Overview
My research focuses on two types of competition that recur in the political arena: economic contestation and identity conflict. A main line of inquiry studies how cultural divisions interact with economic rivalries when actors contest distributive policies. A second stream of work investigates how conflicts of interest between economic agents influence the policymaking process. I analyze competing interests as a theoretical lens to study questions related to representation, policy change, and development.
I employ a range of methodological approaches—from quantitative analysis, formal modeling, and experiments to interviews, archival analysis, and qualitative methods—in my work. My research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, International Growth Centre, Tobin Project, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, President’s Global Innovation Fund, Evidence in Governance and Politics, and Research and Empirical Analysis of Labor Migration, among other centers. In 2017, the National Center for Institutional Diversity named me an Emerging Diversity Scholar.
Book Project
I am currently working on a book manuscript, Identity Politics and Economic Policy. Political entrepreneurs in multi-ethnic societies commonly rely on both cultural mobilization and economic protectionism to garner votes, yet few theories explain how politicians’ choices along one dimension influence their actions on the other. This manuscript presents and tests a theory of political competition in culturally divided societies to explicate the link between identity politics and politics over economic policymaking. It is based on my doctoral dissertation, which was awarded the James G. March Award for “outstanding dissertation in any field of Political Science” by Yale University, the Juan Linz Prize for Best Dissertation by the American Political Science Association's Democracy and Autocracy Section, and an Honorable Mention for the Mancur Olson Prize for Best Dissertation by the American Political Science Association's Political Economy Section.
Papers
In related articles and working papers, I examine how voters, politicians, and firms influence economic policies in the presence of competing interests. I have received the International Political Economy Society's David A. Lake Award for Best Paper; the American Political Science Association's Franklin L. Burdette/Pi Sigma Alpha Award for Best Paper, Fiona McGillivray Award for Best Paper in Political Economy, Sage Paper Prize for Best Paper in Comparative Politics, and Best Paper Award in the Democracy and Autocracy Section; and the Midwest Political Science Association's Pi Sigma Alpha Award for Best Paper, Kellogg/Notre Dame Award for Best Paper in Comparative Politics, and Robert H. Durr Award for the Best Paper in Applied Quantitative Methods. My work has been published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, and Perspectives on Politics. Links to my papers can be found here.