Research Areas

Research in three overlapping ares will rely on a network of scholars at the University of Pittsburgh and around the world.

Governance and Political Institutions

This program analyzes the diversity of governance institutions and the factors determining their structure and performance, with a special interest in in-depth and comparative studies of cases in communities, countries, regions, in which maintaining stability, recovering from conflict or from politically induced disasters, possess special challenges.

Economic Institutions and Property Rights

This program focuses on how economic institutions, including various structures of property rights and the organization of private and collective decision-making, affect human well-being and prosperity in both developed and developing economies.

Governing Emerging Technologies

This program explores how emerging technologies can be governed as well as how technologies can support governance, with a focus on issues such as the management of radio spectrum, blockchain, internet self-governance and “digilantism,” the governance of artificial intelligence, and the role of technology in self-governance of land and related resources.