Daniel Kaufmann

Daniel Kaufmann is a nonresident senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. For decades he has carried out policy analysis and applied research on economic development, governance, regulation and corruption around the world. He is a world-renowned writer, lecturer and analyst on governance, corruption, and development worldwide, with experience in Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, as well as in industrialized and transition economies.

He is currently chief advisor at the Natural Resource Governance Institute, after having served as its president and CEO from 2013-2020. He is also currently a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) international board, and serves in various international advisory boards, including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Group on Anticorruption and Integrity, the Inter-American Development Bank’s President High-Level Advisory Group on Transparency, and at the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

Previously he served as a director at the World Bank Institute, where he pioneered new approaches to measure, diagnose and address governance and corruption, helping countries formulate action programs. At the World Bank, Kaufmann also held senior positions focused on finance, regulation and anti-corruption, as well as on capacity building for Latin America.  He also served as lead economist both in economies in transition as well as in the World Bank’s research department, and earlier in his career was a senior economist in Africa. In the early nineties, Kaufmann was the first Chief of Mission of the World Bank to Ukraine, and then he held a visiting scholar position at Harvard University.  Kaufmann has also been a member of the Global Agenda Council and a member of the faculty at the World Economic Forum, a member of the board of the Natural Resource Governance Institute.

His research on economic development, governance, the unofficial economy, macro-economics, investment, corruption, privatization, and urban and labor economics has been published in leading journals. In research, policy, and media circles he is associated with innovations such as the Worldwide Governance Indicators, the Resource Governance Index, and the study and analysis of “legal corruption” and state capture. Often featured as a keynote speaker and as a guest expert in major media outlets, he has authored articles in the Financial Times, Finance & Development and other leading publications. He is also regularly featured in print, online and broadcast media interviews, such as these recently in this series of RAW Talks on resource policy and governance, and here. He is also regularly featured in print, online, and broadcast media interviews, such as this recent series of RAW Talks on resource policy and governance, and interview with the Graduate Institute Geneva.

Kaufmann is a Chilean national who received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard, and a B.A. in Economics and Statistics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His articles and blogs at Brookings are featured below; other posts can also be found here, and research writings here at SSRN.  You can also follow him on Twitter.