#111 – Mushtaq Khan on using institutional economics to predict effective government reforms

If you’re living in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, your best bet at a high-paying career is probably ‘artisanal refining’ — or, in plain language, stealing oil from pipelines.<p> The resulting oil spills damage the environment and cause severe health problems, but the Nigerian government has continually failed in their attempts to stop this theft.</p><p> They send in the army, and the army gets corrupted. They send in enforcement agencies, and the enforcement agencies get corrupted. What’s happening here?</p><p> According to Mushtaq Khan, economics professor at SOAS University of London, this is a classic example of...