IDEAS

Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS) (http://ideaspak.org/) was established in June 2012 with a vision to strengthen the economic and social foundation of democracy in Pakistan by producing rigorous quality research. IDEAS seeks to capitalize on the new opportunity offered by changing political environment by taking advantage of the greater plurality in the political sphere and by the salience given to provincial and local governments on key policy issues. An important feature of their vision is the commitment to evidence-based research that uses rigorous mixed methods approaches as tools for analysis and to evaluate the impact of interventions and reforms. The research vision places great emphasis on understanding the incentives of politicians and other public policy actors and their accountability to different interests. The four research clusters at IDEAS include Human Development, Fiscal Federalism and Public Finance, Political Economy, Governance and Institutions, and Social Exclusion and Marginalisation.