Backstory: Claudio Ferraz on When Democracy Refuses to Die

Santiago speaks with Claudio Ferraz about the research behind "When Democracy Refuses to Die: Evaluating a Training Program for New Politicians", a paper on RenovaBR, one of the world’s largest training programs for aspiring politicians in Brazil. They discuss how to build a partnership with a large NGO while keeping the collaboration aligned with the incentives, standards, and timelines of academic research. Claudio also reflects on a question many researchers face: how to know when a paper is done, when an extension truly adds value, and when an idea belongs in a separate project instead. They close by discussing how to choose co-authors and why long-term collaborations can make research better and more sustainable. The paper is co-authored with Ernesto Dal Bó, Frederico Finan, and Pedro Pessoa and is available at https://www.nber.org/papers/w33251.