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| Clifford Zinnes |
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Dr Zinnes, Senior Fellow at IRIS, specializes in applying new institutional economics to solve economic reform problems in developing countries. He has worked in over twenty countries on five continents, designing and directing technical assistance projects, currently focusing on transition economies. At the IRIS Center, Dr ZinnesDr Zinnes also serves as affiliate faculty at the Maryland School of Public Policy, where he teaches courses on institutions, governance, and economic development.
While an underlying theme in Dr Zinnes’s work is the importance of institutions in the development process, his particular interest is the use of empirical techniques to assess stakeholder behavior in specific socio-cultural contexts, thus enabling the design of institutional reforms that align stakeholder behaviors with reform objectives. In this way, he endeavors to craft interventions that harness the power of incentives to create enduring change.
Central to Dr Zinnes’s approach is the importance of measuring institutional weakness and of statistically rigorous pre-testing, as well as post-implementation evaluation. He has also applied this approach in his writing on a range of topics including- The shadow economy
- Aid effectiveness
- Environmental policy
- Forestry restitution
- The effect of ownership structure on regulatory compliance
- Regulatory financing
- Strategies for fragile states
- Small enterprise promotion
Currently, Dr Zinnes is investigating how to organize inter-jurisdictional competitions as a tool to stimulate local-level reform and as a delivery vehicle for better-targeted technical assistance.
Dr Zinnes has also written many papers in macroeconomics, though still with an institutional perspective. These examine the cultural causes of economic retrogression, the effect of NGOs on economic growth, and the role of institutions in generating macroeconomic gains from privatization and trade liberalization, in improving international competitiveness, and in the development of the shadow economy. Finally, Dr Zinnes has also published papers on economic instrument design, forestry valuation, and the impact of trade on the environment.
Prior to joining the IRIS Center, Dr Zinnes was a lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He was also an Institute Associate at the Harvard Institute for International Development, where he spent five years in Romania as a senior policy advisor to the ministers of Reform, Privatization, European Integration, and Environment. Over this period he co-authored many of the country’s laws on in privatization, environmental protection, and water, and assisted with the restructuring of Romania’s water utilities and environmental protection regulatory agencies.
In addition to consulting with most of the major multi-lateral technical assistance agencies, Dr Zinnes has held positions in the US government and the United Nations and has established an international environmental think tank.
Dr Zinnes speaks French, Romanian, and Spanish. |
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Expertise
New institutional economics
Empirical assessment
Survey design
Fragile states
Transition economies
Shadow economy
Environmental policy
Small enterprise development |
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Education
PhD, International Economics,
University of Pennsylvania, 1989
MA, Applied Econometrics,
University of Pennsylvania, 1978
BA, Mathematics & Physics,
Franklin & Marshall College, 1979 |
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Previous Positions
Lecturer in Public Policy & Fellow in Development, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Deputy Director, International Environment Program, Harvard University
Institute Associate, Harvard Institute for International Development, Harvard University |
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Selected Publications
The Size and Character of the Informal Sector and Its Shadow Economy in Mongolia, Vols. 1-3 (with Jonathan Alevy), Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: The Mongolian Open Society Foundation (Volume 1 only), April 2005.
“Which incentives work? An experimental analysis of incentives for trainers” (under review, 2005), (with Omar Azfar), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
“Come promuovere cambiamenti istituzionali a livello locale” (2006), (with P. Meagher and S. Giovannelli), M. Di Tommaso and S. Giovannelli (eds.), Le Nazioni Unite e lo Sviluppo Industriale, Milan, Italy: Franco Angeli.
Harnessing Inter-Jurisdictional Competition to Deliver Development Assistance, (commissioned book manuscript under review, The Brookings Institution), 2007.
Zinnes, C. (2004). The Environment in Transition. In H. Carey (Ed.), Politics and Society in Romania. Colorado: Lexington Books.
Zinnes, C., & Bell, S. (2003). NGO growth in Transition Economies a cause or effect of Legal Reform and Donor Aid? Journal of Human Rights (Special issue on Non-governmental organizations and Rule of Law), 2(3), 379-392.
