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Michael Woolcock

Michael Woolcock

D-Index & Metrics

Political Science

D-Index
47
Citations
34335
World Ranking
285
National Ranking
163

Overview

Michael Woolcock is affiliated with the World Bank in the United States and engages in research across multiple fields, primarily within the social sciences. Their work spans sociology and political science, music, management science and operations research, development, and law. The main research topics Woolcock focuses on include income, poverty, and inequality; qualitative comparative analysis research; international development and aid; human rights and development; environmental law and policy; international environmental law and policies; and complex systems and decision making.

Woolcock's recent publications cover a variety of interdisciplinary subjects. Notable papers include:

  • "The Sounds of Development: Musical Representation as A(nother) Source of Development Knowledge," 2021, The Journal of Development Studies
  • "The Future of Multilateralism and Global Development: Opportunities for Constitutive and Functional Reform," 2022, Global Perspectives
  • "Reconciling Multi-Level Rights-Based Commitments in Development: Assessing the Legal and Administrative Imperatives of Responding to Education, Health Care, and Environment Protection Challenges," 2025, The Law and Development Review

Their coauthors frequently include Jennifer A. Widner with four collaborations, Andrew Bennett and Sarah Glavey with two each, Bernice Nuerkey Narh with two, and Nancy Cartwright with one coauthored work.

Woolcock has published in several academic venues such as Global Perspectives, The Journal of Development Studies, and The Law and Development Review, indicating a breadth across interdisciplinary fields related to development and policy studies.

In addition to journal articles, Woolcock has contributed to books and policy reports. Two books published by Washington, DC: World Bank eBooks are "A Learning Agenda for Community-Driven Development: Responding to Complex Contextual, Evaluation, and Inference Challenges" (2024) and "Reconciling Multi-Level Rights-Based Commitments in Development: Assessing the Legal and Administrative Imperatives of Responding to Education, Health Care, and Environment Protection Challenges" (2024). Another book titled "The Case for Case Studies" was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. Woolcock also has a policy research working paper titled "Measuring what Matters: Principles for a Balanced Data Suite that Prioritizes Problem-Solving and Learning" published in 2022 by the World Bank policy research working paper series.

Best Publications

  • Social capital and economic development: Toward a theoretical synthesis and policy framework

    Michael Woolcock

  • Social capital: implications for development theory, research, and policy

    Michael Woolcock;Deepa Narayan

  • Health by association? Social capital, social theory, and the political economy of public health

    Simon Szreter;Michael Woolcock

  • The Varieties of Resource Experience: Natural Resource Export Structures and the Political Economy of Economic Growth

    Jonathan Isham;Michael Woolcock;Lant Pritchett;Gwen Busby

  • Measuring Social Capital : An Integrated Questionnaire

    Grootaert Grootaert;Deepa Narayan;Veronica Nyhan Jones;Michael Woolcock

  • Solutions when the solution is the problem: Arraying the disarray in development

    Lant Pritchett;Michael Woolcock

  • World development report 2006 : equity and development

    Berk Ozler;Tamar Manuelyan Atinc;Abhijit Banerjee;Francisco H.G. Ferreira

  • Measuring Social Capital : An Integrated Questionnaire

    Christiaan Grootaert;Deepa Narayan;Michael Woolcock;Veronica Nyhan-Jones

  • SOCIAL COHESION, INSTITUTIONS, AND GROWTH

    William Easterly;Jozef Ritzen;Michael Woolcock

  • Escaping Capability Traps Through Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA)

    Matthew R. Andrews;Lant Pritchett;Michael J. Woolcock

  • Exploring social capital debates at the World Bank

    Anthony Bebbington;Scott Guggenheim;Elizabeth Olson;Michael Woolcock

  • Looking Like a State: Techniques of Persistent Failure in State Capability for Implementation

    Lant Pritchett;Michael Woolcock;Matthew Andrews

  • Building State Capability

    Matt Andrews;Lant Pritchett;Michael J. V. Woolcock

  • Conditional, unconditional and everything in between: a systematic review of the effects of cash transfer programmes on schooling outcomes

    Sarah Baird;Francisco H.G. Ferreira;Berk Özler;Michael Woolcock

  • Capability Traps? The Mechanisms of Persistent Implementation Failure 1

    Lant Pritchett;Lant Pritchett;Michael Woolcock;Michael Woolcock

  • Learning from failures in microfinance : What unsuccessful cases tell us about how group-based programs work

    Michael J. V. Woolcock

  • Governance in the gullies : democratic responsiveness and leadership in Delhi's slums

    Saumitra Jha;Vijayendra Rao;Michael S. Jha V. R.-A.-O. Woolcock

  • Using mixed methods in monitoring and evaluation : experiences from international development

    Michael Bamberger;Michael Bamberger;Vijayendra Rao;Michael Woolcock;Michael Woolcock

  • Social Capital in Theory and Practice: Where do we Stand?

    Michael Woolcock

  • Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action

    Matt Andrews;Lant Pritchett;Michael Woolcock

  • Analyzing social capital in context : a guide to using qualitative methods and data

    Nora Dudwick;Kathleen Kuehnast;Veronica Nyhan Jones;Michael Woolcock

  • The Rise and Routinization of Social Capital, 1988–2008

    Michael Woolcock;Michael Woolcock

  • Microenterprise and social capital

    Michael Woolcock

  • The Search for Empowerment: Social Capital as Idea and Practice at the World Bank

    Anthony Bebbington;S Guggenheim;E Olson;Michael Woolcock

  • On "Good" Politicians and "Bad" Policies : Social Cohesion, Institutions, and Growth

    Jo Ritzen;William Easterly;Michael Woolcock

  • Trust, Voice, and Incentives: Learning from Local Success Stories in Service Delivery in the Middle East and North Africa

    Hana Brixi;Ellen Marie Lust;Michael Woolcock

  • Contesting Development: Participatory Projects and Local Conflict Dynamics in Indonesia

    Patrick Barron;Rachael Diprose;Michael J. V. Woolcock

  • Legal Pluralism and Development: Scholars And Practitioners In Dialogue

    Brian Z. Tamanaha;Caroline Mary Sage;Michael J. V. Woolcock

  • Empowerment, Deliberative Development and Local Level Politics in Indonesia: Participatory Projects as a Source of Countervailing Power

    Michael Woolcock;Christopher Gibson

  • Looking like a state

    Matt Andrews;Lant Pritchett;Michael Woolcock

Frequent Co-Authors

Lant Pritchett
Lant Pritchett London School of Economics and Political Science
David Lewis
David Lewis London School of Economics and Political Science
Vijayendra Rao
Vijayendra Rao World Bank
John F. Helliwell
John F. Helliwell University of British Columbia
Anthony Bebbington
Anthony Bebbington Clark University
William Easterly
William Easterly New York University
Dean Jolliffe
Dean Jolliffe World Bank
Xavier Giné
Xavier Giné World Bank

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