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GPI Field Research

Each year, the Mercatus Center's Global Prosperity Initiative sends scholars to the field to roll up their sleeves and take a first hand look at underdevelopment.  Searching for common sense solutions from the point of view of the entrepreneur, Mercatus Center Scholars use innovative data collection techniques with an eye toward US policy.  

The research teams are led by a senior scholar familiar with the host country. The research methodology used, economic ethnographies, blends the richness of anthropology with the rigor of economics, capturing the the institutional micro-conditions of a community using interview, survey, and participant/observer techniques. The data collected is then filtered and systematized using the best current scholarship on institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic growth.

Click below to learn about the research topics and experiences of previous research teams:

2006 Field Study: Romania, Argentina

2005 Field Studies: Argentina, Costa Rica, China, India, and Romania

2004 Field Studies: Botswana, England, the Philippines, and Romania

2003 Field Studies: Dominican Republic, the Philippines, and Romania