Current Research

I focus on questions related to the political economy of development and conflict with a regional focus on South Asia. I aim for causal inference with the use of careful research designs and the construction of original, micro-level datasets. Beyond my dissertation, I have completed working papers on questions of political violence and development in India and beyond. For more details please see my research statement.

*Please email for papers not linked below

Research on Local Institutions and Development Programs

1. The Political Economy of Oversight: Evidence from India’s Employment Guarantee (with Saad Gulzar) Forthcoming, American Political Science Review.

   • Best Paper Award at the 4th Annual COMPASS Graduate Conference in Comparative Politics, University of California-Los Angeles

2. Ethnic Quotas and Maoist Violence: Field Evidence from India

   • Westview Press Award for best paper by a graduate student presented at the 2015 Annual Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association

3. How Village Quotas Engender Mistrust: Experimental Evidence from India

4. How Development Shapes Violence: Panel and Field Evidence from India

Research on the Effects of Violence Against Civilians

1. Civil War and Social Cohesion: Lab-in-the-Field Evidence from Nepal (with Michael Gilligan and Cyrus Samii) American Journal of Political Science 2014 (58:3).

2. How Political Repression Shapes Attitudes Toward the State (with Omar García-Ponce). Revise and Resubmit requested, Journal of Peace Research.

3. The Social Legacies of Violence Against Civilians After the Korean War (with Ji Yeon Hong and Woo Chang Kang)