Project Grant 2241630

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Social and Economic Science, under the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.075), provides $350,000 to The Regents of the University of California for a research project examining city size and public service delivery. The University of California, Berkeley will document how access to and quality of basic health, education, and infrastructure services vary across cities of different sizes in four large decentralized democracies across three world regions. The research will test a new theory explaining policy priorities and outcomes based on city size, and inform policymaking to more effectively target lending and grants for local service delivery in low- and middle-income countries. The project involves compiling various administrative, political and geospatial data; analyzing social media and city council meetings; conducting citizen and politician surveys; and qualitative research in case study cities. Datasets created will be published in online repositories. The project period is from February 15, 2023 to January 31, 2026.