VARUN GAURI is Senior Economist with the Development Research Group of the World Bank. His research draws on theories and methods form economics, political science, and philosophy to study how national and international governance systems affect human welfare in poor societies. He has published articles in leading journals on topics that include the enforcement of social and economic rights, the political economy of responses to HIV/AIDS, the strategic choices of development NGOs, customary legal systems, and health care and education governance. He is the author of School Choice in Chile, co-editor of Courting Social Justice: The Judicial Enforcement of Social and Economics Rights in the Developing World, and co-author of the 2007 World Development Report. Currently, he is leading research projects on the determinants of compliance with judicial rulings on human rights, grievance redress in basic service delivery, and the international regime for development assistance. He received a BA in philosophy and literature from the University of Chicago, a Masters and PhD in Public Policy from Princeton University, and has held positions as Visiting Lecturer in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and Visiting Professor in the Department of Economics at ILADES in Santiago, Chile.