Zinnes, C., & McPherson, M. (2002, October). Social Norms and Economic Retrogression. International Journal of Organizational Theory and Behavior, 5(3-4).
Zinnes, C., & Eliat, Y. (2002, July). The Evolution of the Shadow Economy in Transition Countries: the Consequences for Economic Growth and Donor Assistance. World Development, 3(7), 1233.
Zinnes, C., Sachs, J., & Eliat, Y. (2001). The Gains from Privatization in Transition Economies: Is “Change-of-Ownership” Enough? In R. Sahay and O. Havrylyshyn (Eds.), IMF Staff Papers, Special issue on countries in transition, vol. 48.
Zinnes, C., Sachs, J., & Eliat, Y. (2001). Benchmarking International Competitiveness in Transition Economies. Economics of Transition, 9(2), 315-353. (Also in J. Sachs, C. Mann, & O. Koropecky (Eds.), Development Assistance in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Institute for International Development, December 2000.)
Zinnes, C., Bussolo M., & Dessus, S. (2000). Economic Instruments for the Environment and Competitiveness under Trade-Induced Growth: a CGE-based Analysis of El Salvador. In T. Panayotou (Ed.), Environment for Growth in Central America: Environmental Management for Sustainability and Competitiveness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Zinnes, C., & Tarhoaca, C. (2000). The Impact of Privatization on Enterprise Environmental Performance in Romania. In T. Sterner (Ed.), The Market and the Environment. London: Edward Elgar Press.
Zinnes, C. (1999). Inducing Environmental Investment in a Transition Economy: The Water Sector in Romania. Research in the Developing World, 1(1).
Zinnes, C. (1999). Enforcement, Economic Instruments, and Water Pollution Abatement Investment in Romania. Water Resources Update, 115.
Zinnes, C. (1999, August 19). Environmental Law Addresses Romanian Challenges. Harvard University Gazette. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
Zinnes, C. (1997, November-December). Nerespectarea legislatiei de mediu ii costa pe romani 2,5 miliarde de dolari pe an. Perspective, 3(18).
Zinnes, C. (1997). Economic restructuring and the creation of an environmental permitting system in Romania. In Bluffstone & Larson (Eds.), Environmental economics policy in Eastern Europe. London: Edward Elgar Press.
Zinnes, C., & Tarhoaca, C. (1996). The fiscal, sectoral and distributional impact of an environmental fund and their revenue instruments in Romania. In Environmental Funds in Eastern Europe. Paris: OECD Press.
Zinnes, C. (1995, January), Intarind baza legislativa pentru dezvoltare durabila. Perspective.
Zinnes, C., & Panayotou, T. (1993). Free Lunch Economics for Industrial Ecologists. In R. Socolow et. al, (Eds.), Industrial Ecology and Global Change. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Zinnes, C. (1991). Mongolia’s Economic Situation, The Government’s Reform Programme, and the Role for External Aid. New York: UNDP. (Joint author.)
Zinnes, C. (1990). The Sunk Costs of Immigration: Why Temporary Foreign Workers Don’t Leave. HIID Research Review, IV(1).
Zinnes, C. (1987). Industrial Development Strategies for Fishery Systems in Developing Countries (Volume 1). Sectoral Studies Series No. 32. Vienna: UNIDO. (Principal author.)
Zinnes, C. (1986). Metodología de Evaluación, Programmación y Gestión de Sistemas de Producción y Consumo, Versión Resumida. Sectoral Studies Series No. 27. Vienna: UNIDO. (Joint author.)
Zinnes, C. (1985). Minerals Data Analysis Report: Development of Foreign Economic Indices. Washington, DC: National Technical Information Service. (Principal author.)
Zinnes, C. (1985). The Building Materials Industry: The Sector in Figures. Sectoral Studies Series No. 16, Volume II. Vienna: UNIDO. (Principal author.) |
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| Last updated on: 11/20/2009 |
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Dr Zinnes specializes in applying new institutional economics to solve economic reform problems in developing countries.
E-mail: zinnes@iris.umd.edu
Location: College Park
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