Research

Peer Reviewed Research

Methodology

Brodeur, Abel (and >300 co-authors including Ryan C. Briggs). (accepted). Reproducibility and Robustness of Economics and Political Science Research. Nature.

Aczel, Balazs (and >400 co-authors including Ryan C. Briggs). (accepted). Investigating the Analytical Robustness of the Social and Behavioural Sciences. Nature.

Arel-Bundock, Vincent, Briggs, Ryan C., Doucouliagos, Hristos, Mendoza Aviña, Marco, and Stanley, T.D. (2026). Quantitative Political Science Research is Greatly Underpowered. Journal of Politics, 88(1), 36–46.

Heinzel, Mirko, Weaver, Cate, and Briggs, Ryan C. (2025). Incentivizing Responses in International Organization Elite Surveys: Evidence from the World Bank. Journal of Experimental Political Science, 12(1), 17–26.

Foreign Aid & Development Studies

Briggs, Ryan C. (2024). Beliefs, Values, and Practices in Development Studies. Journal of Development Studies, 60(10), 1493–1510.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2021). Why does aid not target the poorest? International Studies Quarterly, 65(3), 739–752.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2020). Results from single-donor analyses of project aid success seem to generalize pretty well across donors. Review of International Organizations, 15(4), 947–963.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2019). Receiving foreign aid can reduce support for incumbent presidents. Political Research Quarterly, 72(3), 610–622.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2018). Leaving no one behind? A new test of subnational aid targeting. Journal of International Development, 30(5), 904–910.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2018). Poor targeting: A gridded spatial analysis of the degree to which aid reaches the poor in Africa. World Development, 103, 133–148.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2017). Does foreign aid target the poorest? International Organization, 71(1), 187–206.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2015). The influence of aid changes on African election outcomes. International Interactions, 41(2), 201–225.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2014). Aiding and Abetting: Project Aid and Ethnic Politics in Kenya. World Development, 64, 194–205.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2012). Electrifying the base? Aid and incumbent advantage in Ghana. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 50(4), 603–624.

African Politics

Briggs, Ryan C. (2021). Power to Which People? Explaining how electrification targets voters across party rotations in Ghana. World Development, 141, 105391.

Aidoo, Kobina and Briggs, Ryan C. (2019). Underpowered: Rolling blackouts in Africa disproportionately hurt the poor. African Studies Review, 62(3), 112–131.

Berinzon, Maya and Briggs, Ryan C. (2019). Measuring and explaining formal institutional persistence in French West Africa. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 57(2), 183–202.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2017). Explaining case selection in African politics research. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 35(4), 565–572.

Berinzon, Maya and Briggs, Ryan C. (2016). Legal families without the laws: The fading of colonial law in French West Africa. American Journal of Comparative Law, 64(2), 329–370.
Winner of the Hessel Yntema Prize for best article published in AJCL in 2016 by authors under 40.

Briggs, Ryan C. and Weathers, Scott. (2016). The other white man’s burden? Gender & location in African politics scholarship. African Affairs, 115(460), 466–489.

Other

Briggs, Ryan C. and Solodoch, Omer. (2024). Changes in perceptions of border security influence desired levels of immigration. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 68(6), 1252–1275.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2020). Canadians think that nearly all of us will be allowed back to work around August. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 53(2), 245–251.

Book Chapters

Briggs, Ryan C. (2024). Aid Targeting in The Handbook of Aid and Development, edited by Desai, Raj and Devarajan, Shanta and Tobin, Jennifer, pp. 159–173.

Work in Progress

Briggs, Ryan C. and Vivalt, Eva. Are Impact Evaluations in Development Economics Underpowered?

Briggs, Ryan C., Mellon, Jonathan, and Arel-Bundock, Vincent. It must be very hard to publish null results.

Selected Other Writing

Briggs, Ryan C. (2025). Can We Trust Social Science Yet? Asterisk.

Briggs, Ryan C. and Chris Rutty. (2023). Why we should declare a formal ‘Smallpox Eradication Day’. Ottawa Citizen.

Briggs, Ryan C. and Dario Sidhu. (2021). It’s giving season — how do you ensure your charitable donations will be used effectively? The Toronto Star.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2021). Why does aid not target the poorest? VoxDev.

Briggs, Ryan C. (2018). Millions of Americans as destitute as the world’s poorest? Don’t believe it. Vox.com.