Charles Hankla
Director, International Center for Public Policy (ICePP), Public Finance Research Cluster, Andrew Young School of Policy StudiesProfessor Political Science
- Education
Ph.D. Emory 2005
M.A. London School of Economics 1999
BSFS Georgetown University 1997
- Specializations
Comparative & International Relations: Political Economy
- Biography
Charles R. Hankla is a Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He is also Director of the International Center for Public Policy (ICePP) and Associate Director of the broader Public Finance Research Cluster (PFRC) in which it is housed. ICePP engages globally in research, professional training, and technical assistance in the areas of public finance and fiscal decentralization.
Dr. Hankla’s research is in the fields of comparative and international political economy, and he has a particular interest in political institutions as they relate to fiscal decentralization, budgeting, and trade and industrial policy. Dr. Hankla earned his PhD in 2005 from Emory University, and he holds degrees from Georgetown University and the London School of Economics.
Dr. Hankla is Team Leader and Senior Specialist in Fiscal Decentralization for a $1.2 million World Bank project in Mozambique. This project, administered by ICePP and overseen by the Mozambican Ministry of State Administration, involves a careful reimagining of fiscal decentralization in the country.
Dr. Hankla is also leading ICePP’s engagement with a World Bank project in Cameroon that focuses on vertical fiscal transfers. His past consulting work has been supported by the United Nations Development Program, the US Department of State, the US Agency for International Development, and the G20.
Dr. Hankla’s work has appeared in such journals as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, International Studies Quarterly, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, and Publius. He has published a co-authored book from Edward Elgar entitled Local Accountability and National Coordination in Fiscal Federalism: A Fine Balance. His new book, In Pursuit of Prosperity: Industrial Policy and the Politics of Economic Upgrading, is forthcoming from the University of Michigan Press.
Dr. Hankla is currently Co-PI on a grant from the National Science Foundation funding a randomized controlled trial in the Indian state of Bihar. He is also a recent co-recipient of an International Growth Centre grant to fund a survey experiment in the same state. In addition, Dr. Hankla serves as comparative political economy field editor for the Journal of Public Policy and is a past secretary/treasurer of the Federalism section of the American Political Science Association. He speaks highly proficient French and has reading knowledge of Hindi.
Dr. Hankla is a past director of both the department’s MA and PhD programs. He serves or has served on dozens of dissertation and thesis committees in political science, economics, and public policy, and he received the college Graduate Mentoring Award in 2017. In the spring and summer of 2013, Dr. Hankla was a visiting scholar at Sciences Po Lille in France.
Finally, Dr. Hankla is a regular public commentator on the politics of economic affairs. His online articles for the Conversation have attracted over 650,000 reads and have appeared on the websites of Newsweek, Time, Salon, The Huffington Post, The East Asia Forum, The World Economic Forum, Fortune, The New Republic, and The Business Standard of India, among many others. Dr. Hankla also gives regular media interviews and has appeared on or been quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the China Global Television Network, CBS News, BBC News, Julie Rose’s Top of Mind, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and many others.
- Publications
For all publications, see Google Scholar
- Hankla, Charles R., Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, and Raul Ponce Rodriguez. Local Accountability and National Coordination in Fiscal Federalism: A Fine Balance. Edward Elgar Publishers. Series: Studies in Fiscal Federalism and State-Local Finance.
- Local Accountability and National Coordination in Fiscal Federalism: A Fine Balance.
- Reviewed in Publius.
- Reviewed in Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.
- Hankla, Charles. In Pursuit of Prosperity: Industrial Policy and the Politics of Economic Upgrading. Forthcoming from University of Michigan Press
Refereed Articles
- Hankla, Charles, Felix Rioja, and Neven Valev. The Political Economy of Price Regulation: Evidence from Fuel Markets. Comparative Politics 56 (1): 73-94.
- Thomas, Anjali, Sayan Banerjee, Charles Hankla, and Arindam Banerjee. 2024 Ethnonationalist Gender Norms: How Parties Shape Voter Attitudes to Women Candidates in India. American Journal of Political Science 68 (3): 1057-1074.
- Hankla, Charles, Sayan Banerjee, Anjali Thomas, Arindam Banerjee. 2022. Electing Women in Ethnically Divided Societies: Candidates, Campaigns, and Intersectionality in Bihar, India. Comparative Political Studies 56 (9): 1433-1469.
- Shrestha, Kshitiz, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, and Charles Hankla. Political Decentralization and Corruption? Exploring the Conditional Role of Parties. Economics and Politics 35 (1): 411-439.
