Guard Labor: An Essay in Honor of Pranab Bardhan

For Pranab Bardhan, whose contributions to science and to society are honored in this report, power is an essential analytical tool. Its exercise (for better or worse) redirects the course of development and affects the livelihoods of those whose voices and interests are never absent in Bardhan’s work: the world’s least well off. This paper explores the economic importance of the exercise of power and the resources devoted to this end.