WORK EXPERIENCE
 

2001-present        President, Ronald Coase Institute
Manage non-profit institute that supports research on the economic roles of laws, contracts, norms, and other institutions though collaborative research, grants, conferences, and publications, and supports young scholars through training, grants, mentoring, and networking. Organize and participate in Institute workshops and research projects. Publish and lecture on my own program of research on institutions and economic development.
 

                           Consultant, World Bank
Research on regulation and bank privatization, advice on aid effectiveness and institutions.
 

                           Consultant, Swedish International Development Agency
Advice on institutional reform to Evaluation Department.
 

1990-2001            Research manager on competition policy, regulation, finance, public sector management and private sector development, World Bank.
Managed group responsible for research, policy development, training and support in competition policy and regulation, including public sector reform, privatization, regulation of monopolies, and the development of political, bureaucratic, legal and other market-supporting institutions.
 

1983-1990            Public enterprise advisor and senior advisor, World Bank
 

1980-1982            Economist, Latin America and the Caribbean programs, World Bank
 

1974-1980            Senior Economist, Organization of American States
 

1972-1974            Professor of Economics, Universidad de Bogota, Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogota, Colombia
 

1971-1972            Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University Economic Research Project
 

EDUCATION         Fletcher School, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts: Ph.D. 1974; M.A.L.D. 1971
 

                            Occidental College, Los Angeles, California: M.A. 1968; B.A. 1966
 

BORN                    March 16, 1945; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
 

LANGUAGES         Fluent Spanish
 

OTHER ACTIVITIES 
International Society for New Institutional Economics (ISNIE).  Co-editor SSRN journal. President 2004. Vice President 2003. Treasurer 1997-2000. Member of Board 1997-2004. Organized annual ISNIE meetings in 1999, 2003.

Board member, NGO Alliance

Visiting Researcher, Stanford University Center for International Development, March 2004

Faculty, European School on New Institutional Economics, May 2003

Visiting faculty, University of Paris 1, Pantheon-Sorbonne, May 2002.

Advisory board, Economic Reform Today

Referee, Canadian Journal of Economics; The Independent Review; Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization; Journal of Comparative Economics; National Science Foundation; Stanford University Press; World Bank Economic Review; World Bank Research Observer; World Development.
 

PUBLICATIONS
 

Journal Articles
 

“Why Is Sector Reform So Unpopular in Latin America?” The Independent Review. Vol. 10, #5, 195-207 (Fall, 2005).
 

“Bank Privatization in Developing Countries: A Summary of Lessons and Findings” with George Clarke and Robert Cull. Journal of Banking and Finance, Special Issue on Bank Privatization Vol. 29, #8-9: 1905-1930 (August-September, 2005).
 

Book review: "Bertin Martens, ed. The Institutional Economics of Foreign Aid." The Independent Review, Vol. 9, 2 (Fall 2004).

“Ownership Structure and the Temptation to Loot. Evidence from Privatized Firms in the Czech Republic.” With Robert Cull and Jana Matesova.  Journal of Comparative Economics Vol. 30, 1-24 (2002).
 

"Experience with Privatization: A New Institutional Economics Perspective."  Journal Of African Economics (forthcoming).
 

“Empirical Effects of Performance Contracts: Evidence from China.” With Colin Xu, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization. Vol 17. No. 1 (Spring 2001).
 

Book review: Mancur Olson and Satu Kahkonen, “A Not-So-Dismal Science: A Broader View of Economies and Societies.” Journal of Economic History Vol 60. No. 3. (September 2000).

“Information, Incentives and Commitment.  An Empirical Analysis of Contracts Between Government and State Enterprises.”  with Colin Xu. Journal of Law, Economics and Organization. Vol. 14, No. 12. 358-378 (1998).
 

“Bureaucrats in Business: The Roles of Privatization versus Corporatization in State-Owned Enterprise Reform” World Development. Vol 27, No. 1, 115-136 (1999).
 

“Trends in Privatization” Economic Reform Today. No. 1, 1998.
 

“Book Review: Mark Armstrong, Simon Cowan and John Vickers. Regulatory Reform: Economic Analysis and British Experience” Information Economics and Policy 10 (September, 1998) 389-401.
 

“Reformando los sistemas urbanos de agua en Amèrica Latina: Un cuento de cuarto ciudades.”  Expe-Outlook. Vol. VI, No. 51. (August, 1998).
 

“A New Database on State-Owned Enterprise Reform”  with Luke Haggarty in World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 11, No. 3 (September 1997).
 

“The Economics and Politics of Government Ownership” Journal of International Development, Vol. 9, No. 6 (September 1997).  Reprinted in Privatization in Developing Countries, Paul Cook and Colin Kirkpatrick, eds. Aldershot, U.K. Edward Elgar.
 

