Infrastructure Costs Are a Procurement Story
Americans have long intuited that we pay too much for infrastructure. Only recently, however, have researchers documented just how high those costs are: American urban rail projects cost…
Focus Area
State Capacity
Research on government's ability to plan, build, and deliver — the institutions, people, and processes behind public projects.
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Latest in State Capacity
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Making Sense of the Grid: Long Lines, Local Lines, and the Interconnection Problem
Open up your favorite newspaper, and you’re likely to see a story about electricity. With customers and politicians voicing concerns about data center growth and rising energy bills,…
A Small Step to a Better APA
In 2023, I used this blog to criticize the Supreme Court’s decision in Calcutt v. FDIC as “unnecessary, unfortunate, and unpersuasive, all at the same time.” So I…
About this area
BUILD supports research on the capacity of governments to deliver — how agencies are staffed, funded, and organized, why public projects succeed or stall, and what it takes to implement ambitious policy — and connects it to the policymakers who can act on it.
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BUILD is a nonpartisan network of researchers, policymakers, and funders.