Daniel Kaufmann

Daniel Kaufmann is a nonresident senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. He is also a senior fellow at R4D and a visiting professor in economics. 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 and analyst on governance, corruption, and development worldwide, with experience in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as in industrialized and transition economies.

He was the president and CEO of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) between 2013 and 2020 and serves on its advisory board. He has also served on the international board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI); at NRGI, and also in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Group on Anticorruption, the Inter-American Development Bank’s President High-Level Advisory Group on Transparency, and at the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, among others.

He was 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. He was also a lead economist at the Bank and worked in its research department. He worked in regions and countries around the globe. In the early nineties, Kaufmann was the first chief of mission of the World Bank to Ukraine, and then he was a visiting scholar at Harvard University. Kaufmann has also been a member of the faculty and of the Global Agenda Council at the World Economic Forum.

His research on economic development, governance, the unofficial economy, macroeconomics, 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 (WGI), the Resource Governance Index (RGI), the State Capture Index (SCI), 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. 

Kaufmann  is a Chilean national and an avid biker who occasionally lectures about opera. He received his doctoral degree in economics from Harvard. His articles and blogs at Brookings are featured below and his research writings on SSRN.