“Enterprise Contracts: A Route to Reform?” Finance and Development, Vol. 33, No. 3 (September, 1996).
 

“Privatization in Latin America: Lessons for Transitional Europe” World Development, Vol. 22, No. 9, 1313-23  (September 1994). Reprinted in Vincent Wright and Luisa Perrotti, eds. Privatization and Public Policy.  Aldershot: Elgar. 1999.
 

“Privatization and Performance” in Hasting’s International and Comparative Law Review, Vol 17, No. 4 (Summer 1994).
 

“Privatization: Lessons from Market Economies,” in The World Bank Research Observer, vol. 9, no. 2 (July 1994).
 

"The What, Why, and How of Privatization:  A World Bank Perspective", Fordham Law Review, Vol. LX, No. 6, May 1992.
 

"Improving Public Enterprise Performance:  Lessons from South Korea" in Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Volume 62, Number 1, 1991.
 

“Promoting the Private Sector” in Finance and Development Vol 25, No. 1 (March 1988). 
 

“The Experience with Privatization” in Finance and Development Vol. 25, No. 3 (September 1988).
 

“Management of State Owned Enterprises” World Bank Staff Working Papers No. 577, 1984; reprinted in State Enterprises (New Delhi) Vol 3, Nos. 2 & 3 (1984).
 

Books and Chapters in Books
 

Institutions and Development (Edward Elgar, 2008).
 

“Conclusions” with Douglass North in Stephen Haber, Douglass C. North, and Barry R. Weingast eds., The Politics of Financial Development (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006).
 

"Empirical Studies" with George Clarke and Robert Cull in Gerard Caprio, Jonathan Fiechter, Robert E. Litan, and Michael Pomerleano, eds. The Future of State-Owned Financial Institutions: Policy and Practice (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2004).
 

Handbook of New Institutional Economics Co-editor with Claude Menard (Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer, 2005).

"Institutions and Development" in Handbook of New Institutional Economics Co-editor with Claude Menard (Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer, 2005).
 

Thirsting for Efficiency: Experiences in Reforming Urban Water Systems (London: Elsevier Publications, forthcoming) Editor and author of four chapters.
 

“Reforming Urban Water Systems in Developing Countries” with Roger Noll and Simon Cowan  in Anne O. Krueger (ed.) Economic Policy Reform: The Second Stage (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000).
 

“Formal versus Informal Institutions in Economic Development,” with Philip Keefer in Claude Menard (ed.)  Institutions, Contracts, Organizations: Perspectives from New Institutional Economics (Williston, VT: Edward Elgar, 2000).
 

“Privatization in Transitional Economies: Politics as Usual?” with Philip Keefer in Stephan Haggard and Mathew McCubbins eds. Presidents, Politics and Policy. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
 

“Water Reform in Latin American: A Tale of Four Cities” in Luigi Manzetti (ed.) Post-Privatization Environments: The Latin American Experience (Miami: University of Miami Press, 2000).
 

“Bureaucracy in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union”  in Peter Newman (ed.) The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law (London: Macmillian, 1998).
 

“Comments on Dilip Mookerjee Incentive Reforms in Developing Country Bureaucracies” in Boris Pleskovic and Joseph Stiglitz, eds. Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics, 1997 (Washington D.C.: World Bank, 1998).
 

“Performance Contracts: A Tool for Improving Public Services? in Robert Picciotto and Eduardo Wiesner, eds. Evaluation and Development. The Institutional Dimension.  (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1998.)
 

“The Payoffs from Economics Reform: Commentary” in Nancy Birdsall and Frederick Jaspersen, Eds. Pathways to Growth: Comparing East Asia and Latin America, (Washington, D.C.: Interamerican Development Bank, 1997).
 

Bureaucrats in Business: The Economics and Politics of Government Ownership, led team of authors (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
 

Does Privatization Deliver? with Ahmed Galal (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1994).

“Public Enterprise Reform: Lessons from the Past, Issues for the Future,”  in Managing the Changing Public/Private Sector Relationship Proceedings of the Third Asia Pacific Conference of Management Consultants (Brisbane Australia: August 23-26, 1993)
 

“The Enterprise Sector” in Georgia: A Blueprint for Reforms (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1993).
 

Privatization:  The Lessons of Experience with John Nellis and Sunita Kikeri (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1992)
 

Public Enterprise Reform:  The Lessons of Experience with John Nellis (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, EDI, 1991)
 

“Lessons from the World Bank Experience” Paper presented to a Conference on  Privatization in Latin America Sponsored by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (New York: June 5, 1991)
 

“Private Sector Development” in Czechoslovakia: Transition to a Market Economy (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1991).
 

