Max Gallien
Biographic Data
| ID | 1399015 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Max Gallien |
| GIVEN NAMES | Max |
| FAMILY NAME | Gallien |
| SIGNATURE | GALLIEN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute of Development Studies |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9620-8433 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 49 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Politics of Passage: Studying Checkpoints and Claim Making in Conflict‐affected Settings
Roadblocks, or checkpoints, are obligatory passage points that are erected by entities claiming authority over a given crossing. They are often the most common everyday interface between civilians and armed actors in conflict‐affected contexts, but are overlooked in studies on either trade or authority amidst conflict. This article, which introduces a special issue on the topic, argues that roadblocks are a useful empirical entry point to questio…
Narrow formalisation: Informal workers, social protection and digital registration in India
Over the last decade, there has been growing global pressure to build digitised social protection systems as a means of enhancing access to welfare. This article explores one such case: ‘e-Shram’, a digital registration platform introduced in India in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging as a direct consequence of the hardships faced by informal workers during the pandemic, the article examines e-Shram in this context. It observes tha…
The Mediterranean connection: Criminal networks & illicit economies in North Africa
Smugglers and States: Negotiating the Maghreb at Its Margins
Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the borderlands of Tunisia and Morocco, Max Gallien explains why states have long tolerated illegal trade across their borders and develops new ways to understand the political economy of smuggling.
Zakat, Non-state Welfare Provision and Redistribution in Times of Crisis: Evidence from the Covid-19 Pandemic
Around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic drew attention to state social protection and its limitations. Less attention has been paid to what is likely the world’s largest system of predominantly non-state welfare provision: zakat, an annual Islamic obligatory payment of a percentage of productive wealth to the poor and other eligible recipients. We explore how states and citizens engage with zakat during crises through a case study of the Covid-19…
The taxed informal economy: Fiscal burdens and inequality in Accra
Mobile money taxation and informal workers: Evidence from Ghana's E‐levy
An overlooked market: Loose cigarettes, informal vendors and their implications for tobacco taxation
The features of the loose cigarette markets present a challenge for tobacco control policy, especially tobacco tax policy. One way to overcome this challenge is to aim for large, rather than incremental, tax increases
Formalization and its Discontents: Conceptual Fallacies and Ways Forward
The concept of formalization has long underpinned policy interventions and measures intended to connect informal entities with state institutions or formal economic structures. However, despite the policy enthusiasm, the outcomes of formalization policies have frequently been disappointing. This article argues that this disconnect lies in the concept of formalization itself and that common approaches to formalization are often rooted in three con…
Vaccine Hesitancy among Informal Workers: Gendered Geographies of Informality in Lahore
What is the relationship between trust in the state and vaccine hesitancy among a marginalized sub-population? This article explores attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination programmes of informal workers in the context of Lahore, Pakistan, and draws on in-depth conversations with informal workers across four sectors in 2021. It finds a surprising disconnect between vaccine scepticism and actual decisions to have the vaccination. Those that were va…
No smoking gun: Tobacco taxation and smuggling in Sierra Leone
By presenting a low income and lower enforcement capacity case study, this paper provides novel and critical evidence to the debate on the tax-smuggling link. Furthermore, it points to new questions on how states in these contexts can limit cigarette smuggling
Beyond Greed: Why Armed Groups Tax
Based on a review of the diverse practices of how armed groups tax, we highlight that a full account of why armed groups tax needs to go beyond revenue motivations, to also engage with explanations related to ideology, legitimacy, institution building, legibility and control of populations, and the performance of public authority. This article builds on two distinct literatures, on armed groups and on taxation, to provide the first systematic exp…
The Distances that the Covid-19 Pandemic Magnified: Research on Informality and the State
What does research on informal sector workers and the state entail in the time of Covid-19? The pandemic has limited possibilities for in-person interactions and required adaptations in research approaches. These challenges are exacerbated when the subjects of the research are informal sector workers with limited access to technology and undefined spaces of work. In this article, we argue that the Covid-19 pandemic has magnified distances: betwee…
