly accurate. This book is no exception, being packed with wisdom told through rich narratives and compelling characters. If you are looking to build unlikely coalitions to address seemingly unsolvable policy problems, then you must read this book.” —Karthik Ramanna, Professor of Business and Public Policy, University of Oxford.
Adjusting to Reality: Beyond “State versus Market” in Economic Development (Routledge paperback, 2023; originally published in 1991). “Lively and highly readable … goes beyond the abstractions of academia and the slogans of the World Bank to present a step-by-step guide to identifying problems and implementing the recommended policies.” —Journal of Economic Literature.
Prevail: How to Face Upheavals and Make Big Choices with the Help of Heroes (Wipf and Stock, 2022). “Buy, read, share Prevail with friends, family, and colleagues.” —Philip Zimbardo, Stanford University. “Robert Klitgaard is one of those rare professors who harnesses rigorous academic inquiry to big human questions, making his writing both insightful and relevant.’’ —Jim Collins, author of Good to Great.
The Culture and Development Manifesto (Oxford University Press, 2021). “Highly engaging … This is a book that only Klitgaard, with his sharp multidisciplinary lens, wealth of on-the-ground experience, and remarkable penmanship, could have pulled off.” —Dani Rodrik, Harvard University.
“Geography, Climate, and Genes in Development Studies.” The World Bank Economic Review 34, no. 1 (2020).
“On Romance and Intimacy.” Philosophy and Literature 42, no. 2 (2019).
“Engaging Corruption: New Ideas for the International Monetary Fund.” Policy Design and Practice 2, no. 3 (2019).
Policy Design and Implementation
Collaboration across the Public-Private Divide
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Working across Cultures
Growth and Development Policy