"Evaluating the Performance of State-Owned Enterprises in Pakistan" in R. Ramamurti and R. Vernon, eds., Privatization and Control of State-Owned Enterprises (World Bank, 1991)
 

 Developing the Private Sector:  The World Bank's Experience and Approach with Enrique Rueda-Sabater (World Bank, 1991)
 

“State Owned Enterprises” Chapter in World Development Report, 1984 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1984).
 

 “Organization of the Public Sector” in Ecuador: Development Problems and Prospects (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1979)
 

“Short Term Economic Reports, Vol. VII: Peru” with Jose Luis Restrepo (Washington, D.C.: Organization of American States, 1979)
 

 Synthesis of Economic Performance in Latin America During 1978 (Also in Spanish; Washington, D.C.: Organization of American States, 1978)
 

 “Mining Technologies” with Roger Kubarych in State Estimates of Technology, 1963 Karen Polenske, ed. (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1974)
 

“Federal Government Purchases” with Bo Carlsson and W. Norton Gruff in State Estimates of the Gross National Product (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1972
 

“A Guide for Users of the U.S. Multiregional Input-Output Model” with Karen Polenske and Carolyn Anderson (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Transportation, 1972)
 

Working Papers and Unpublished Reports
"Aid and Institutions."  Working paper presented at Stanford Center for International Development, Stanford, California. March 2004.

"New Tools for Studying Network Industry Reforms in Developing Countries: The Telecommunications and Electricity Regulation Database" with Scott Wallsten, George Clarke, Luke Haggarty, Rosario Kaneshiro, Roger Noll, and Lixin Colin Xu. AEI-Brookings Joint Center Related Publication 04-05. March 2004.

“Empirical Studies of Bank Privatization” with George Clarke and Robert Cull. Working paper presented at World Bank, Conference on Bank Privatization. Washington, D.C. November 20-21, 2003.

“Why Is Sector Reform So Unpopular in Latin America?” presented at Stanford, Center for International Development, Latin American Conference on Sector Reform. Palo Alto, CA. November 14, 2003.

“What Does Institutional Economics Tell Us About Development?” presented to the ISNIE meetings in Budapest, Hungary on September 28, 2003.

“Institutions and Development” presented at George Mason University, March 5, 2003.

“Telecommunications Reform in Uganda.” with F. F. Tusubira, Frew Gebreab, and Luke Haggarty.  World Bank Policy Research Working Paper #2864. July 2002.
 

“Public versus Private Ownership: The Current State of the Debate.” With Patrick Walsh. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper #2420, July 2000. Under review at the World Bank Research Observer.
 

“Ownership Structure and the Temptation to Loot. Evidence from Privatized Firms in the Czech Republic.” With Robert Cull and Jana Matesova.  World Bank Policy Research Working Paper #2568. March 2001.   Under review at Journal of Comparative Economics.
 

“Reforming Contractual Arrangements: Lessons from Urban Water Systems in Six Developing Countries”  with Claude Menard.  Paper presented at the ISNIE Meetings in Washington, D.C. September 17, 1999.
 

“The Buenos Aires Water Concession.” With Lorena Alcazar and Manuel Abdala. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper # 2311. April, 2000.
 

“The Politics and Economics of Reforming Urban Water Systems.” Paper presented at Stanford University. Conference on Political Institutions and Economic Growth in Latin America, April 14-15, 2000, World Bank Conference on Development Economics, May 2000.
 

“Telecommunications Reform in Ghana” with Luke Haggarty. May, 1999.
 

“Cities Awash” with Claude Menard.  Paper presented at Western Economic Association Meetings in San Diego, CA. July 6-10, 1999.
 

“Reforming Urban Water Systems: The Case of Chile,” with Colin Xu and Ana Maria Zuluaga.  World Bank Policy Research Working Paper #2294.  March 2000.
 

“Reforming Urban Water Systems in Developing Countries” with Roger Noll and Simon Cowan.  Paper presented at a conference on Economic Policy Reform, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, September 16-17, 1988
 

“From the Ivory Tower to the Corridors of Power: Making NIE Matter for Policy,” paper presented at the Second Annual Meeting Society for New Institutional Economics, September 16-17, 1988.
 

“The Contribution of Ronald Coase”.  Paper presented at the First Brazilian Seminar on New Institutional Economics, Sponsored by the University of Sào Paulo, Sào Paulo, Brazil, August 6, 1998.
 

“Water Reform in Latin American: A Tale of Four Cities.” Paper presented at a conference on Regulation in Post-Privatization Environments: The Latin American Experience.”  Sponsored by the Tinker Foundation, Southern Methodist University, the USIS, The University of Palermo Law School and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 21, 1998.
 

“Empirical Effects of Performance Contracts: Evidence from China” with Colin Xu.  World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 1919.  May 1998.
 

“Information, Incentives and Commitment.  An Empirical Analysis of Contracts between Government and State Enterprises.”  with Colin Xu.  World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 1769. May 1997.
 

