Karol Boudreaux (Poverty Economist)

on Monday, 20 June 2011.

Karol Boudreaux looks at the many small decisions and policies that create an economy -- and the unintended consequences and blind spots that contribute to creating economies in poverty.

Looking at economies on the Africa continent, including Rwanda, Namibia and South Africa, Boudreaux examines property rights and land tenure.

She focuses on the ability of a human to say of their house or fields, "This is mine," to sell what they grow there, and to sell the land itself or get a loan on its value.

How have particular decisions and policies around land tenure actually hindered human flourishing? That's one of the questions for which she's developing answers.

Boudreaux is currently with USAID as an Africa Land specialist, and is an Affiliated senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center.

She also looks at conservation, the clash between human and ecological needs, and how small, bottom-up decisions to empower locals to preserve their environment can be more effective at preserving species than big, top-down government directives.

Here's an interview in which she talks about community-based natural resource management: