Michael Mbate was a Senior Research Officer in the Development and Public Finance programme. Michael specialises in public finance and governance, with a focus on public spending, fiscal decentralization, service delivery and accountability in developing countries. His work heavily relies on the use of causal inference econometric analysis. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics (including visiting fellowships at Columbia University and the University of California Berkeley). He has previously been with different institutions such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the African Union.