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

Jessica Blankshain

American government and the economics of organizations, with focus on the organizational economics of the U.S. military. 

John Coglianese

Political economy, behavioral economics, and the economics of national security.

Mauricio Fernandez Duque

Behavioral political economy of development, with a methodological focus towards experiments.  My current research focuses on public good provision (with an application to charitable giving), and program evaluation (with applications to microfinance and nutritional policy). 

Yehoshua Ehrenberg

Emergence and development of markets, mostly for financial products and the legal, regulatory, cultural and political environment enabling them to thrive.

Angela Fonseca

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

Andrew Garin

Public finance, urban/spatial economics and the political economy of urban institutions, social economics, normative economics.

Siddharth George

Development economics, political economy; political selection, corruption; labor economics.

Marek Hlavac

Labor economics, political economy of redistribution, and applied issues in international and comparative political economy.

Sabrina Howell

Political economy and industrial organization as they relate to energy policy and economics, particularly in China and the U.S.

Wonbin Kang

Law and economics; political economy.

Akos Lada

Political and economic paths of countries; co-evolution of these paths and attitudes and perceptions; critical junctures in history and their interaction with attitudes and perceptions.  Learn more about Akos Lada.

Guilherme Lichand

Development economics; Urban economics - cities, entrepreneurship, productivity, upgrading; Political economy - corruption, electoral attribution, policy choices.

Sara Lowes

Development economics, political economy, and behavioral economics.

James Mahon

Empirical applications in public economics and political economy.  Corporate tax.  Public and private pensions.  Political economy of public policies.  Learn more about James Mahon.

Joana Naritomi

Public economics, political economy, and development.

Arash Nekoei

Public economics, political economy, labor economics, and economic history.  Learn more about Arash Nekoei

Paul Novosad

Entrepreneurship, finance, political economy and development.  The interaction between party politics, natural endowments and local firm growth in India.  Social networks and informal political power in rural China. Learn more about Paul Novosad.

Maliheh Paryavi

Behavioral and experimental economics, political economy of development, culture, and religion.

Jesse Schreger

International macroeconomics, trade and political economy.

Edoardo Teso

Political economy of development.  Political economy of mass media.  The impact of culture on economic outcomes.

Jon Weigel

Comparative political economy of development, especially the long-run effects of coercive political institutions on growth.  Fragile states and epidemic disease.  Foreign aid effectiveness.

Hye Young You

American politics and political economy.

Oren Ziv

Urban economics, social economics, labor, trade, political economy.