top of page
Associate Professor
Department of Public Policy
Central European University, Vienna
Home: Welcome
Bio
​
Home: Homepage_about
I am a political economist interested in international development and autocratic politics. I have also written on social movements, political clientelism, bureaucratic reform, government transparency and the politics of healthcare. My work has appeared in World Politics, Political Communication, PS: Politics and Political Science, Business and Politics, Journal of Comparative Economics, Democratization, Comparative Sociology, the World Bank Policy Research Working Papers series, and several edited volumes. I co-authored two books (Understanding Policy Change: How to Apply Political Economy Concepts in Practice and Rules on Paper, Rules in Practice: Enforcing Laws and Policies in the Middle East and North Africa), exploring the complex relationship between collective action, rule of law, and economic development. I am the co-recipient of the 2017 Comparative Democratization Best Paper Award of the American Political Science Association.
My current projects focus on policy contestability in non-democratic legislatures, the political incentives for policy learning in development, and the political economy of censorship. At CEU's School of Public Policy, I teach courses on governance and development. In 2016, I received the CEU Distinguished Teaching Award.
Research
Books
2016. Rules on Paper, Rules in Practice: Enforcing Laws and Policies in the Middle East and North Africa (with Edouard Al-Dahdah, Ernest Sergenti, Gael Raballand and Myriam Abbasa). Directions in Development. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.
2013. Understanding Policy Change: How to Apply Political Economy Concepts in Practice (with Alexander Hamilton and Issel Masses Ferrer). Washington, DC: World Bank.
Articles and book chapters
2022. “Selective Control: The Political Economy of Censorship” Political Communication (with Alexander Hamilton).
2021. “The Politics of Experimentation: Political Competition and Randomized Controlled Trials” Journal of Comparative Economics, 49(1): 1-21 (with Michael T. Dorsch and Paul Maarek).
2019. "Autocratic Checks and Balances? Trust in Courts and Bureaucratic Discretion" Democratization 26(4): 561-584
2017. “Patronage, Trust, and State Capacity: The Historical Trajectories of Clientelism” World Politics 69(2): 277-326 (with Lenka Bustikova)
​
-
Winner of 2017 Best Paper Award, Comparative Democratization, American Political Science Association
2016. “Taming Corruption: Rents, Collective Action, and Taxability in Morocco.” Business and Politics 18(3): 297-335.
2015. “Linking Economic and Political Opportunities in Non- Democracies” Chapter 10 in Charles Tilly and Maria Koussis, eds. Economic Opportunities and Constraints in Contentious Politics. New York: Routledge (with Maryjane Osa) (First edition published in 2005).
2009. "Running Uphill: Revised, with a new methodological addendum” (in Masamichi Sasaki, ed., New Frontiers in Comparative Sociology) International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology 109: 277–312 (with Maryjane Osa).
2003. “Running Uphill: Political Opportunity in Non-Democracies” Comparative Sociology 4(1): 1-25 (with Maryjane Osa).
Working paper series
2018. “Selective Control: The Political Economy of Censorship” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper no. 8556 (with Alexander Hamilton).
2017. “Learning to Constrain: Political Competition and Randomized Controlled Trials in Development.” Université de Cergy-Pontoise THEMA Working Paper n°2017-24 (with Michael Dorsch and Paul Maarek).
2014 . “Autocratic Accountability: Transparency, the Middle Class, and Political Survival in Non-democracies.” European University Institute MWP Working Paper no. 17.
2011. “The Political Economy of Healthcare Litigation: Model and Empirical Application to Uruguay” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper no. 5821 (with Alexander Hamilton and Issel Masses Ferrer).
Policy reports
2011. “Healthcare Litigation in Uruguay”, World Bank Institute (with collaborators)
Ambidextrous Regimes: Leadership Survival and Policy Contestation in Autocracies (book manuscript)
Conflict and Trust in Institutions in a Closed Autocracy: Evidence from Sudan (with Cait Brown)
Redistributive Taboos: Fiscal Contestability and Inclusiveness in Non-democracies
Autocratic Accountability: Transparency, Club Goods, and Leader Survival
Home: Inner_about
Home: CV
2010. “The Political Economy of Reform: Moving from Analysis to Action. Final Report,” World Bank Institute
Policy Learning in Polarized Politics: The Case of Randomized Controlled Trials (with Michael Dorsch and Paul Maarek). Under review
Who Censors, When and How? Findings from a New Event Dataset of Media Censorship (with Balint Nemeth and Giang Vu)
Censorship as Vulnerability: Regimes, Stability, and Information Control (with Alexander Hamilton)
Work in progress
Teaching (MA and PhD level courses)
Home: CV
Address:
Quellenstraße 51, 1100 Vienna, Austria
Email:
Phone:
+36.1.327.3000|2365
The Evolution of Modern Governance
2013-2017
Introduction to International Development
2013-2018
Political Economy of Non-democracies
2015-2020
Politics of Government Transparency
2016-2019
​
​
2017-2019
​
Policy Change in International Development
Home: Contact
The Evolution of Modern Governance
Introduction to International Development
2013-2018
Political Economy of Non-democracies
Politics of Government Transparency
Policy Change in International Development
Policy Analysis
Public Policy and Public Administration
Introduction to International Development
bottom of page