The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling
The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling offers a comprehensive survey of interdisciplinary research related to smuggling, reflecting on key themes, and charting current and future trends. Divided into six parts and spanning over 30 chapters, the volume covers themes such as mobility, borders, violent conflict, and state politics, as well as looks at the smuggling of specific goods – from rice and gasoline to wildlife, weapons, and cocaine. Chapters e…
Researching the Politics of Illegal Activities
Although an object of increasing interest, researching illegal activities generates a range of methodological challenges for political scientists. Rather than an exhaustive discussion, this article provides a simple framework that structures these challenges. It highlights that illegality is an insufficient guide to method development and needs to be supplemented by an analysis of three dimensions in addition to legality: enforcement, normalizati…
Governance for Building Back Better
The pandemic is in many ways a crisis of governance. It has created a set of unique challenges that underscore the need for governments to collect revenue more efficiently and equitably; and to spend it more inclusively, transparently, and accountably, especially on the most vulnerable and marginalised populations. In this article, we suggest a set of governance interventions to help create conditions for building effective and inclusive institut…
Channeling Contraband: How States Shape International Smuggling Routes
Although smuggling is commonly assumed to happen in remote and difficult-to-access borderlands, in reality, smuggling is most prevalent in areas that states tightly control, including at formal border crossings. To understand this puzzle, this article explores the relationship between states and smugglers at international borders. Based on extensive empirical research in various borderlands in North Africa and Southeast Asia, it argues that diffe…
Informal Institutions and the Regulation of Smuggling in North Africa
Contemporary writing on North African borderlands invokes the idea of a general, unregulated porosity through which small-scale informal traders of food or textiles move alongside drug smugglers and terrorists. I challenge that conception, demonstrating that the vast majority of smuggling activity is in fact highly regulated through a dense network of informal institutions that determine the costs, quantity, and types of goods that can pass throu…
Border economies of the Middle East: Why do they matter for political economy
Although borderland regions of the Middle East and North Africa represent active sights of economic and social exchange, they remain peripheral to the analysis of the region’s political economy. Conventional accounts of cross-border informal trade tend to emphasize its illegality based on existing economic regulations, overlooking the deep political foundations of such trade. This article posits new arguments on the political economy significance…
Jihad & Co: Black Markets and Islamist Power
When the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant changed its name to “Islamic State” and proclaimed the establishment of a caliphate, it aimed to signify a pivot point in history: the end of Sykes-Picot, the end of an established way of governing the Middle East, the end of its state-system, the end of its history and the beginning of a new one. It was to cut through the Gordian knot, to break the wheel. But in this it engaged in an old paradox. Des…
Informal Institutions and the Regulation of Smuggling in North Africa
Contemporary writing on North African borderlands invokes the idea of a general, unregulated porosity through which small-scale informal traders of food or textiles move alongside drug smugglers and terrorists. I challenge that conception, demonstrating that the vast majority of smuggling activity is in fact highly regulated through a dense network of informal institutions that determine the costs, quantity, and types of goods that can pass throu…
Border economies of the Middle East: Why do they matter for political economy
Although borderland regions of the Middle East and North Africa represent active sights of economic and social exchange, they remain peripheral to the analysis of the region’s political economy. Conventional accounts of cross-border informal trade tend to emphasize its illegality based on existing economic regulations, overlooking the deep political foundations of such trade. This article posits new arguments on the political economy significance…
Formalization and its Discontents: Conceptual Fallacies and Ways Forward
The concept of formalization has long underpinned policy interventions and measures intended to connect informal entities with state institutions or formal economic structures. However, despite the policy enthusiasm, the outcomes of formalization policies have frequently been disappointing. This article argues that this disconnect lies in the concept of formalization itself and that common approaches to formalization are often rooted in three con…
