Research

Overview

My research examines how political institutions organize international development assistance and finance and how these institutional choices shape the allocation of resources, authority, and risk across countries and actors. I study who gains access to publicly backed capital, which organizations make and implement financing decisions, and how these choices affect development outcomes and political legitimacy. This research lies at the intersection of international and comparative political economy, global governance, and international development. My publications are listed in my CV.

The Politics and Performance of Bilateral Development Finance Institutions 

My current research agenda, supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, examines the expanding role of bilateral development finance institutions (DFIs). DFIs use public resources to provide loans, equity, guarantees, and other forms of finance for private-sector projects in developing and emerging economies. As development policy increasingly relies on these institutions to mobilize private investment, DFIs have become important gatekeepers of access to publicly backed capital.

This research asks how political and bureaucratic institutions shape DFI investment strategies; how DFIs cooperate with multilateral and regional development banks, domestic financial institutions, governments, and private investors; and whether these arrangements mobilize additional capital and generate meaningful development outcomes. A broader question running through this work is how development-finance institutions distribute financial risk and shape which countries, sectors, and firms gain access to investment.

Several projects examine the institutional architecture and political consequences of development finance. Research on the European Union’s Global Gateway analyzes how the expansion of guarantee-based finance has strengthened the role of national DFIs within European development cooperation, even as private-capital mobilization remains limited. Other work studies how co-financing arrangements shape relations among development institutions, governments, firms, and investors, and how firms receiving support from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation become politically active after entering high-risk markets.

Together, these projects examine how the design of development-finance institutions affects the distribution of capital and risk as well as their political and developmental consequences.

Domestic Politics of Foreign Aid 

My 2021 book, States, Markets, and Foreign Aid (Cambridge University Press), explains why some donor governments work through recipient states while others bypass them and channel aid through non-state actors. It shows that aid-delivery choices are shaped not only by recipient-country conditions but also by the organization of the donor state itself. Governments with more market-oriented public sectors are more likely to bypass recipient governments, while those with stronger public-sector traditions are more likely to engage them directly.

This research established a theme that continues to inform my work: domestic political and bureaucratic institutions shape how governments organize international development policy and which actors are entrusted with implementing it. Related research examines multilateral trust funds, political parties’ positions on foreign aid, donor branding, human-rights shaming, and the challenges of conducting experiments with political elites.

 A conversation about the book and related research is available on the In Pursuit of Development podcast.

The OECD DAC and the Politics of Development Standards

A second research program, supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, examines the OECD Development Assistance Committee as an institution that defines development standards, monitors donor behavior, and shapes what counts as legitimate development cooperation.

Across projects on populism, aid tying, gender equality, emerging DAC donors, and the DAC peer-review system, this research asks how domestic political pressures and international bureaucratic politics influence the rules governing development policy. It shows that international standards are not simply technical instruments: they reflect political struggles over policy priorities, classification, accountability, and the definition of development itself.

This work connects domestic politics to global governance by examining how governments and international organizations jointly construct and contest the rules through which development policy is defined and evaluated.

Representation, Political Legitimacy, and Development Outcomes

A further strand of my research examines how international development policy affects political legitimacy, representation, rights, and public attitudes in recipient countries. This work shifts the focus from the institutions that design development policy to the citizens and groups who experience and evaluate its consequences.

Several projects examine how representation and identity shape perceptions of development institutions. Research in South Africa studies whether more diverse donor leadership changes how citizens evaluate foreign aid organizations and their intentions. Related work examines how international advocacy around LGBT rights influences foreign aid policy and the political responses it generates.

Other research focuses on inequalities in rights and economic opportunity within recipient societies. Work in post-conflict Northern Uganda examines how land disputes and local institutions shape women’s access to land and economic security. These projects connect development policy to broader questions about whose interests are represented and whose rights and opportunities are protected.

A complementary set of studies examines how institutional partnerships shape the legitimacy of development actors. Survey experiments in South Africa and Nigeria investigate how co-financing with the African Development Bank changes citizens’ evaluations of foreign donors and development projects. More broadly, experimental research in Bangladesh, South Africa, and Nigeria examines how donor identity, project sponsorship, institutional partnerships, and leadership characteristics shape perceptions of foreign actors, development projects, and domestic governments.

Earlier work in this research program examines how donors’ choices between state-centered and civil-society-oriented aid affect democratic change in Africa, as well as judicial autonomy, civic education in Eastern Europe, and the political incentives surrounding the implementation of public-health aid.

Together, these projects bring citizens, marginalized groups, and questions of representation into the study of international development. They examine how development policy shapes political legitimacy and how inequalities in representation, rights, and economic opportunity are reinforced or challenged.