My research blends work on international development, environmental policy, and participatory democracy.
​I ask how the ways in which sustainable development interventions engage with stakeholders affects long-run outcomes through human psychology and related behavior change. 

I have conducted fieldwork in Latin America, East Africa and Southeast Asia. I am fluent in Spanish and have received advanced training in Portuguese and Swahili. 

Selected Publications

Grillos, Tara. 2022. Participation Improves Collective Decisions (When It Involves Deliberation). British Journal of Political Science. (doi: 10.1017/S0007123421000375)

Molina Garzón, Adriana+, Tara Grillos, Alan Zarychta & Krister Andersson. 2022. Decentralization Can Increase Cooperation among Public Officials. American Journal of Political Science. (doi:10.1111/ajps.12606)
 
​Grillos, Tara, Alan Zarychta & Jami Nelson Nuñez. 2021. Water Scarcity & Procedural Justice in Honduras: Community-Based Management Meets Market-Based Policy. World Development, 142. (doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105451)

Grillos, Tara, Alan Zarychta & Krister Andersson. 2021. Governance Reform, Decentralization, and Teamwork in Public Service Delivery: Evidence from the Honduran Health Sector. Public Administration, 1-27. (doi:10.1111/padm.12722)

Zarychta, Alan, Tara Grillos & Krister Andersson. 2019. Public Sector Governance Reform and Motivation of Street-Level Bureaucrats in Developing Countries. Public Administration Review, 80(1):75-91. (doi: 10.1111/puar.13132)

Grillos, Tara, Patrick Bottazzi, David Crespo, Nigel Asquith & Julia P.G. Jones. 2019. In-kind conservation payments crowd in environmental values and increase support for government intervention: A Randomized trial in Bolivia. Ecological Economics, 166. (doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.106404) [full text pre-print here]

Cook, Nathan, Tara Grillos & Krister Andersson. 2019. Gender quotas increase equality and effectiveness of climate policy interventions. Nature Climate Change, 9: 330-334. (doi: 10.1038/s41558-019-0438-4rdcu.be/brEMe) 

Grillos, Tara. 2018. Women's participation in environmental decision-making: Quasi-experimental evidence from northern Kenya. World Development, 108C: 115-130. (doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.03.017)

Andersson, Krister P., Nathan Cook, Tara Grillos, Maria Claudia Lopez, Carl F. Salk, Glenn D. Wright, and Esther Mwangi. 2018. Experimental evidence on payments for forest commons conservation. Nature Sustainability, 1(3):128-135. (doi:10.1038/s41893-018-0034-z)

Grillos, Tara. 2017. Participatory budgeting and the poor: Tracing bias in a multi-staged process in Solo, Indonesia. World Development, 96:343-358.  (doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.03.019) 

For a full list of publications, please visit my CV.

"Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry beings pursue with the world and with others."
​-Paolo Freire