- Banerjee, Sayan and Charles Hankla. Party Systems and Public Goods: The Dynamics of Good Governance in the Indian States. India Review 19(5): 496-522.
- Ponce Rodriguez, Raul, Charles R. Hankla, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Eunice Heredia-Ortiz. The Politics of Fiscal Federalism: A “Strong” Decentralization Theorem. Journal of Theoretical Politics 32 (4): 605-639.
- Awarded the Elinor Ostrom Award for best paper published in the Journal of Theoretical Politics in the prior year by the Formal Theory Section at the American Political Science Association Annual Convention, Montreal, 2022.
- Ponce Rodriguez, Raul, Charles R. Hankla, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Eunice Heredia-Ortiz. Rethinking the Political Economy of Decentralization: How Parties and Elections Shape the Provision of Local Public Goods. Publius 48 (4): 523-558.
- Awarded the Deil Wright Award for best paper presented as part of the Federalism Section at the American Political Science Association Annual Convention, Seattle, 2011.
- Hankla, Charles R. and Carrie Lynn Manning. How Local Elections Can Transform National Politics: Evidence from Mozambique. Publius: The Journal of Federalism 47 (1): 49-76.
- Hankla, Charles R. and Daniel Kuthy. Economic Liberalism in Illiberal Regimes: Authoritarian Variation and the Political Economy of Trade. International Studies Quarterly 57 (3): 492-504.
- Hankla, Charles R. 2013. Fragmented Legislatures and the Budget: Analyzing Presidential Democracies.Economics & Politics 25 (2): 200-228.
- Carrubba, Clifford J., Matthew Gabel, and Charles R. Hankla. Understanding the Role of the European Court of Justice in European Integration. American Political Science Review 106 (1): 214-223.
- Duffield, John and Charles R. Hankla. The Efficiency of Institutions: Political Determinants of Energy Consumption in Advanced Industrialized Countries. Comparative Politics 43 (2): 187-205.
- Hankla, Charles R. and William M. Downs. Decentralisation, Governance, and the Structure of Local Political Institutions: Assessing the Evidence. Local Government Studies36 (6): 759-783.
- Charles R. 2009. When is Fiscal Decentralization Good for Governance? Publius: The Journal of Federalism 39 (4): 632-650.
- A Chinese translation of this article was published in the Journal of Comparative Economic and Social Systems (No. 4, July 2012, pp. 101-110).
- Carrubba, Clifford J., Matthew Gabel, and Charles R. Hankla. 2008. Judicial Behavior under Political Constraints: Evidence from the European Court of Justice. American Political Science Review102 (4): 435-452.
- Hankla, Charles R. Parties and Patronage: An Analysis of Trade and Industrial Policy in India. Comparative Politics 41 (1): 41-60.
- Hankla, Charles R. Party Strength and International Trade: A Cross National Analysis. Comparative Political Studies39 (9): 1133-1156.
- Hankla, Charles R. Party Linkages and Economic Policy: An Examination of Indira Gandhi’s India. Business and Politics8 (3), Article 4, pp. 1-29.
Policy Papers
- Doner, Richard, Michael Rich, Gloria Tinubu, Veronica Womack, and Charles Hankla. “Promoting Development in the Black Belt Region: A Plan for the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission.” A Southern Economic Advancement Project (SEAP) and Roosevelt Institute White Paper. March 2022.
- Co-authored this paper proposing innovative structures for the new federal regional commission. Findings were widely shared, including with the new federal co-chair in a joint meeting with the Brookings Institution.
- Abuzeid, Faris and Charles Hankla. “‘Smart Decentralization:’ Accountability and Community Development through Urban Self-Governance.” Peer-reviewed Policy Brief commissioned by the T20 Committee in Saudi Arabia as part of the G20 Summit Process.
- Accepted in the Proceedings of the G20 after extensive peer review process. Cited in the T20 Final Communique and presented to world leaders at the G20 Summit.
- Hankla, Charles. 2013. “Project on Strengthening the Budgetary Oversight of People’s Elected Bodies in Vietnam: Training Needs Assessment, Training Plan, and Terms of Reference for Training Modules.” Contracted to help develop training to assist the Provincial People’s Councils of Vietnam to oversee the budget in their provinces. Funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Committee for Financial and Budgetary Affairs of the National Assembly of Vietnam.
- Three white papers produced as part of the Egyptian Decentralization Initiative, August 2007 – Summer 2008. United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Contracted to ICePP.
- Hankla, Charles R., Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, and Raul Ponce Rodriguez. Local Accountability and National Coordination in Fiscal Federalism: A Fine Balance. Edward Elgar Publishers. Series: Studies in Fiscal Federalism and State-Local Finance.