Books

Williams, Martin J. (2026). Reform as Process: Implementing Change in Public Bureaucracies. New York: Columbia University Press. (available for purchase here) (open-access PDF download available here or here)

• Finalist for Douglass North Best Book Award by the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics

Honig, Dan, and Martin J. Williams. Organizational Autonomies. Under contract, Cambridge Elements (Organizational Theory Series).

Articles

Cardoso, Danilo, Flávio Cireno, Julien Labonne, Pedro Palotti, Flávio Sousa da Vitoria, and Martin J. Williams. (2026) “Interpersonal Connections and Career Mobility in Bureaucratic Labor Markets: Evidence from Brazil.” Public Administration Review. (journal full-text [open access])

Williams, Martin J. “Causal Inference, Agency, and the Problem of Inherent Endogeneity.” (2026) Annual Review of Political Science (journal full-text [open access]) (preprint pdf).

Ali, Aisha J., Luis Álvaro Álvarez Calderón, Pedro Arcain Riccetto, Paola del Carpio, Elise El Nouchi, Javier Fuenzalida, Margarita Gómez, Aung Hein, Oswaldo Molina, and Martin J. Williams. (2024) “Balancing speed and coordination: Senior leaders’ perspectives on civil service transformation during and after the pandemic.” International Public Management Journal FirstView. (journal full-text [open access]) (pdf) (policy report)

Mansoor, Zahra, and Martin J. Williams. (2024) “Systems Approaches to Public Service Delivery: Methods and Frameworks”. Journal of Public Policy Volume 44, Issue 2, June, pp. 258 – 283. (journal full-text [open access]) (online appendix)

Rasul, Imran, Daniel Rogger, Martin J. Williams, and Eleanor F. Woodhouse. (2023). “Government analytics using data on task and project completion.” In D. Rogger and C. Schuster (eds.), The Government Analytics Handbook: Leveraging Data to Strengthen Public Administration, Chapter 17. Washington, DC: World Bank. (chapter full-text [open access])

Williams, Martin J. (2022). “External Validity and Institutions in Behavioral Public Administration.” Invited roundtable contribution in “The (Missing?) Role of Institutions in Behavioral Public Administration–A Roundtable Discourse” with Anthony M. Bertelli, Norma M. Riccucci, Paola Cantarelli, Maria Cucciniello, Christian R. Grose, Peter John, Elizabeth Linos, and Anjali Thomas. Journal of Behavioral Public Administration Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages 1-25. (journal full-text [open access]) (pdf)

Ali, Aisha, Javier Fuenzalida, Margarita Gomez, and Martin J. Williams. (2021). “Four Lenses on People Management in the Public Sector: An Evidence Review and Synthesis.” Oxford Review of Economic Policy Volume 37, Issue 2, Pages 335–366. (journal full-text [open access]) (working paper)

Williams, Martin J. (2021). “Beyond State Capacity: Bureaucratic Effectiveness, Policy Implementation, and Reform.” Journal of Institutional Economics Volume 17, Issue 2, pp. 339 – 357. (pre-publication pdf) (final journal version [gated])

Rasul, Imran, Daniel Rogger, and Martin J. Williams. (2021). “Management, Organizational Performance, and Task Clarity: Evidence from Ghana’s Civil Service.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory Volume 31, Issue 2, Pages 259–277. (pre-publication pdf) (journal full-text [free])

Williams, Martin J., and Liah Yecalo-Tecle. (2020). “Innovation, Voice, and Hierarchy in the Civil Service: Evidence from Ghana’s Civil Service”. Governance 33(4), p. 789-807. (final journal version [gated]) (pre-publication pdf)

Bertelli, Anthony, Mai Hassan, Dan Honig, Daniel Rogger, and Martin J. Williams. (2020). “An agenda for the study of Public Administration in Developing Countries.” Governance 33(4), p. 735-748. (final journal version [gated])

Williams, Martin J. (2020). “Beyond ‘Context Matters’: Context and External Validity in Impact Evaluation.” World Development 127, Symposium on RCTs and Development.(final journal version [gated])