“The Reform of State-Owned Enterprises:  Lessons From World Bank Lending”  World Bank Policy and Research Series No. 4, 1989
 

“Divestiture in Developing Countries” with Elliot Berg, World Bank Discussion Papers No. 11, 1987
 

Unpublished Country Reports
 

Principal author of Organization of American States economic reports on Honduras (2) and Nicaragua. Authored chapters of World Bank economic reports on Armenia, Bolivia, Brazil, Ghana, Malawi, Mexico, Portugal, Zambia.
 

RECENT PRESENTATIONS
 

2005
St. Louis Initiative Planning Conference, Washington University in St. Louis, November 11-12, 2005, St. Louis, MO. Organizer, chair, presentation: “Nature of the Problem.”

Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), Stockholm, Sweden, September 27, 2005. Presentation: “Can Foreign Assistance Improve Institutions?”

ISNIE annual meetings in Barcelona, Spain, September 22-24, 2005. Organize and chair panel, “Political Institutions in a Changing World.”  Presentation: “Can Aid Reform Institutions?” Discussant and chair of two panels.

Ronald Coase Institute Workshop on Institutional Analysis in Barcelona, Spain, September 17-22, 2005.  Organizer and faculty.

Western Economic Association, San Francisco, CA, July 5, 2005.  Organize, chair, and present presidential panel, “The Role of Institutions in Economic Development.”  Presentation: “Why Is Privatization So Unpopular in Latin America?”

International Food Policy Research Institute. April 6, 2005.  Presentation: “Can Aid Reform Institutions?”

Stanford University, Social Science History Institute. “Institutional Theory and Evidence from Europe, the United States, and Latin America.” Presentation: “Conclusions.”

George Mason University, Mercatus Center. January 18, 2005. Presentation: “Can Foreign Aid Develop Underdeveloped Institutions?”

AEA Annual Meetings in Philadelphia, PA, January 9, 2005.  Organize and chair panel: “Do Legal Origins Really Matter for Contemporary Institutions?”

2004
Conference on Transaction Costs, Ronald Coase Institute and Stigler Center, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL,  Dec. 3-5, 2004.  Organizer and faculty.

ISNIE annual meetings in Tucson, AZ, September 30-October 2, 2004: President’s address, chaired and organized panel on bank privatization, discussant for two panels.

Ronald Coase Institute Workshop on Institutional Analysis in Tucson, AZ, Sept. 25- 30, 2004. Organizer and faculty.

Stanford University Center for International Development, Fifth Annual Conference on Indian Economic Policy Reform, June 3-5, 2004, Stanford, CA.  Discussant.

European School on New Institutional Economics summer school, Cargèse, Corsica, May 2-8, 2004. Presentation: “Institutions and Development.”

University of Illinois, Department of Economics and University of Manchester Centre on Regulation and Competition, April 23-24, 2004. Joint Conference on The Conference on the Regulation of Development and the Development of Regulation, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL  Presentation on regulatory governance and entry licensing.

Stanford University Center for International Development, Palo Alto, CA, March 2004, Visitor & Seminar “Aid and Institutions.”


2003
Center for International Private Enterprise and Ronald Coase Institute, Conference on Promoting Institutional Reforms in Latin America, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Ronald Coase Institute and University of Sao Paulo, Workshop on Institutional Analysis, Sao Paulo, Brazil

World Bank Conference on Bank Privatization, Washington, DC

Stanford University Center for International Development, Conference on Latin American Sectoral Reform, Palo Alto, CA

Ronald Coase Institute Workshop on Institutional Analysis in Budapest, Hungary

ISNIE annual meetings in Budapest, Hungary

George Mason University: seminar on institutions and development, in Arlington, VA

Ronald Coase Institute and Stigler Center, University of Chicago: workshop on transaction costs, in Chicago


2002
Visiting professor at University of Paris 1, Pantheon-Sorbonne for six weeks

Swedish International Development Agency: conference on institutional assessments, in Stockholm, Sweden

ISNIE annual conference, in Cambridge, MA

Ronald Coase Institute: workshop on institutional analysis, in Cambridge, MA

Institute for Humane Studies: workshop, in Charlottesville, VA

University of Maryland: IRIS Forum ,in Washington, D.C.

American Economic Association, in Atlanta, GA


2001
Global Development Network: annual meeting, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Ronald Coase Institute: workshops on institutional analysis, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Berkeley, CA

European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy: conference, in Siena, Italy

Western Economic Association, in San Francisco, CA

University of Paris 1, Pantheon-Sorbonne: seminar on telecommunications

Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, in Washington, DC
 
Long Branch Association, in Millwood, VA


TO CONTACT
mshirley@coase.org


April 2006

  ALSO SEE
  About the Institute
  Brochure of the Institute (PDF)
  Officers and Board (PDF)