Robert Klitgaard
Author · Teacher · Consultant
Welcome! I’m Robert Klitgaard. For much of my life, I’ve been exploring how people can make a difference in a complicated world: fighting corruption, improving government, working across divides, and making wiser choices. My books and articles bring together research, stories from the field, and practical ideas. More recently, I’ve been exploring how artificial intelligence can expand what we learn and accomplish together.
Whether you’re a student, scholar, policymaker, or potential collaborator, I hope you’ll find something useful here.
Explore the books
Books about big questions and practical ways forward.
Read selected articles
Key papers and a searchable bibliography.
Invite Bob to consult or collaborate
Workshops, convenings, and advice for real-world challenges.
New and open access: Graduate School, Augmented
The Joys of Learning, Creating, and Finding Your Way with AI
What if artificial intelligence could make graduate education more personal, more demanding, and more joyful? This new book offers more than 50 classroom-tested prompts to help students learn, research, collaborate, communicate, and plan their futures.
Ideas from the field
Much of what I’ve learned has come from working with people trying to solve difficult problems, often under daunting conditions. From fighting corruption to building partnerships across government, business, and civil society, I’ve found that good analysis and honest collaboration can open surprising paths forward.
A few books to explore
The Culture and Development Manifesto
How culture shapes development, and how policymakers can respond.
What others have said
There is no better guide to policies that seek to make life better and more just for everyone.
Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University
Robert Klitgaard is one of those rare professors who harnesses rigorous academic inquiry to big human questions . . . With each new work, Klitgaard further journeys far beyond the status of academic intellectual to the role of wise teacher from whom we can all learn.
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great
Speaking and consulting
I enjoy working with audiences and organizations wrestling with big questions. My talks, workshops, and longer engagements fall into two families: governance and integrity, from corruption in disasters and reconstruction to convenings that turn a diagnosis into a plan; and AI and institutions, from live demonstrations of human–AI teamwork to helping a leadership team become AI-ready.
A little about me
I’m a University Professor at Claremont Graduate University, where I served as President from 2005 to 2009. Previously, I was Dean of the RAND Graduate School and taught at Harvard and Yale. My work has taken me to more than forty countries, working with governments, universities, and international organizations.
My books have been translated into eighteen languages. In 2024, I received the International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award for Academic Research and Education.
I’m still teaching, writing, and learning, with fresh questions and projects always in view.
For organizers and press
Downloadable materials for conference organizers, event hosts, and journalists. Please use the bios as written or shorten them to fit your program.
For booking inquiries and consulting, please contact Bob at robert.klitgaard@gmail.com.
For speaking engagements, see Bob’s profile at Chartwell Speakers.