Williams, Martin J. (2020). “External Validity and Policy Adaptation: From Impact Evaluation to Policy Design”. World Bank Research Observer Volume 35, Issue 2, Pages 158–191. (final journal version [gated]) (working paper pdf) (policy memo) (policy memo em português)

Williams, Martin J. (2017). “The Political Economy of Unfinished Development Projects: Corruption, Clientelism, or Collective Choice?” American Political Science Review 111(4) November 2017, p. 705-723. (final journal version [gated]) (pre-publication pdf)

Williams, Martin J. (2013). “Aid, Trade, Investment, and Dependency.” In Anderson, David, Nicholas Cheeseman, and Andrea Scheibler (eds), The Routledge Handbook of African Politics, London: Routledge, 2013. (routledge) (google books)

Williams, Martin J. (2010).“The Gold Standard of Governance: Mining, Decentralization, and State Power in Senegal.” Politique Africaine 117, March 2010. (journal)

Selected Working Papers

Williams, Martin J., Sheena Bell, Clare Leaver, Zahra Mansoor, Karen Mundy, and Dana Qarout. “How Do Delivery Units Affect Education Systems? Evidence from a Multi-Country Study”. Submitted, International Journal of Educational Development (lead article of special issue).

Mansoor, Zahra, Dana Qarout, and Martin J. Williams. “The Design of Delivery Units in Institutional Reform.” May 2026. Submitted. (pdf)

Fornasari, Margherita, Imran Rasul, Daniel Rogger, and Martin J. Williams. “Ideas Generation in Hierarchical Bureaucracies: Evidence from a Field Experiment and Qualitative Data.” Working paper, November 2025. (pdf)

Sheena Bell, Clare Leaver, Zahra Mansoor, Karen Mundy, Dana Qarout, and Martin J. Williams. “The Role of Delivery Approaches in Education Systems Reform: Evidence from a Multi-Country Study”. DeliverEd Working Paper, April 2023. (pdf)

Mansoor, Zahra, Dana Qarout, Kate Anderson, Celeste Carano, Liah Yecalo-Tecle, Veronika Dvorakova, and Martin J. Williams. “A Global Mapping of Delivery Approaches”. DeliverEd Working Paper, July 2021. (pdf)

Williams, Martin J., and Liah Yecalo-Tecle. “The (Non-)Implementation of Performance Management Policies: Mapping 30 Years of Reforms in Ghana and Zambia”. Working paper, September 2022. (pdf) (earlier working paper version)

Williams, Martin J., Clare Leaver, Zahra Mansoor, Dana Qarout, Anna Bilous, Karen Mundy, Minahil Asim, Sheena Bell. “Delivery Approaches to Improving Policy Implementation: A Conceptual Framework.” DeliverEd Working Paper, July 2020. (pdf)

Diop, Binta Zahra, Koku Awoonor-Williams, Hamza Ismaila, Anthony Ofosu, and Martin J. Williams. “Understanding the Allocation of Public Personnel Across Government Health Facilities in Ghana.” IGC Working Paper, August 2019.

Williams, Martin J. “From Institutions to Organizations: Management and Informality in Ghana’s Public Bureaucracies”. Working paper, 2015. (pdf)

Williams, Martin J. “One Size Does Not Fit All: Budget Institutions and Performance in Ghana’s Spending Ministries” Working paper, 2015. (pdf)

Selected Work in Progress

Adam, Christopher, Mae Chan, and Martin J. Williams. “Recurrent Costs and the Macroeconomic Impacts of Infrastructure Investment”

Other

Review of: “Brokering Democracy in Africa: The Rise of Clientelist Democracy in Senegal” by Linda Beck. In Politique Africaine 115, October 2009. (pdf)

“The Social and Economic Impacts of South Africa’s Child Support Grant.” Cape Town: Economic Policy Research Institute Working Paper #39 (extended version) and #40 (short version), November 2007.