Aseem Prakash

Who is Aseem Prakash?

Aseem Prakash is Professor of Political Science and the Walker Family Professor for the Arts and Sciences at University of Washington-Seattle. He serves as the General Editor of the Cambridge University Press Series on Business and Public Policy and the co-editor of Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. In addition to serving on editorial boards of several additional journals, he has been elected as the Vice-President of the International Studies Association.

His most prominent contribution pertains to the club approach to the study of voluntary programs in the context of business firms, and extended it to the context of the non-profit sector. Outside actors do not fully know how firms or nonprofits are functioning internally. Voluntary programs are a signaling mechanisms to convey this information to outside actors in a credible way. Because participation in such programs in costly, participants need to get something in return. The club approach suggests that club membership allows members to appropriate certain benefits which are non-rival and excludable. These can pertain to reputation, goodwill, access to capital, regulatory relief, etc. Given that voluntary programs tend to have varying levels of effectiveness, the club approach helps to predict ex ante how program design affects program efficacy.