People

Dr Tom Lavers

Role

Tom is a Lecturer in Politics and Development at the Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester, and lead researcher for the ESID project, ‘The political economy of social protection expansion in Africa’.

Research

Tom’s research interests concern the changing nature of state-society relations in the context of structural transformation, particularly focusing on social policy and land tenure as key means by which states relate to their citizens. As such, his research is situated at the interface between literatures on the political economy of social policy, agrarian political economy and state–society relations. Tom’s past research has particularly focused on Ethiopia, while his work with ESID involves case studies on both Ethiopia and Rwanda.

ESID publications

Lavers, T., Haile, D. and Mesfin, Y. (2020). ‘The politics of distributing social transfers in Oromiya, Ethiopia: Encadrement and the fluctuation of state infrastructural power‘. ESID Working Paper No. 142. Manchester.
Lavers, T., Mohammed, D. and Selassie, B. W. (2020).’The politics of distributing social transfers in Afar, Ethiopia: The intertwining of party, state and clan in the periphery‘. ESID Working Paper No. 141. Manchester.
Lavers, T. and Hickey, S. (2020). ‘Alternative routes to the institutionalisation of social transfers in sub-Saharan Africa: Political survival strategies and transnational policy coalitions‘. ESID Working Paper No. 138. Manchester.
Lavers, T. (2018). ‘Taking ideas seriously within political settlements analysis‘. ESID Working Paper No. 95. Manchester.
Lavers, T. (2016). ‘Social protection in an aspiring ‘developmental state’: The political drivers of Ethiopia’s PSNP‘. ESID Working Paper No. 73. Manchester.
Lavers, T. (2016). ‘Social protection in an aspiring ‘developmental state’: The political drivers of community-based health insurance in Ethiopia‘. ESID Working Paper No. 71. Manchester.
Lavers, T. (2016). ‘Understanding elite commitment to social protection: Rwanda’s Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme‘. ESID Working Paper No. 68. Manchester.
Lavers, T. and Hickey, S. (2015). ‘Investigating the political economy of social protection expansion in Africa: at the intersection of transnational ideas and domestic politics’. ESID Working Paper No. 47. Manchester.

Other recent publications

Lavers, T. (2019). ‘Towards Universal Health Coverage in Ethiopia’s ‘developmental state’? The political drivers of health insurance‘. Social Science & Medicine 228: 60-67.
Lavers, T. (2012). ‘”Land grab” as development strategy? The political economy of agricultural investment in Ethiopia’. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(1): 105–132.
Lavers, T. (2012). ‘Patterns of agrarian transformation in Ethiopia: state-mediated commercialisation and the “land grab”’. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(3-4): 795–822.
Lavers, T. (2013). ‘Food security and social protection in highland Ethiopia: linking the Productive Safety Net to the land question’. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 51(3): 1–27.
Lavers, T. (2017). Land registration and gender equality in Ethiopia: How state-society relations influence the enforcement of institutional change. Journal of Agrarian Change, 17 (1): 188–207.
Lavers, T. (2016). ‘Agricultural investment in Ethiopia: Undermining national sovereignty or tool for state building?’ Development and Change 47(5): 1078–1101.
Lavers, T. and Boamah, F. (2016). ‘The impact of agricultural investment on state capacity: A comparative analysis of Ethiopia and Ghana’. Geoforum 72: 94–103.
Lavers, T. and Hickey, S., (2016). ‘Conceptualising the politics of social protection expansion in low income countries: The intersection of transnational ideas and domestic politics’. International Journal of Social Welfare, 25(4): 388–398.

Further information

Read Tom’s profile on Academia.edu.
See Tom’s publications on Google Scholar.
Follow Tom on Twitter: @LaversTom.