Students

Students in the Political Economy and Government Program register at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Students’ dissertations cover a wide range of topics.  Recent Examples include the rising role of primary elections in Latin American politics, the role of ethnicity and institutions in the political economy of African development, and the microfoundations of economic growth.

Current Students and Research Interests

Lucy Barnes

Formal political theory, and its limits; in particular those areas in which rational choice and public choice theories are seemingly undermined, and why. The ways in which those political areas in which rational choice theory has been criticized (in particular, collective action) can be modeled using the tools of game theory, or in an economic context.

Jessica Blankshain

Organizational design and incentives structures, particularly as applied to bureaucracies.

Ryan Bubb

Economic analysis of the origin of political, legal and social institutions and their implications for development; the incorporation of positive political economy models into normative arguments about government intervention; and corruption, particularly in less developed countries.

Eliana Carranza

Political economy of development, particularly interested in studying the links among inequality, social expenditure, investment in human capital and social mobility.

Mauricio Fernandez Duque

Political economy of development.

Magnus Feldmann

Comparative and international political economy, especially the politics of macroeconomic and international trade policy-making.

Dan Fetter

Housing policy, urban economics, and economic history.

Angela Fonseca

Institutional economics, development economics, game theory and political economy of the policy-making process and elections.

Tim Ganser

How institutions affect economic development. In particular, the microeconomic effects of institutions in a development context and why land titling programs have not led to improved access to private-sector credit for the former squatters.

Wonbin Kang

The effect of institutions, specifically legal and quasi-legal institutions, on economic growth. How transitional institutions promote and/or retard development.

Martin Kanz

The role of ethnicity and institutions in the political economy of African development; applications of models of collective choice to the political economy of development; examination of how domestic political alignments and institutional choices affect the foreign policy behavior of states.

Supreet Kaur

Development; industrial organization; micro institutions; exploring the role of institutions and social norms in determining economic behavior and outcomes, particularly in less developed countries; and examining market failures preventing private sector growth in developing countries.

James Mahon

Research on applied microeconomics and reduced form and structural techniques. Primarily interested in empirical political economy, and to other applied micro fields (i.e., industrial organization, development, public economics, and labor).

Joana Naritomi

Political economy and develoment. Role of institutions and how they are shaped by history; institutional persistency; inequality and political institutions; determinants and consequences of violence and crime.

Arash Nekoei

Labor economics, especially as it pertains to issues in the developing world, with special interest in immigration, and the long-term impact of wars and regimes. The continuing impact of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Paul Novosad

Development economics.

Maliheh Paryavi

Political economy of development, behavioral economics, game theory, comparative political economy, gender, Middle East, Islamic finance.

Jesse Schreger

Research in global capital flows. Focus will be on the US-China bilateral financial relationship.

Hye Young You

International political economy, particularly U.S. trade policy and protectionism. The political economy of special interest groups, the role of political institutions and domestic politics on international economic bargaining, and formal quantitative political methodology.

Rodrigo Wagner

Development economics, public economics, industrial organization, and quality of policy making process.

Oren Ziv

Social economics; in particular neighborhood and network effects, their effects on economic equilibria, and how they might be used to explain certain (value) puzzles and better integrate behavioral phenomena into economic theory. The micro-foundations of the effects of political institutions (de jure institutions and de facto organizations) on economic behavior, and how both political and social structures can interact to affect inequality, growth, and entrepreneurship.