Varun Gauri

Varun Gauri is a Senior Economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank. His research focuses on politics and governance in the social sectors, and aims to combine quantitative and qualitative methods in economics and social science research. He is leading research projects on the impact of legal strategies to claim economic and social rights, and on the impact of international laws and norms on development outcomes. His recent publications include Courting Social Justice: Judicial Enforcement of Social and Economic Rights in the Developing World (Cambridge University Press 2008) (editor, with Dan Brinks); "Boundary Institutions and HIV/AIDS Policy in Brazil and South Africa", Studies in Comparative International Development (2006) (with E. Lieberman); "Will more Inputs Improve the Delivery of Health Services? – Analysis of District Vaccination Coverage in Pakistan", International Journal of Health Planning and Management (2006) (with B. Loevinsohn and R. Hong); and "Human Rights and Health Systems", in Public Health and Human Rights, Evidence-Based Approaches (C. Beyrer ed.) (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007) (with C. Beyrer and D. Vaillancourt). Since joining the World Bank in 1996, he has worked on and led a variety of operational tasks in the World Bank, including operational evaluations, investments in privately owned hospitals in Latin America, a social sector adjustment loan to Brazil, several health care projects in Brazil, a study of the decentralization of health care in Nigeria, and was a core team member of the 2007 World Development Report. He received his Ph.D. in Public Policy from Princeton University in 1996, and an M.P.A. also from Princeton in 1992.