Beyond Greed: Why Armed Groups Tax
Based on a review of the diverse practices of how armed groups tax, we highlight that a full account of why armed groups tax needs to go beyond revenue motivations, to also engage with explanations related to ideology, legitimacy, institution building, legibility and control of populations, and the performance of public authority. This article builds on two distinct literatures, on armed groups and on taxation, to provide the first systematic exp…
The taxed informal economy: Fiscal burdens and inequality in Accra
Channeling Contraband: How States Shape International Smuggling Routes
Although smuggling is commonly assumed to happen in remote and difficult-to-access borderlands, in reality, smuggling is most prevalent in areas that states tightly control, including at formal border crossings. To understand this puzzle, this article explores the relationship between states and smugglers at international borders. Based on extensive empirical research in various borderlands in North Africa and Southeast Asia, it argues that diffe…
The Distances that the Covid-19 Pandemic Magnified: Research on Informality and the State
What does research on informal sector workers and the state entail in the time of Covid-19? The pandemic has limited possibilities for in-person interactions and required adaptations in research approaches. These challenges are exacerbated when the subjects of the research are informal sector workers with limited access to technology and undefined spaces of work. In this article, we argue that the Covid-19 pandemic has magnified distances: betwee…
Jihad & Co: Black Markets and Islamist Power
When the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant changed its name to “Islamic State” and proclaimed the establishment of a caliphate, it aimed to signify a pivot point in history: the end of Sykes-Picot, the end of an established way of governing the Middle East, the end of its state-system, the end of its history and the beginning of a new one. It was to cut through the Gordian knot, to break the wheel. But in this it engaged in an old paradox. Des…
Border economies of the Middle East: Why do they matter for political economy
Although borderland regions of the Middle East and North Africa represent active sights of economic and social exchange, they remain peripheral to the analysis of the region’s political economy. Conventional accounts of cross-border informal trade tend to emphasize its illegality based on existing economic regulations, overlooking the deep political foundations of such trade. This article posits new arguments on the political economy significance…
Informal Institutions and the Regulation of Smuggling in North Africa
Contemporary writing on North African borderlands invokes the idea of a general, unregulated porosity through which small-scale informal traders of food or textiles move alongside drug smugglers and terrorists. I challenge that conception, demonstrating that the vast majority of smuggling activity is in fact highly regulated through a dense network of informal institutions that determine the costs, quantity, and types of goods that can pass throu…
The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling
The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling offers a comprehensive survey of interdisciplinary research related to smuggling, reflecting on key themes, and charting current and future trends. Divided into six parts and spanning over 30 chapters, the volume covers themes such as mobility, borders, violent conflict, and state politics, as well as looks at the smuggling of specific goods – from rice and gasoline to wildlife, weapons, and cocaine. Chapters e…
Researching the Politics of Illegal Activities
Although an object of increasing interest, researching illegal activities generates a range of methodological challenges for political scientists. Rather than an exhaustive discussion, this article provides a simple framework that structures these challenges. It highlights that illegality is an insufficient guide to method development and needs to be supplemented by an analysis of three dimensions in addition to legality: enforcement, normalizati…
Governance for Building Back Better
The pandemic is in many ways a crisis of governance. It has created a set of unique challenges that underscore the need for governments to collect revenue more efficiently and equitably; and to spend it more inclusively, transparently, and accountably, especially on the most vulnerable and marginalised populations. In this article, we suggest a set of governance interventions to help create conditions for building effective and inclusive institut…
Channeling Contraband: How States Shape International Smuggling Routes
Although smuggling is commonly assumed to happen in remote and difficult-to-access borderlands, in reality, smuggling is most prevalent in areas that states tightly control, including at formal border crossings. To understand this puzzle, this article explores the relationship between states and smugglers at international borders. Based on extensive empirical research in various borderlands in North Africa and Southeast Asia, it argues that diffe…
