His work focuses on the causes of policymaking decisions in developing countries. He has written on foreign aid, foreign-direct investment, education, human development, civil society, and democratic governance in the journals International Organization, Comparative Education, World Development, and the Singapore Economic Review; in a book, From the Ground Up: Improving Government Performance with Independent Monitoring Organizations (Brookings Institution Press, 2010; with Charles Griffin and Courtney Tolmie); as well as in a number of policy pieces for organizations like the UNDP and the Brookings Institution.