Dr. R.D. (Ruth) Carlitz

Associate Professor

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Programme group: Political Economy and Transnational Governance

Photographer: Jeroen Doomernik

Visiting address

Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
Room number: 8.06

Postal address

Contact details

Social media

Profile
I am an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam, where I am part of the Political Economy and Transnational Governance (PETGOV) program group. My research focuses on the politics of public goods provision in low-income countries, from the perspectives of both governments and citizens. My regional expertise lies primarily in East Africa. I have conducted extensive fieldwork in Tanzania, and have also been involved in research activities in Kenya, Malawi, and South Africa.

I recently launched a 5-year project, ClimateFiGS (Understanding the Allocation of Climate Finance in the Global South). The project is funded by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

Research expertise

African Politics

Comparative Politics

Environmental Politics

Foreign Aid Effectiveness

Public Administration

Political Economy of Development
Research
Research methods

Budget Analysis

GIS

Mixed Methods

Quantitative Methods

Current research projects

Using Natural Language Processing to Understand How Politics Conditions Foreign Aid Effectiveness
With Jelke Bloem I am using AI-based techniques to investigate the downstream consequences of politicization on the effectiveness of USAID projects.

Budgeting for the Future: Understanding the Allocation of Climate Finance in the Global South (ClimateFiGS)
This project examines the allocation and spending of climate finance, centering the perspectives of governments and citizens in Africa.

Individual Grants

European Research Council Starting Grant, 2024-2029

Boren Fellowship, U.S. National Security Education Program, 2013

Development Research Challenge, Center for the Evaluation of Global Action, UC-Berkeley, 2011

Collaborative Grants

UvA ENLENS (Energy Transition Through the Lens of SDGs) cross-faculty grant, 2024-2026.

Swedish Expert Group for Aid Studies, 2023-2024.

EGAP Climate Change Governance Case Study Grant, 2023.

UvA Social & Behavioural Data Science Centre Valorization Grant, 2023.

Research Project Grant, Swedish Research Council, 2019-2023.

RPA

ENLENS
Teaching
African Politics (MA elective)

Political Economy of International Development (MARP)
Publications
2024

Bauhr, M., Carlitz, R., & Kovacikova, L. (2024). Beyond Buildings: Social Bargaining and Effective Access to Public Services. Public Organization Review, 24, 389-406. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-023-00741-1 [details]
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Boräng, F., & Carlitz, R. (2024). The Double Democratic Bind: Challenges to Enacting Mandates and Combating Misinformation. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 49(1), 189-215. https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-10910233 [details]
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Carlitz, R. D., & Ziaja, S. (2024). Harmony or Cacophony? A Disaggregated Analysis of Aid Fragmentation. Studies in Comparative International Development, 59(1), 176–198. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-023-09386-z [details]
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Carlitz, R. D., Morjaria, A., Mueller, J., & Osafo-Kwaako, P. (2024). State Building in a Diverse Society. The Review of Economic Studies, Article rdae116. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdae116

Cookson, T. P., Carlitz, R. D., Berryhill, A., & Fuentes, L. (2024). Gender-transformative action, social norms and economic empowerment. European Journal of Politics and Gender. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1332/25151088Y2024D000000022

Kovacikova, L., & Carlitz, R. (2024). Corruption and gendered access to public services in Global South democracies. In T. D. Barnes, & E. Beaulieu (Eds.), Handbook on Gender and Corruption in Democracies (pp. 245-260). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803923246.00030 [details]

Wang, S., Eggers, G., de Roode Torres Georgiadis, A., Đo, T. A., Gontard, L., Carlitz, R., & Bloem, J. (2024). Towards quantifying politicization in foreign aid project reports. In H. Afli, H. Bouamor, C. Blasi Casagran, & S. Ghannay (Eds.), The Second Workshop on Natural Language Processing for Political Sciences (PoliticalNLP 2024): proceedings : LREC-COLING 2024 : 21 May, 2024, Torino, Italy (pp. 85–90). (COLING), (LREC). ELRA Language Resources Association. https://aclanthology.org/2024.politicalnlp-1.9 [details]
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2023

Yamanis, T., Carlitz, R., Gonyea, O., Skaff, S., Kisanga, N., & Mollel, H. (2023). Confronting 'chaos': a qualitative study assessing public health officials' perceptions of the factors affecting Tanzania's COVID-19 vaccine rollout. BMJ Open, 13(1), Article e065081. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065081 [details]
Downloads
e065081.full
Supplementary files
e065081.full supplement (1)

2021

Bauhr, M., & Carlitz, R. (2021). When does transparency improve public services? Street-level discretion, information, and targeting. Public Administration, 99(3), 500-516. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12693

Carlitz, R. D., & Lust, E. (2021). Governance Beyond the State: Social Institutions and Service Delivery. In A. Bågenholm, M. Bauhr, M. Grimes, & B. Rothstein (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Quality of Government Oxford Handbooks.