No smoking gun: Tobacco taxation and smuggling in Sierra Leone
By presenting a low income and lower enforcement capacity case study, this paper provides novel and critical evidence to the debate on the tax-smuggling link. Furthermore, it points to new questions on how states in these contexts can limit cigarette smuggling
Beyond Greed: Why Armed Groups Tax
Based on a review of the diverse practices of how armed groups tax, we highlight that a full account of why armed groups tax needs to go beyond revenue motivations, to also engage with explanations related to ideology, legitimacy, institution building, legibility and control of populations, and the performance of public authority. This article builds on two distinct literatures, on armed groups and on taxation, to provide the first systematic exp…
The Distances that the Covid-19 Pandemic Magnified: Research on Informality and the State
What does research on informal sector workers and the state entail in the time of Covid-19? The pandemic has limited possibilities for in-person interactions and required adaptations in research approaches. These challenges are exacerbated when the subjects of the research are informal sector workers with limited access to technology and undefined spaces of work. In this article, we argue that the Covid-19 pandemic has magnified distances: betwee…
Mobile money taxation and informal workers: Evidence from Ghana's E‐levy
An overlooked market: Loose cigarettes, informal vendors and their implications for tobacco taxation
The features of the loose cigarette markets present a challenge for tobacco control policy, especially tobacco tax policy. One way to overcome this challenge is to aim for large, rather than incremental, tax increases
Formalization and its Discontents: Conceptual Fallacies and Ways Forward
The concept of formalization has long underpinned policy interventions and measures intended to connect informal entities with state institutions or formal economic structures. However, despite the policy enthusiasm, the outcomes of formalization policies have frequently been disappointing. This article argues that this disconnect lies in the concept of formalization itself and that common approaches to formalization are often rooted in three con…
Vaccine Hesitancy among Informal Workers: Gendered Geographies of Informality in Lahore
What is the relationship between trust in the state and vaccine hesitancy among a marginalized sub-population? This article explores attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination programmes of informal workers in the context of Lahore, Pakistan, and draws on in-depth conversations with informal workers across four sectors in 2021. It finds a surprising disconnect between vaccine scepticism and actual decisions to have the vaccination. Those that were va…
Smugglers and States: Negotiating the Maghreb at Its Margins
Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the borderlands of Tunisia and Morocco, Max Gallien explains why states have long tolerated illegal trade across their borders and develops new ways to understand the political economy of smuggling.
Zakat, Non-state Welfare Provision and Redistribution in Times of Crisis: Evidence from the Covid-19 Pandemic
Around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic drew attention to state social protection and its limitations. Less attention has been paid to what is likely the world’s largest system of predominantly non-state welfare provision: zakat, an annual Islamic obligatory payment of a percentage of productive wealth to the poor and other eligible recipients. We explore how states and citizens engage with zakat during crises through a case study of the Covid-19…
The taxed informal economy: Fiscal burdens and inequality in Accra
The Mediterranean connection: Criminal networks & illicit economies in North Africa
The Politics of Passage: Studying Checkpoints and Claim Making in Conflict‐affected Settings
Roadblocks, or checkpoints, are obligatory passage points that are erected by entities claiming authority over a given crossing. They are often the most common everyday interface between civilians and armed actors in conflict‐affected contexts, but are overlooked in studies on either trade or authority amidst conflict. This article, which introduces a special issue on the topic, argues that roadblocks are a useful empirical entry point to questio…
Narrow formalisation: Informal workers, social protection and digital registration in India
Over the last decade, there has been growing global pressure to build digitised social protection systems as a means of enhancing access to welfare. This article explores one such case: ‘e-Shram’, a digital registration platform introduced in India in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging as a direct consequence of the hardships faced by informal workers during the pandemic, the article examines e-Shram in this context. It observes tha…
Political science (16 works) · Economics (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Politics (8 works) · Business (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Geography (6 works) · Informal sector (6 works) · Medicine (6 works)