Carlitz, R. D., & Makhura, M. N. (2021). Life under lockdown: Illustrating tradeoffs in South Africa's response to COVID-19. World Development, 137, Article 105168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105168

Carlitz, R. D., & McLellan, R. (2021). Open data from authoritarian regimes: New opportunities, new challenges. Perspectives on Politics, 19(1), 160-170. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592720001346

Carlitz, R. D., & Povitkina, M. (2021). Local interest group activity and environmental degradation in authoritarian regimes. World Development, 142, Article 105425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105425

Carlitz, R., Yamanis, T., & Mollel, H. (2021). Coping with denialism: How street-level bureaucrats adapted and responded to COVID-19 in Tanzania. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 46(6), 989-1017. https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-9349128

Mechkova, V., & Carlitz, R. (2021). Gendered accountability: When and why do women's policy priorities get implemented? European Political Science Review, 13(1), 3-21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773920000272

Yamanis, T., Carlitz, R. D., & Mollel, H. (2021). Adapting COVID-19 containment in Africa: Lessons from Tanzania. In S. L. Greer, E. J. King, E. Massard da Fonseca, & A. Peralta-Santos (Eds.), Coronavirus Politics: The Comparative Politics and Policy of COVID-19 University of Michigan Press. https://www.press.umich.edu/11927713/coronavirus_politics/?s=look_inside

2019

Carlitz, R. D. (2019). A Vicious Cycle? Understanding Constraints on the Expression of Demand for Improved Service Delivery. Annals of Comparative Democatization, 17(3), 21-24. https://connect.apsanet.org/s35/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2019/09/APSA-September2019-3-1.pdf

Carlitz, R. D. (2019). Who gets what – and how efficiently? Assessing the spatial allocation of public goods. Research and Politics, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168019879355

2017

Carlitz, R. D. (2017). Money Flows, Water Trickles: Understanding Patterns of Decentralized Water Provision in Tanzania. World Development, 93, 16-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.11.019

Carlitz, R. D., Harris, A., Kao, K., Landry, P., Lust, E., & Rakner, L. (2017). Beyond the State: Measuring Governance at the Community Level. APSA Comparative Democratization, 16(1), 26-29. https://connect.apsanet.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2017/10/2017_15_2_APSA_CD_NL.pdf

2013

Carlitz, R. (2013). Improving transparency and accountability in the budget process: An assessment of recent initiatives. Development Policy Review, 31(S1), 49-67. https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12019

Seifert, J., Carlitz, R., & Mondo, E. (2013). The Open Budget Index (OBI) as a Comparative Statistical Tool. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 15(1), 87-101. https://doi.org/10.1080/13876988.2012.748586

2009

Carlitz, R. D., de Renzio, P., Krafchik, W., & Ramkumar, V. (2009). Budget transparency around the World: Results from the 2008 open budget survey. OECD Journal on Budgeting, 9(2), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1787/budget-v9-art19-en
2023

Carlitz, R. (2023). [Review of: D.J. Smith (2022) Every Household Its Own Government: Improvised Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Citizens, and the State in Nigeria]. H-Net Reviews. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=58249 [details]
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2024

Wencker, T., & Carlitz, R. (2024). Targets without Traction? Do Nationally Determined Contributions Fail to Drive Mitigation Funding Distribution? (DEval Policy Brief; Vol. 4). German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval). https://www.deval.org/en/publications/policy-brief-targets-without-traction-do-nationally-determined-contributions-fail-to-drive-mitigation-funding-distribution#p373 [details]
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2022

Carlitz, R. D. (2022). Comparing Military and Human Security Spending: Key Findings and Methodological Notes. UN Women. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-08/Comparing-military-and-human-security-spending-en.pdf

2020

Cookson, T., Carlitz, R. D., Fuentes, L., & Berryhill, A. (2020). A gender data snapshot of life during COVID-19: Survey on Gender Equality at Home Report. Facebook.

2017

Carlitz, R. D. (2017). Identifying and overcoming binding constraints to rural water services for the B40 in Tanzania: WASH Poverty Diagnostic Report.

Carlitz, R. D., & Boex, J. (2017). Decentralization and the delivery of water and sanitation services in Tanzania.

2013

Carlitz, R. D., & McGee, R. (2013). Raising The Stakes: The Impact of HakiElimu’s Advocacy Work on Education Policy and Budget in Tanzania. International Budget Partnership (IBP).
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Carlitz, R. D., & McGee, R. (2013). `The Users' in Technology-for-Transparency-and-Accountability Initiatives: Assumptions and Realities. http://www.ruthcarlitz.com/pdf/IDS-UserLearningStudyonT4T&AIs.pdf
2024

Bolkvadze, K., Carlitz, R. D., & Povitkina, M. (2024). Environmental NGOs in Emerging Democracies: Obstacles to Effective Action. (QoG Working Paper Series; Vol. 2024, No. 1). Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. https://www.gu.se/en/quality-government/publications/working-papers
Downloads
Supplementary files
2024 1 Bolkvadze et al

2022

Carlitz, R., Morjaria, A., & Mueller, J. M. (2022). State-Building in a Diverse Society. (NBER Working paper series; No. 30731). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w30731 [details]

2021

Carlitz, R. D. (2021). Assessing the Costs and Benefits of COVID-19 Containment Strategies in Africa. (V-Dem Users’ Working Papers). V-Dem Institute. https://www.v-dem.net/media/publications/uwp_40.pdf

Cookson, T., Carlitz, R. D., Fuentes, L., & Berryhill, A. (2021). Who cares during crisis? New global gender data on time poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ladysmith Collective.
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Ancillary activities
- UN Women
  Consultant, Studies on Finance for Sustaining Peace

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Dr. R.D. (Ruth) Carlitz

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